TENNIS AO Tennis

[Deleted member 9102]

I hope Big Ant understands how much of a hit their reputation takes when they rush out half finished games out of the door. Unfortunately it's a trend and the first thing that comes to mind is "Oh it's developed by Big Ant. Must be half baked and maybe will get it after a few patches have dropped."

On another note I'm worried about the support for Ashes Cricket. It's clear they have their hands full with AO Tennis and it will take a lot of effort for the world wide release. Will it cause Ashes Cricket to be ignored and left in its current state the same way DBC 17 was?

It'll probably get a couple more patches to half fix the game, and then next Christmas we'll get an unfinished "Big Bash Cricket" with a few licenses and face scans for £50.

Then it won't be too long before another Ashes game for £50. All being developed side by side with AFL, Rugby, Lacrosse, Tennis, mobile games etc...

 

[zimrahil]

But on the other hand there likewise perhaps needs to be real understanding from the developers that people are paying top notch for a game that they rightly think when purchasing: this thing works, especially for this price...it just works. When it is the case that the game needs multiple patches to bring it into some form of ship-worthiness then I for one can appreciate that that leads to negativity and frustration. That's why I personally am a keen believer in early access....ask 20 bucks for a game and let people help shape and form it and then when it is really ready release it at the going rate.....I have a number of early access games and am much more understanding of the bugs etcetera......however it also has to be said that some people are just negative whatever you do......you cant win sometimes. Again I am not a software developer but am a consumer.

Another post of the day winner....

 

[Deleted member 46200]

Someone needs to remind Kevin Pieterson of that.....

Just as long as you don't mention Gilly... My hero!!!

 

[Dutch]

Ross said in a recent article that Big Ant are coming out with a tennis game next year. Very exciting for tennis fans.

"We're going to do tennis, and we're going to do tennis because no one else is doing tennis. And the thing is, we can own it if we do it well enough. We pretty much own cricket. No one else in their right mind would do cricket now. So, it would be extremely difficult, even for EA. Because, we planted that flag and we own that space.

Tennis is our next target. We actually did five console games last year. This year we have four console games. It's amazing the output – it's a lot of games. You don't see a lot of them Stateside because it is cricket, rugby, things like that. But you'll certainly see tennis. They're be another lacrosse in March next year, and tennis toward the middle of the year."

This post from augustus is interesting.....

 

[cricket_online]

To be clear I was talking about the way the games released......for the most part they have come up with various patches to bring the game into line to a lesser and greater extent depending on the game. I think that tennis will be their focus for the foreseeable future but they will get round to focusing on Ashes again. We just have no way of looking into the internals of their business and is to a large degree none of our business. It will be a shame if internal and external pressure means they gain a certain reputation, rightly or wrongly, because in all the interactions I have had they genuinely are very passionate about their work and their games and the sports they represent.

I agree with the most part except that Big Ant will get round to Ashes cricket when they deem fit and that it's none of our business. I'm sorry but I heard Big Ant and Ross mention that they couldn't fix DBC 17 as they didn't own the game - Tru Blu did - and that with Ashes cricket they will support the product as they own the game, i.e. they are both the developers and publishers. Now they can't turn around and say "Tough luck. We will get to Ashes Cricket in a few months and don't bug us coz we are focusing on Tennis". I hope we don't go down that path and we do see patches for Ashes Cricket, but if you expect to ship out rushed games then the expectation is for them to fix the game on a timely basis and not a few months down the line. Expectation of ongoing and timely support became my, and other consumers' business, when Big Ant specifically promised as much while pitching the game.

 

[blockerdave]

I agree with the most part except that Big Ant will get round to Ashes cricket when they deem fit and that it's none of our business. I'm sorry but I heard Big Ant and Ross mention that they couldn't fix DBC 17 as they didn't own the game - Tru Blu did - and that with Ashes cricket they will support the product as they own the game, i.e. they are both the developers and publishers. Now they can't turn around and say "Tough luck. We will get to Ashes Cricket in a few months and don't bug us coz we are focusing on Tennis". I hope we don't go down that path and we do see patches for Ashes Cricket, but if you expect to ship out rushed games then the expectation is for them to fix the game on a timely basis and not a few months down the line. Expectation of ongoing and timely support became my, and other consumers' business, when Big Ant specifically promised as much while pitching the game.

Treading carefully, as I've been part of the beta ashes and am playing it for free, my view is that the support for ashes has been very very poor.

A patch was pushed out a day after release which introduced a major bug and that had to be fixed by a patch the next day. Then a month of nothing with little to no communication, then an unambitious patch that did little more than align consoles and add new player scans. There has not been a single post release gameplay improvement - making it arguably less well supported than tennis has been already.

I was in the position where I intended to buy AO (not realising it's not out here) but decided against it because of the quality of ashes and its support.

I do wonder if BA are aware of how much enthusiasm for them as a studio has diminished?

Lets imagine they came back to ashes and took it to a level beyond where we felt in the beta it was playing really well, took it right to the potential we all felt it had. If they then said at the end of this year there'll be a new cricket game for the 2019 ashes or world cup, I'd think meh.

My assumption would be most or all of the progress they (hopefully) make in this iteration will be lost at release and it would need major patching. In fact the better ashes ends up the less I need any new iteration.

 

[Chief]

This post from augustus is interesting.....

August 2016 - Plans change. I wouldn't pay much attention to this.

 

[Dutch]

August 2016 - Plans change. I wouldn't pay much attention to this.

Sure: but still interesting!

 

[passarapin]

I bought ao tennis last night to give it a go on ps4.
I can’t help but feel that the frame rate isn’t as high as it could be / should be?

Ashes cricket runs smooth as butter, but ao tennis for me isn’t smooth at all

 

[Mitchell]

Treading carefully, as I've been part of the beta ashes and am playing it for free, my view is that the support for ashes has been very very poor.

A patch was pushed out a day after release which introduced a major bug and that had to be fixed by a patch the next day. Then a month of nothing with little to no communication, then an unambitious patch that did little more than align consoles and add new player scans. There has not been a single post release gameplay improvement - making it arguably less well supported than tennis has been already.

I was in the position where I intended to buy AO (not realising it's not out here) but decided against it because of the quality of ashes and its support.

I do wonder if BA are aware of how much enthusiasm for them as a studio has diminished?

Lets imagine they came back to ashes and took it to a level beyond where we felt in the beta it was playing really well, took it right to the potential we all felt it had. If they then said at the end of this year there'll be a new cricket game for the 2019 ashes or world cup, I'd think meh.

My assumption would be most or all of the progress they (hopefully) make in this iteration will be lost at release and it would need major patching. In fact the better ashes ends up the less I need any new iteration.

Dont u have a beta messenger group or something just say hey Ross are u guys still working in the game or something

 

[zimrahil]

Dont u have a beta messenger group or something just say hey Ross are u guys still working in the game or something

He went for the ‘or something’ option I’m afraid......

 

[Dean johnes]

This post from augustus is interesting.....

Tennis world tour releasing in may 2018

 

[Dean johnes]

Tennis world tour releasing in may 2018.
A complete game.
Friends don't rush buy ao tennis like there release.
It's better we wait a bit.

 

[Deleted member 9102]

IMO, Ashes should have been a paid DLC add-on for DBC17 with the gameplay changes/fixes being in patches. I was in the beta for 17 and got it for free, but still feel ripped-off that it was kicked to curb so readily and in such a poor final state to make way for Ashes... If I'd paid £40-50 I'd have been fuming.

Look at the 2nd post in this thread, I was extremely optimistic about this after the lifecycle of DBC14 and Big Ant were among my most respected video game developers... Now I have the complete opposite opinion of them.

When 17 released I was pretty shocked how bad it was, but tried to see the positives and remained confident that they would turn things around... Told people that were slamming the game that they should be patient, they should trust this developer because of their track record with the last iteration... How wrong we were.

Just 4 months of post-release support on PC. The release date was 16/1 and the last update was 16/5 and it never really turned the game into a worthy successor. Contrast that to 14 where the release was 26/6 and the last update was 14/9 the following year, nearly 15 months. DBC17 was priced much higher as well, yet saw much less support. The promises that Ashes will be their best supported release to date, as well as AO getting content/support sound like empty ones when they seem to spread themselves so thinly between 4 or 5 titles at a time these days.

Fool me once... Do any of you truly believe they will rescue AO after how they've dealt with 17 and Ashes?

Instead of coming out and facing the criticism head-on, admitting their mistakes and telling us what will be done differently in the future... They just go silent and only make the typical vanilla PR posts on Facebook/Twitter that you'd expect from faceless corporations like EA.

 

[Nathaus]

I'm also concerned about the prices. We were once told "tru blu" sets the prices and now there is no Tru Blu and the highest launch prices ever (AO is AUD$99/NZD$120 digital lol). AC was more expensive than DBC17 too

This is absolutely not true in Australia or UK.

You are also confusing retail price with wholesale prices. What BA sell to retailers for is not necessarily reflective of what the retailers charge on.

DBC17 was RRP $99, $89 at JB Hifi. Ashes Cricket was $79 at JB Hifi. I got my copy for <$50 online. No chance you would have picked DBC up for under $50 within a month of it's release.