The series includes five sub-series based on different team sports—Backyard Baseball, Backyard Soccer (association football), Backyard Football (American football), Backyard Basketball, and Backyard Hockey (ice hockey)—as well as the single game non-team sport-based Backyard Skateboarding. In the games, players form a team consisting of Backyard Kids and pro players, which they take through a "Backyard League" season, attempting to become the champions of their chosen sport. Players can create their own custom characters, starting in Backyard Football (1999). An additional aspect of the games is the use of Power-Ups, allowing players to gain "Super-abilities". For instance, "Super-Dunk" allows a basketball player to make a dunk from nearly anywhere on the court, "Leap Frog" allows a football player to jump over the entire defensive line, and "Ice Cream Truck" causes the other team to be distracted for a brief period.
In August 2005, Atari, Inc. sold Humongous Entertainment to their majority parent Infogrames Entertainment SA for shares worth US$10.3 million. After the sale, Infogrames shuttered Humongous Entertainment and secured the studio's assets to Humongous, Inc., a holding company formed solely for this purpose.[5] With this point, newer Backyard Sports titles were developed by other studios for consoles and computers, with Atari, Inc. continuing to hold publishing rights to the series under license from Humongous, Inc. In March 2008, Infogrames purchased the remaining shares of Atari, Inc. that they didn't own and renamed itself to Atari SA the following year.[6][7] The two Atari businesses continued to release entries in the series within this time.[8]
Post-sale and attempted relaunches
In July 2013, private equity firm The Evergreen Group bought the Backyard Sports franchise during the Atari bankruptcy proceedings for its portfolio company, Epic Gear LLC.[9]
In February 2014, Day6 Sports Group acquired the franchise from Epic Gear.[10] The company announced to relaunch the franchise in December with Backyard Sports NBA Basketball for smartphones and tablets, with Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry as the cover athlete.[11] Aside from that, no other titles were released in the franchise.
In 2016, Day6 Sports Group was acquired by a European investment group.[12] The company later went out of business in 2020.[13]
In April 2019, Humongous's social media pages tweeted an image of the original Junior Sports logo, hinting at a possible re-release of the original games and/or the developer having re-secured the rights to the series proper,[14][1][2] but a week prior, Humongous replied to a Twitter post saying that they didn't own the rights to the franchise.
After Day6's closure in 2020, the franchise was purchased by Ari Pinchot and Stuart Avi Savitsky via Backyard Sports LLC in 2021. Backyard Sports LLC is represented by United Talent Agency (UTA)[15][16][17] of which the franchise trademarks are held under Backyard Sports LLC.[18][19]
The franchise regained media attention in 2024, when NFL player Jason Kelce, in an episode of his and his brother Travis's podcast New Heights, reminisced about playing Backyard Football and Backyard Baseball, and stated his desire to purchase the rights to the brand to develop a new game in the series.[15][16][13]
Full brand relaunch
On August 20, 2024, it was announced that Playground Productions, led by Lindsay Barnett, would be relaunching the Backyard Sports brand alongside Pinchot and Savitsky. The brand would consist of new video games, a TV series, and films.[20] The announcement was accompanied by an animated trailer featuring several of the Backyard Kids in their original designs preparing to start a game of baseball.[20][17]
The first entry released under Playground Productions and developer Mega Cat Studios, a remaster of the original Backyard Baseball entitled as Backyard Baseball '97, was released on October 10, 2024,[21][22] followed by a remaster of Backyard Soccer entitled as Backyard Soccer '98 on November 27, 2024.[23][24] Remasters of Backyard Football, Backyard Baseball 2001, Backyard Basketball, and Backyard Hockey are also planned.[25]
On November 19, 2024, Playground Productions announced that they are working with Mega Cat Studios to bring the remasters to mobile devices while developing a new original Backyard Sports title.[23][24]
In 2016, Cross Creek Pictures and Crystal City Entertainment were reportedly in development of a film based on Backyard Sports with producers Brian Oliver and Ari Daniel Pinchot.[27] No news about the film has been revealed since.
On November 19, 2024, along with the announcement of a new Backyard Sports title, Playground Productions revealed the development of an animated project based on the franchise, which is planned to release in 2025.[24]
Notes
^ abcdefgRemaster of an older game derived from a hacked CD-ROM copy of the game, as the original games' source codes are lost.[21]
† Backyard Sports was removed from Humongous Entertainment's control in 2005. That series is currently owned (since 2021) by Backyard Sports LLC and handled (since 2024) by Playground Productions.
