MVP Baseball 2005

MVP Baseball 2005 consists of 30 Major League Baseball teams and includes all licensed players within the Major League Baseball Players' Association. Barry Bonds notably does not appear in the game due to his withdrawal from the MLBPA's licensing agreement. His "replacement" is a fictional player named Jon Dowd. Dowd bears no resemblance in appearance to Bonds, but his skills mimic those of Bonds. Similarly, Kevin Millar, who was not a member of the MLBPA due to his crossing the picket line during the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike, is also absent from the game, replaced by a fictional player named Anthony Friese.

The game features authentic minor league teams and actual minor league players, including double-A and triple-A-level farm teams. Additionally, 2005's instalment includes ball clubs from the High Single-A ranks, providing each MLB team with three levels of minor league farm clubs. Unlockable features include two legends teams, 63 legendary players, 15 classic stadiums, five fantasy parks, and more than 100 retro uniforms. Rosters are current as of January 12, 2005, and the game includes the then-new Washington Nationals, along with their then-temporary home, RFK Stadium. New rosters could be downloaded to the Xbox and PS2 versions via their online play menus.

The game received "generally favorable reviews" on all platforms except the PSP version, which received "average" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, where the PlayStation 2 version was ported for release on July 7, 2005, Famitsu gave it a score of one nine, two eights, and one seven for a total of 32 out of 40. GamePro said that the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions "[retain] the Gold Glove for controls, but the competition has made up ground."

3 out of 10, with Angelina Sandoval calling the former console version "the most solid and wonderfully addictive ballgame on the PS2. With various improvements and some very neat additions to the game, there's just no denying the fact that this is the closest to baseball gaming heaven we'll come this year"; and Eduardo Zacarias saying of the latter console version, "With great modes, gorgeous graphics and near perfect controls this one will no doubt be the franchise we turn to when we want a baseball game true to the sport itself." 2 out of 10, calling it "the deepest, most impressive ballgame that's just too addictive." Michael Lafferty gave the PC version nine out of ten, saying, "You can learn to read pitches, fine-tune the single-player controls to give you more room for error or tighten them up to make each pitch a challenge."

After EA lost the license to make MLB video games, EA ended support for the game. Despite this, the game's modding community continues support and releases annually updated rosters and alternative leagues (e.g. MVP Caribe, MVP Mods, etc.). The modding community has remained active even as of the 20th anniversary of the game's release. In addition to the PC modders, eBay users have sold PS2 memory cards containing updated rosters using the game's create-a-player feature which can be loaded into the PS2 version of the game.