On the Conan show, MLB 2K12 cover athlete Justin Verlander announced a change in the annual $1 million Perfect Game Challenge. 2K Sports will rate the Top 8 perfect games and those players will face off in a tourney for the $1 million.

Minnesota Twins’ catcher Joe Mauer is a very likable athlete and videogame pitchman. It’s understandable Sony would pick him as the cover athlete for its MLB:The Show baseball game two years in a row.

The decision is having an unintended side effect, though. There are multiple reports coming in of retail employees confusing MLB 11 with MLB 10. This has led to some retailers not only breaking street date but selling the brand new game at a discounted price.

Analog controls are the new quick-time events, with sports games leading the charge. Series such as Fight Night have tried to convince gamers analog controls are the way of the future. MLB 11:The Show is one of the latest games to get an analog control overhaul. Sony San Diego’s Chris Gill talked to ESPN about the changes to the series.

Some comments by Take-Two Interactive Chairman Strauss Zelnick don’t seem to bode well for baseball at 2K Sports. In an interview with Reuters, Zelnick called 2K Sports’ exclusive contract with Major League Baseball a a losing proposition.

The 2010 incarnation of The Show features 2,500 more animations than last year’s effort, including several hundred that are player specific.Little touches such as Ichiro tugging at his shirt sleeve before batting add to the experience and increase the chance someone will think you’re watching a game, not playing one.

This week’s share of new Playstation Store content is more for viewing than anything else, given the glut of trailers and developer diaries that have gone up. There’s still two new demos and more Rock Band songs, which apparently only became punk after a subsequent argument

Frankly, it’s all really anemic this time around, especially when compared to this past week’s competition from the Virtual Console (Lords of Thunder!). Can’t win them all, I guess.

In any case, here’s the lineup in its complete glory…