Ashes Cricket 2013 General Discussion

[Chief]

Thats why I believe, it is most important to have a 'good' player editor with the option to share the created content (something which BigAnt seems to have done), as that will ensure that any lack of licensing is not missed by the gamers .

I take this point, but there's a counter argument that says that giving players TOO much ability to update the game themselves might mean that they don't buy future versions from you. Commercially it's a big risk: one might speculate (and clearly I *am* speculating) that some of the previous efforts of building Cricket franchises might have been derailed because people were happy to just keep editing an old version (which of course the publishers see absolutely no return on their investment for)... (Point of interest: there's 5 times the amount of people looking at a mod thread about a 6 or 7 year old game as I type this than there is looking at the Ashes 2013 thread).

The counter argument is clearly "well, if they ignored a new version of a game and were happy to edit the old one, then clearly you didn't make enough improvements in other areas", but that all costs money and with the market for Cricket games being a fraction of some of the other big sports I could see why they wouldn't want to take the risk: when considering a long-term commitment to making cricket games it would have to be a consideration if you worried your core fanbase might just buy the first one and not any subsequent ones.

Again, this is all just my individual opinion: I'm just saying I can see both sides and it's not that simple an issue. I'm the devil's avocado.

Give a man a fish, and he can eat for a day. TEACH a man to fish, and he might never buy another fish off you.

 

[MattW]

when considering a long-term commitment to making cricket games it would have to be a consideration if you worried your core fanbase might just buy the first one and not any subsequent ones.

Hence all the bugs... /cheapshot

 

[angad]

I take this point, but there's a counter argument that says that giving players TOO much ability to update the game themselves might mean that they don't buy future versions from you.

I can understand what you are saying from a publisher's point of view. However, there are other (and better) ways to counter that. Specially in a game like cricket where 'roster updates' are not as important to people as, say, gameplay updates/enhancements. In games like WWE, yes the roster update may be important as they are individual personalities that bring a different flavour to the gameplay and presentation. I think almost all sports games depend more on gameplay updates rather than roster updates to sell the future versions of the game.

There are tons of stuff you can add in the future versions of the game provided the core of the gameplay is strong. Mods can only enhance certain aspects of the game like rosters, kits etc, but the core gameplay remains almost the same. Thats why when a new cricket game is released, people will still buy it if it has better gameplay, better features, better modes.

Licensing players is expensive (well atleast in India I would assume), so lets face it, the cost for updating the roster may turn out to be more than the cost to enhance the gameplay and let the gamers create their own licensed players !

 

[Dutch]

Hence all the bugs... /cheapshot

You mean flyfishing!

 

[Chief]

Hence all the bugs... /cheapshot

Ouch. BODYLINE.
Hopefully that was *just* for the LOLs and you don't actually believe that...

 

[isrararrafi]

I take this point, but there's a counter argument that says that giving players TOO much ability to update the game themselves might mean that they don't buy future versions from you. Commercially it's a big risk: one might speculate (and clearly I *am* speculating) that some of the previous efforts of building Cricket franchises might have been derailed because people were happy to just keep editing an old version (which of course the publishers see absolutely no return on their investment for)... (Point of interest: there's 5 times the amount of people looking at a mod thread about a 6 or 7 year old game as I type this than there is looking at the Ashes 2013 thread).

The counter argument is clearly "well, if they ignored a new version of a game and were happy to edit the old one, then clearly you didn't make enough improvements in other areas", but that all costs money and with the market for Cricket games being a fraction of some of the other big sports I could see why they wouldn't want to take the risk: when considering a long-term commitment to making cricket games it would have to be a consideration if you worried your core fanbase might just buy the first one and not any subsequent ones.

Again, this is all just my individual opinion: I'm just saying I can see both sides and it's not that simple an issue. I'm the devil's avocado.

Give a man a fish, and he can eat for a day. TEACH a man to fish, and he might never buy another fish off you.

That's a very good point. But surely there are a lot of areas you can improve upon on each subsequent releases, right? There is no end when it comes to making the AI more intelligent, or testing new controls or updating graphics (very important for casual gamers), updating online communities etc. plus your development cost should be much lower too since you are not trying to build the sequels from scratch for having a good base of codes already.

Also, it might not be a fair comparison but once a movie become successful they always try to make sequels to it and most of the times the sequels end up earning more even after being inferior to the original. Just the name and good reputations sells in such cases.

 

[Dutch]

I think the best way for people to become regular customers is to deliver quality and the ability to suit the game to ones needs. I cant imagine myself not buying a cricket game because the one I have is edited so that I have correct squad names, my favourite bats and the best hair-do's......teach a man to fish and he will be grateful. Teach a man to catch sprat he'll catch sprat until he sees bigger fish elsewhere.

 

[Chief]

That's a very good point. But surely there are a lot of areas you can improve upon on each subsequent releases, right? There is no end when it comes to making the AI more intelligent, or testing new controls or updating graphics (very important for casual gamers), updating online communities etc. plus your development cost should be much lower too since you are not trying to build the sequels from scratch for having a good base of codes already.

Oh yes absolutely. I was just posing an alternate perspective on the "game must have an exhaustative player editor" notion from someone who has potentially millions of dollars of investment at stake in a franchise...

 

[MattW]

Hopefully that was *just* for the LOLs and you don't actually believe that...

I'll let you know after I play Ashes Cricket 2013.

I put a lot of the blame for bugs on the fees that Microsoft and Sony charge you guys for sending out patches. There's only so much that internal testing will ever pick up, but then once a game is out there you're then having to do a cost benefit on whether to attempt to fix up a game.

I'd just hope that you're spending all your time doing online play against the dev team to try and find bugs there - if there's a disconnecting issue online in AC2013 I think this site will explode.

 

[Chief]

I think the best way for people to become regular customers is to deliver quality and the ability to suit the game to ones needs. I cant imagine myself not buying a cricket game because the one I have is edited so that I have correct squad names, my favourite bats and the best hair-do's......teach a man to fish and he will be grateful. Teach a man to catch sprat he'll catch sprat until he sees bigger fish elsewhere.

Again, playing devil's advocate, this may true of the core audience but it has to be considered from the perspective of a more mainstream customer, who might not be interested in buying a cricket game every year/every other year if they can just download an updated roster and make do with that. I'm personally pretty convinced that those sort of people make up a very large percentage of the market...

 

[Dutch]

Again, playing devil's advocate, this may true of the core audience but it has to be considered from the perspective of a more mainstream customer, who might not be interested in buying a cricket game every year/every other year if they can just download an updated roster and make do with that. I'm personally pretty convinced that those sort of people make up a very large percentage of the market...

True but if you deliver new innovations and depth each time he will come. If the game is so strict that there is little room for manoevre he becomes bored quickly and shoves it away. Look at fifa...yes million dollar budget and all that. That game is more editable than my uncle Larry's best man speeches yet it sells millions to hardcore and casual gamers alike.

 

[Chief]

True but if you deliver new innovations and depth each time he will come. If the game is so strict that there is little room for manoevre he becomes bored quickly and shoves it away. Look at fifa...yes million dollar budget and all that. That game is more editable than my uncle Larry's best man speeches yet it sells millions to hardcore and casual gamers alike.

Oh no: I believe a player should definitely have the ability to edit certain things in his own game within reason... But being easily able to just download updated rosters at the push of a button, for free, and have instantly updated statistics etc - That's where my fish analogy was heading: I think that would potentially cost you sales EVEN with substantial improvement in the next iteration.

Given the size of the market compared to other games (and since you mentioned FIFA let's use that as an example), from (albeit invalidatable) sales numbers on the internet it outsells cricket games by, on average, around 30x: if you imagine that in cash-terms then FIFA generates (based on a typical ?40 RRP) ?1200 for every ?40 cricket does....... It's really incomparable.

 

[sami ullah khan]

Ouch. BODYLINE.
Hopefully that was *just* for the LOLs and you don't actually believe that...

Its not nearly as worse as bowling a perfect yorker and getting cut for six off the backfoot

 

[79cricket]

I see your point chief, just remember easports cricket 07
Was the last ea game. I bet you are talking about that game.
Bigant are smart to bring there editor over, its cheaper
To do that plus rugby,AFL and cricket are played on the same
Kind of ground, I bet that helps with costs.

Ashes 2013, is very different, u have a big license being
The ashes but in the end only aus and the UK care about
The ashes so you have to say to yourself, why would the
Rest of the world buy the game. For the new engine maybe
For a editor that can make sachin near perfect, now you're talking to
The world.
Can you talk about the editor in ashes at all, how much
Better than ic2010, nothing to do with license stuff chief.

 

[Chief]

I see your point chief, just remember easports cricket 07
Was the last ea game. I bet you are talking about that game.
Bigant are smart to bring there editor over, its cheaper
To do that plus rugby,AFL and cricket are played on the same
Kind of ground, I bet that helps with costs.

Ashes 2013, is very different, u have a big license being
The ashes but in the end only aus and the UK care about
The ashes so you have to say to yourself, why would the
Rest of the world buy the game. For the new engine maybe
For a editor that can make sachin near perfect, now you're talking to
The world.
Can you talk about the editor in ashes at all, how much
Better than ic2010, nothing to do with license stuff chief.

Previous Cricket games, no matter what the license, have shown very similar patterns in terms of where the game sells...

The editor in 2013 is a big improvement offering more customisation options (you can play around with various bits you couldn't before: no longer are you just picking from a few generic heads!) AND THERE'S SOME SLIDERS INVOLVED.
I know you guys love a slider or two...