Beloved 'Backyard Sports' Video Game Franchise Is Officially Returning

Grab your glove, hop on your bike and race to Steele Stadium—because the iconic Backyard Sports franchise is officially coming back to a neighborhood near you.

Playground Productions, a production company dedicated to creating family-friendly content, announced Tuesday that the beloved video game series is returning "in the coming months" with the same aesthetic of the games released in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“We're incredibly excited to reintroduce Backyard Sports to a new generation of players,” Chris Waters, chief product officer at Playground Productions, said in a statement. “We're taking great care to preserve the look and feel that made the original games so special while updating them with modern features and gameplay that today's audience expects. I can’t wait for fans to see what we’re building on the Playground.”

The original Backyard Sports game titled Backyard Baseball was released in 1997, debuting the iconic cast of "Backyard Kids" characters like Pablo Sanchez, Stephanie Morgan, Kenny Kawaguchi, Pete Wheeler and more. Originally developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Atari, the franchise later added Backyard Sports games for soccer, basketball, football and hockey.

In 2001, Backyard Sports partnered with MLB to feature one player from all 30 teams in Backyard Sports 2001 in addition to the 30 fictional characters, portraying each big leaguer as the kid versions of themselves. Randy Johnson, Tony Gwynn, Ken Griffey Jr. and Cal Ripken Jr. were among the athletes featured in the first edition. The other Backyard Sports games followed suit, partnering with the MLS, NBA, WNBA and NHL to feature other athletes from those sports, including Kevin Garnett, Lisa Leslie, Brandi Chastain, Cobi Jones, Jerry Rice and Joe Sakic, among many others.

Playground Productions did not confirm to Sports Illustrated if they will work with professional sports leagues to feature their athletes in the games, but additional announcements are expected to roll out in the near future.

"Backyard Sports is more than just a game; it's a cherished part of childhood for millions of people," Lindsay Barnett, founder and CEO of Playground Productions, said in a statement. "I look at media as the largest classroom in the world. As such, our goal is to produce meaningful content that not only entertains but also educates and inspires. The return of Backyard Sports is the perfect embodiment of that goal."

Story continues on Sports Illustrated, written by Tom Dierberger.

Range Media Partners Secures Minority Investment From Group Including Liberty Global And David Bonderman’s Wildcat Capital Management | DEADLINE

Range Media Partners has secured a minority investment from a group including Liberty Global and TPG founding partner David Bonderman’s family office Wildcat Capital Management.

Family entertainment company Playground Productions is also a participant in the new round, terms of which were not disclosed. The new investors join an existing roster of backers, among them A+E Networks and hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen’s Point72.

In announcing the deal, Range said it would help “spur growth initiatives and strategic acquisitions.”

Since Deadline broke news of the formation of Range in 2020 with a bunch of best and brightest who left CAA, WME and other posts, the management/production concern has slowly expanded its operations into entertainment sports, music, digital, advertising and other sectors.

Over the past year, Range solidified its film capabilities by merging with La La Land production company Automatik. The firm also set out a sports strategy calling for the acquisition of growth-stage companies within the media rights, athlete marketing and golf verticals; and fortified its music efforts by launching a music publishing division and opening a Nashville office.

Establishing ties with Liberty Global, the John Malone-chaired provider of pay-TV and broadband services outside the U.S., will enable Range to start pursuing its ambitions for overseas expansion.

The investor group, comprised of affiliates of Liberty Global and an investment fund advised by Wildcat Capital as well as Rick Hess, was led by Forest Road Asset Management and accompanied by Playground’s investment. In connection with the capital investment, Hess, a former CAA film finance exec and head of merchant bank Evolution Media who now runs Cobalt Capital, was appointed to serve on Range’s governing body as Forest Road’s representative.

“We founded Range with the express intention to build a multi-vertical, full-service offering, one that extends beyond the traditional business of film & TV representation in order to catapult client careers and ambitions through the broader entertainment & media landscape as well as through technology and diversified ventures,” CEO Peter Micelli said. “We saw the dynamic changes happening, our clients were feeling them through the ripple effect, and we wanted to be more aggressive in how we could advantageously leverage those changes accordingly.”

Range Managing Partner Jack Whigham called the new minority stakeholders “ideal strategic partners for Range’s next stage of growth. We have been very deliberate during this process, wanting to find top-tier, blue-chip partners who have a unique perspective on our industry and are as committed as we are to an innovative long-term strategy to unlock global value for our clients.”

ACF Investment Bank advised the investor group and Greenberg Traurig served as its legal counsel. Cooley served as legal counsel to Liberty, while Range was represented by Jones Day.

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This story was written by Dade Hayes, originally published on Deadline