http://www.vgchartz.com/article/270543/jikkyou-powerful-pro-baseball-2018-announced-for-ps4-psv/

Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2018 is releasing in 2018 for PS4 and Vita in Japan.  Personally, I think Konami is missing an opportunity here.  This game would benefit from a release on Nintendo Switch in the West in my opinion.  Before, I get my head inevitably bitten off for blatant port pegging, please hear me out.  MLB Power Pros saw it's best sales in the West on the Nintendo Wii:

The Play Station has MLB The Show for baseball fans, so it makes sense for Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball not to be ported over to the West on a platform where it would be massively over shadowed by a serious baseball sim.  The Nintendo Switch currently only has RBI Baseball 2017 to satisfy any baseball cravings, and the game is beyond terrible.  I bought it in spite of the reviews, and I do regret it.  MLB Power Pros on Nintendo Wii was a very fun game and would easily put RBI Baseball to shame.  I actually think that sales of an MLB Power Pros on Nintendo Switch in the West at the very least would match whatever sales Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2018 will likely do in Japan: 

So, why pass on the extra sales?  It's not like it's an RPG that would require heavy work on translation.  Konami is already pleased with the sales of Super Bomberman R on Nintendo Switch.  I think they have a good opportunity to capture some easy sales on Nintendo Switch if they were to port over Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2018 to the West.  It's something that I think merits consideration.  What do you think?

This is a big problem: as impressive as The Show is, MVP Baseball was better.

EA lost the license, and the latter died out immediately and entirely.

The Western ports in 2007 and 2008 did have the MLB licensing.  Sales of the first MLB Power Pros had to have been considered good enough to warrant the sequel a year later.  Sales of the sequel were lower, and therefore no Western ports have been done since.  If the quarter of a million sales of MLB Power Pros on the Wii justified its licensing deal (enough to greenlight a sequel), I'm sure a Nintendo Switch port could do the same.  I'm not saying that an annual release would succeed, but I think a one off would do quite well, now while the Switch is hot and the install base is growing.  Plus, the sports game landscape on the Switch is somewhat barren at the moment which adds even more to the opportunity.  Look how well a quirky/unique game like Golf Story on Nintendo Switch has been received (well deserved, I might add).

But, I don't think the MLB licensing with Sony is an exclusive deal (not like the way the NFL is with EA for example).  2K had a licensing deal with the MLB for its 2KMLB series, that 2K decided not to renew on their own.  

The MLB license is exclusive; hence, you don't see any MLB games on any other systems.

It is, but it previously wasn't (until 04-05); I was infuriated when they made the change.

It hasn't stopped MLB from putting out this garbage annually:

Sony's license with the MLB was structured differently than the license that Take Two Interactive signed in 2005.  Take Two obtained a 3rd Party licensing agreement, which yes, barred EA from continuing it's MVP series, but still allowed Sony to 1st Party release MLB The Show from 2006 - present.  It did not completely bar all other companies entry the way EA's license with the NFL operates.  Likewise, since Take Two did not release any MLB games on Wii, Konami was able to put out a couple of MLB Power Pros games in 2007 and 2008.  Once Take Two Interactive stopped renewing their licensing agreement, it should have left the door open for 3rd parties again.  EA had stated they were interested, but didn't have a current gen baseball engine, since they had to stop making baseball games 2 console generations ago.  Microsoft has expressed a desire for a third party company to step up as well.  My guess is no one currently wants to pony up the money not just for the license, but also to create a baseball sim from scratch as well.   Especially since they'd probably be targeting the high end baseball sim market if they did.  Konami's game is already made, so it makes the most sense to fill the void.  Neither EA nor Microsoft have mentioned not being able to release a baseball game because of an exclusive MLB agreement with Sony, which leads me to believe that no such exclusivity exists.  If it did, their would be some sort of press release rather than mere speculation.

He's referencing the MLB 3rd Party license which no one has anymore once Take Two Interactive stopped renewing it in 2014.

If a Western release could potentially double its sales or more, with minimal effort (licensing aside), I consider it a missed opportunity.   If the license is prohibitively expensive, then maybe yeah it's not worth it.  But, since they've gotten it before, and it's been used in mobile space as well, then I don't see why not.  Then again, I think Tecmo should develop and release a Tecmo Bowl on Nintendo Switch (without the NFL license, like the original on NES) if EA is going to continue holding the NFL hostage.  So, what do I know?  I just think there is a vacuum in the genre with potential sales that's being ignored. 

Yeah, that's when they lost it: it's important to delineate the licenses, though.

You can have a console exclusive license or a multiplat license: EA had the latter, and then 2K had it.

Nintendo, MS, and Sony can all do console exclusives; the Show is made by Sony and can only be on Sony consoles.

Exactly, and I think MLB owns RBI baseball and can do whatever they want with that.

It's part of the MLB app and MLB.tv app, if I'm not mistaken.