Batter up! Sega launches Sega Play! Baseball on Facebook

Back in February, we brought you the news that SEGA was bringing their first Facebook game to the platform sometime in the future. That time is now, as the company has officially announced the launch of Sega Play! Baseball. The game will allow you to create your own baseball team and player (both of which you can name and customize). After the initial stages of setup, you'll be able to start on your journey to lead your new team through the ranks of the professional league to become the World Champion team.

Your team starts as an amateur team, and you'll need to train in order to go against the pros. Unfortunately, your team of NPCs is fairly shoddy, which gives you all the more incentive to invite your friends to play the game with you, as you can populate your team with all of your friends by simply dragging and dropping them onto your team, swapping them for one of your NPC players. Once you go to actually play a game, this is an automated process, running through the innings as you'd expect. You can either watch your game play out in real time, or you can skip to the results screen. Games take energy to begin, and you'll start with only 5 energy once installing the game. You'll regain energy to play in exhibition matches over time.

You'll be able to train yourself to become a better player, but you can't train NPCs. Training comes through a basic menu that allows you to spend points, the game's currency to start a training regimen that will raise one particular stat, whether that be stamina, power, or otherwise.

For other gameplay features, you'll be able to decorate your stadium with new decorative items, with these purchases, along with other actions in the game raising your overall level. You'll also be able to earn awards for completing certain tasks in the game, with some tasks being to have a certain amount of friends, to train a certain number of times, and so on.

Rather than being based on skill, you'll automatically be allowed to join the pro ranks once you reach level 10, so you'll simply need to play through exhibition matches or purchase items with your winnings until you have reached that level.

As you might expect, gameplay is accompanied by a series of premium items, called "Premium Services," that allow you to increase your amount of energy points for exhibition matches, increase the number of points (the game's currency, not actual runs) you earn per games for a limited amount of time, or even play a mystery game of sorts called "Struck Out," that has a chance of rewarding "special random items" when played.

All told, it looks like Sega Play! Baseball is simple enough for even the most casual of baseball fans to enjoy, but whether or not it can topple the likes of Zynga remains to be seen. Want to try your hand at creating a dominate baseball team?

[Top Image Credit: SEGA]

Play Sega Play! Baseball on Facebook --->

Have you tried Sega Play! Baseball yet? Do you enjoy playing sports games on Facebook, or do you prefer to stick to home consoles for such experiences