Ashes Cricket 2013 General Discussion

[isrararrafi]

i would agree it would incorporate up to 10th...

BUT...

Mike Fegan must have known his posts would result in an expectation (not unreasonable to my mind) that the "constant flow" would start this week.

he has also mentioned that he would try and give an update today. while the key word was "try", to my mind i would at least expect a comment/acknowledgment that he hasn't been able to do that, and maybe some sort of explanation why.

given the history of this title, radio silence is a huge red flag to me that nothing much has changed.

my hunch is the "assets" he has referred to working on this week were met with a stoney silence and shake of the head from 505.

i think we have more chance of Lord Lucan and Elvis Presley opening the bowling for England in the first test than this game of seeing the light of day. all we're waiting on is the official news from 505 that they have pulled the plug.

True, it doesn't look likely we will be getting any visuals in early september from the latest post of mike. But I would rather not make any assumption and post a negative comment now. I would give them the, the time they asked me to wait for. To be honest i am more concerned about whether this game gets shelved now. Even though i do not have high expectations from this game I would still hate to see this being shelved.

 

[blockerdave]

True, it doesn't look likely we will be getting any visuals in early september from the latest post of mike. But I would rather not make any assumption and post a negative comment now. I would give them the, the time they asked me to wait for. To be honest i am more concerned about whether this game gets shelved now. Even though i do not have high expectations from this game I would still hate to see this being shelved.

I don't want it shelved. I'd love two great cricket games thriving and pushing each other to improve. I hate to think of the employment/financial consequences good people would suffer if this is shelved. Just that my observation is that this is not be behaviour of people close to being ready and determined to "change he narrative" around this game.

I could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time, though it is the first time I actually hope to be wrong.

 

[isrararrafi]

I think you are missing the point made by Lee. It's not about "early", "mid", "late", "very late" September. It's about letting chips fall as they may without pestering Mike F or Ross or anyone else for that matter about info, trailers, videos and release dates. We already know AC13 (or 14) should be out in Nov and DBC 14 should be out sometime before that. The discussion about early and late September will not help anyone and neither will you change things other than adding reams of pages to the forum.

We are on the home stretch of both cricket video games unless we are struck by "cricket video game curse", and should have the games out in a couple of months' time so why not wait and watch? IMO we should start getting more info from end of September onwards.

That honestly is NOT what lee meant. He was under the impression that things will be shown in september and he told everyone to be patient and not attack mike for visuals. What you, me or others believe early september means is arguable...but the 16th of a month is not "early".

And i was under the impression that that is what this forum is for? We are talking and discussing and asking questions. Of course none of us believe we can force things out of mike....(its a different case with ross ). If we "let" chips fall into places, there would be no point of discussing anything here?

Maybe we will get infos from end of september. That still does not change the way this has been playing out for the last 4 months of broken promises and missing deadline. If anything all that does is make you wonder what is there to rely upon when they claim something like "this is better than ac09" or "gameplay is realistic and a lot better then previous ones"?

 

[MattW]

In his own words from last week.

Rest assured, it won't be end of September as we are now making good progress on all fronts. I'll co-ordinate with our publisher 505 Games and get back to you on this ASAP. Thanks for all your patience throughout August

As previously stated we are working on producing the marketing assets shortly and are on schedule for a November release as planned.

We are sitting down early next week to work through this to start building the marketing assets that 505 Games require to do their thing. I can answer this question by late next week once we have completed this evaluation.

So they are starting to work on marketing assets and should have something soon, and the whole game in November. He was online earlier today, but I wouldn't blame him for not wanting to post.

You can hang on 'early September' but that puts you in the same boat as those hanging on 'before October'. They are estimates.

 

[cricket_online]

In his own words from last week.




So they are starting to work on marketing assets and should have something soon, and the whole game in November.

You can hang on 'early September' but that puts you in the same boat as those hanging on 'before October'. They are estimates.

This!

Things change just as they did for BAS. In a niche market where two games will go head-to-head, things are bound to change and expecting otherwise will be unrealistic.

Now if 505 Games had mentioned release date as September, things would be different but you can't blame them too much for changing their plans to counter DBC14, just as you can't blame BAS for pushing out play sessions and their marketing blitz.

 

[blockerdave]

i think it's legitimate to question why a company that is already suffering trust/credibility issues would repeatedly say "early september", mention a possible update today, and then let today slide with total silence.

a simple "sorry guys, we aren't in a position to release anything just yet or give the expected WIP date but rest assured we are working hard and hope to have something to show you soon"

even copy and paste the previous polishing/bug-fixing line.

and really, what DO you expect us to talk about in this forum, when they've given us nothing meaningful in some time?

 

[Biggs]

I think SOME of you are learning very quickly just how amazingly good we've had it with Ross and the BigAnt guys and are mistaking Mikes lack of, well, anything for deception... When in actual fact, he (like Ross) owes US NOTHING.

That being said, overreaction is always laughing juice for me. Admins and Mods do a great job here and I guarantee I get more infractions and deletions than any of you...

This game isn't worth your drama.

...whens the release date?

Oh...


Oh.

 

[cricket_online]

That honestly is NOT what lee meant. He was under the impression that things will be shown in september and he told everyone to be patient and not attack mike for visuals. What you, me or others believe early september means is arguable...but the 16th of a month is not "early".

And i was under the impression that that is what this forum is for? We are talking and discussing and asking questions. Of course none of us believe we can force things out of mike....(its a different case with ross ). If we "let" chips fall into places, there would be no point of discussing anything here?

Maybe we will get infos from end of september. That still does not change the way this has been playing out for the last 4 months of broken promises and missing deadline. If anything all that does is make you wonder what is there to rely upon when they claim something like "this is better than ac09" or "gameplay is realistic and a lot better then previous ones"?

Well I took Lee's point as "be patient and things will come soon" and didn't really fixate too much on September. Yes, things haven't panned as we, or 505 games or Mike F, would have liked with the June 21st delay and they were rightly criticised for the same. But IMO expecting 505 Games to show pics/trailers/videos 2 months before the release is not realistic either. Mike F did mention "early September" but it was in the same vein as "xx-0x-13", i.e. an estimate which Matt pointed out above.

 

[MattW]

and then let today slide with total silence.

I saw him online earlier today - with the state of this thread at the time I don't blame him for not posting.

If he just gave a generic WIP update, people would get angry because it's early September and he isn't giving us everything.

Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't - it's probably best he waits until he is in a position to make a good go of answers to questions - it will matter far more in the end than a few weeks now.

 

[blockerdave]

Mike F did mention "early September" but it was in the same vein as "xx-0x-13", i.e. an estimate

it so wasn't... the "xx-0x-13" thing was not repeated several times. and although ross did clearly elsewhere say "before october" he also clearly retracted that and gave the reason (ashes delay changing their plans)

it is not the same as saying "early september" for many times over the course of a month, offering a possible WIP update first friday of sept, and delivering nothing, not even a notice of plan changing.

it's really not in the same vein. aint even in the same damn body!

----------

Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't -

Lot of merit in that point and I sympathise... but his strategy for trying to inject a bit more positivity around this title is poor.

 

[isrararrafi]

In his own words from last week.




So they are starting to work on marketing assets and should have something soon, and the whole game in November. He was online earlier today, but I wouldn't blame him for not wanting to post.

You can hang on 'early September' but that puts you in the same boat as those hanging on 'before October'. They are estimates.

I am completely fine with visuals coming in late september also, as long as mike says it beforehand that he can not keep his promise of delivering the goodies early september. Like blockerdave said, a company which is already suffering from trust issue with its customers, you would expect mike to learn something from it already.

@biggsy....i understand your pov but i disagree on the owing us nothing part. We are a small part of their customer base who they and their company survive on. Snd since they have decided to interact with us better do it properly with showing the respect their customers deserve who still has stuck with their game after everything.

It is a completely different issue if not a single representative from the developers were here. But since they decided to be here, i expect some professionalism from them. And not delivering on what is promised without any clarification is not professionalism.

 

[MattW]

Lot of merit in that point and I sympathise... but his strategy for trying to inject a bit more positivity around this title is poor.

Yeah, but making more promises isn't going to help - just staying quiet until he can really start delivering with full featuresets and gameplay videos will probably do better for positivity.

They aren't releasing until November - that's when they need to convince people on the game.

Still, he did say it - but nothing is gained from constantly repeating it. Just file it away in your 'reasons not to buy AC13' folder and wait and see if what he comes up with when he does post detail is enough to outweigh that.

 

[isrararrafi]

Yeah, but making more promises isn't going to help - just staying quiet until he can really start delivering with full featuresets and gameplay videos will probably do better for positivity.

They aren't releasing until November - that's when they need to convince people on the game.

Still, he did say it - but nothing is gained from constantly repeating it. Just file it away in your 'reasons not to buy AC13' folder and wait and see if what he comes up with when he does post detail is enough to outweigh that.

Lol, that text file in the folder is almost hitting 1MB.

 

[sahilnatu]

Really can't get why ppl are so fussed up about the early September thing! That they aren't out yet is a clear indication of them not being ready yet. No point in holding back publisher approved screens.

Guess everyone needs to take a chill pill. The game anyway has to release in under 10 weeks from now. Just 10 weeks, or else it won't see the light of day. So let it come whenever it wants to. You can't expect them to be clear about the early September claims (not that they matter a lot) especially with the Jun21 fiasco behind them.

The long and short of it, there's no point going back to early September thing again and again... and again.
(Wait, I just did!)

 

[blockerdave]

Lol, that text file in the folder is almost hitting 1MB.

if you need disk space, delete the existing file and replace with the words "bradman cricket"...

better than zipping it!