Buying Don Bradman Cricket in UK

[Terry Alderman]

Just to clarify....I am talking about display of game now and not when released. 3 different gaming stores in my town have no DB14 on display. I might ask as to why this is next time I visit them.

 

[blockerdave]

I've been told it should be all over the UK now

i am sorry to say i think it's as invisible as ever. i think you've been horribly let down regarding the UK release, for whatever reason.

 

[inertSpark]

Call me cynical, but I think there is a concerted effort to keep the game low in sales. Despite Big Ant Studios' best efforts, It just doesn't seem like the retailers want to give it shelf room. It's almost as though they have few copies behind the counter for those who ask about it, but they'd rather save the shelf space for the next blockbuster title.

 

[cricket_online]

I've been told it should be all over the UK now

i am sorry to say i think it's as invisible as ever. i think you've been horribly let down regarding the UK release, for whatever reason.

Seems like folks were correct early on when they said the UK release (and DBC 14 release in general) was a fiasco. I'm sorry but no sane release strategy can account for botching it up in the country with the largest consumer base. Big Ant should talk to Tru Blu what went wrong and maybe acknowledge they may not be the right folks to go with for targeting UK market.

 

[inertSpark]

As I said earlier, my local GAME branch actually had copies, but they just were not on the shelves. If that's typical of the rest of the UK, then that is quite frankly ridiculous.

 

[Deleted member 9102]

The only way you'd even know about this game really is online or word of mouth. I'd only heard about it because every few months or so I would visit this site to check on the progress of any forthcoming cricket games.

Admittedly, until the nets beta I was doubtful about this game being any good after the long drought of any cricket games, with the (imo) poor AC09 and IC10 the only 'recent' releases and things like 'Trine Cricket' and TAOC falling by the wayside. After such a long series of cricket game failures, as well as the Ashes 2013 disaster, there's probably an image that cricket games in general are a bit shit.

I wouldn't expect to see the game advertised on TV or plastered all over town on posters and in papers etc but here in the UK it has pretty much zero visibility and shops rarely stock it.

When I played my games on 360 and tried to look for PES 2014 a few weeks after release in Game, HMV and CEX in Sheffield city centre, none of them had any on display or in stock... It would have been an impulse buy and on second thoughts I decided not to bother with it as it's quite a poor/unfinished version.

That is for a title in an established series, produced by a big company (Konami) for this country's biggest sport. In light of this I don't find it too surprising that DBC is getting little exposure.

 

[inertSpark]

When I played my games on 360 and tried to look for PES 2014 a few weeks after release in Game, HMV and CEX in Sheffield city centre, none of them had any on display or in stock... It would have been an impulse buy and on second thoughts I decided not to bother with it as it's quite a poor/unfinished version.

That is for a title in an established series, produced by a big company (Konami) for this country's biggest sport. In light of this I don't find it too surprising that DBC is getting little exposure.

Who are Konami up against with PES? What certain other football game sold in droves and was always overstocked.

Time to be a cynical conspiracy theorist again.

Do you think I would be slightly ridiculous to suggest publishers would threaten not to send copies to stores if the competing products are stocked too? In which case, I can't help but ponder whether EA are indeed planning a new cricket game after all.

<strokey beard time>

 

[Deleted member 9102]

Who are Konami up against with PES? What certain other football game sold in droves and was always overstocked.

Time to be a cynical conspiracy theorist again.

Do you think I would be slightly ridiculous to suggest publishers would threaten not to send copies to stores if the competing products are stocked too? In which case, I can't help but ponder whether EA are indeed planning a new cricket game after all.

<strokey beard time>

Who knows... Despite FIFA completely dominating the football gaming market these days, I would have still thought PES would sell alright purely for being a football game in the UK. If the second biggest football game can't gain much exposure then I wouldn't expect a cricket game to get much as there's a fraction of the audience for it.

Cricket isn't exactly as niche as korfball, especially when there's hype around for the Ashes or something, but the numbers probably aren't massive for the potential sales of a cricket game here.

 

[inertSpark]

That's why my tinfoil hat is firmly placed atop my noggin!

EA manipulating exposure of rival products to enhance their market share of a genre... I certainly wouldn't put it past them. As for the point about the market share of the relatively niche cricket genre. 'Twould be why it requires manipulating somewhat more, especially as DBC is so much better than anything we've seen recently. Out of sight, out of mind. If they were to release one, the vast majority of the gaming public would be forgiven for thinking their effort was the first for years!

 

[Terry Alderman]

DB 14........£18 part ex or £15 cash.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

^That's daylight robbery!

 

[blockerdave]

Missing last (English) summer's ashes was always going to be detrimental to the UK sales.

My strategy now would be get patch 3 done, and move heaven and earth to make sure there is something to release for the next ashes - whether that's DBC15, a stadium pack DLC or licensed content, or even a paid patch that allows console modding... Something that might garner more publicity and encourage people who haven't bought it to do so.

I'd also bypass traditional distribution/retail. It won't work for niche titles in the UK, where sales are dominated by few retailers and supermarkets and shelf space is a minimum.

I don't want to rehash arguments we had months ago, but for me it was always an indictment of the UK distribution that this game was even invisible on Amazon UK right up until release. That was unforgivable. Given it was rarer than rocking horse shit on the street, not being on the major online retailer was downright bizarre.

I'd be making Amazon the focus of the next uk release, selling it through either Amazon directly or via a merchant account. I'm sure there are lots of hurdles to cross to do that, but it's much better than trying to get UK retail shelf space. The uk high street is dying anyway.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

Interesting that the PS3 version is no longer visible on ShopTo and the XBOX 360 version is a 'back order'. I agree, I think Ross has been let down here in the UK.

 

[DAP1987]

The game has been massively let down in the UK! I was lucky to get a copy on release date but I haven't seen it anywhere since, I work in the centre of Manchester and always have a walk around Game and CEX just to see if its around and there isn't a pre-owned or a new copy anywhere to be seen ... I also have a little check every time i'm in Stockport and theres none there either.

I'm looking at selling my PS3 soon, with Madden (if anyone plays Madden let me know!) and Fifa coming out on PS4, and I don't have a clue what to do with DBC because somewhere its got to be worth more than £18 trade in!

** Just checked CEX website, and apparently they have 17 copies of DBC in 17 different shops around the UK **

 

[Chief]

It costs a lot of money and planning to sell big units of a cricket game. Marketing, PR, licenses (and the events to back them up), retail... I think it was probably the right call to soft launch DBC 14. It's a long game on this: building faith among the hardcore (and some mainstream) this time should give the confidence to various parties to big up the next one: journos, publishers, retail.

It deserved much better this year, but one would hope that if there's a product there next summer there will be a lot more interest from all parties.[DOUBLEPOST=1406753208][/DOUBLEPOST]

** Just checked CEX website, and apparently they have 17 copies of DBC in 17 different shops around the UK **

Remember: buying a second hand copy means the developers see the exact same return as when it is pirated. It's not illegal, but it IS immoral.