Don Bradman Cricket 14 General Discussion

[Snowy]

Well, I'd contest that. It's not a great license outside of Australia in terms of sales. Yes a legend, but legends are often overshadowed by contemporaries.
"Tiger Woods" is a better golf license today than "Jack Nicklaus" or "Gary Player" would be. Or at least it was a few years back.

Relative to 'Twenty20'

 

[grkrama]

Well, I'd contest that. It's not a great license outside of Australia in terms of sales. Yes a legend, but legends are often overshadowed by contemporaries.

DON is pretty popular for an old legend, anyone in to cricket will know him, if they know sachin/dhoni or ponting/clarke they will know don bradman. Anyone into cricket and not knowing don would be very very less.

 

[Chief]

DON is pretty popular for an old legend, anyone in to cricket will know him, if they know sachin/dhoni or ponting/clarke they will know don bradman. Anyone into cricket and not knowing don would be very very less.

The football equivalent would be having Stanley Matthews on the box. Or I suppose the UK equivalent would be having WG Grace on it. Legends yes, but not the right fit for a video game or it's audience.

 

[Cricketdude]

Yeh using the greatest cricketer of all time is a fairly poor marketing strategy aye.

Bloody hell.

well it didn't sell all that well in uk. cricket games need to capture the mainstream audience

 

[MattW]

I would think that the next edition should start copying the Madden games - have the Bradman Foundation help do deals with a few current players they think represent Bradman's style of cricket - and have them on the cover in different regions. Still have it 'Don Bradman Cricket' but use other players to push the game - so that they get the benefit of both the legacy and current players.

 

[grkrama]

WG Grace on it. Legends yes, but not the right fit for a video game or it's audience.

Grace with all due respect is not actually popular like don, the thing about don is he is not a representative of just one country he is sort of worldwide legend when it comes to cricket.Don is more than a legend he is also a sort of a myth no talk of batting average will go without him, any best batsman of this generation will be compared to him unlike other legends.

I would go with matt's idea if new player license is got to push regionally if at all needed.

 

[blockerdave]

The football equivalent would be having Stanley Matthews on the box. Or I suppose the UK equivalent would be having WG Grace on it. Legends yes, but not the right fit for a video game or it's audience.

I think Pele more than Matthews. And that would be a swell license.

 

[blockerdave]

well it didn't sell all that well in uk. cricket games need to capture the mainstream audience

Sales failures, if they exist and in the UK in particular, have as much to do with the piss poor distribution and marketing, especially the archaic, almost flat earth approach to social media

 

[Chief]

Sales failures, if they exist and in the UK in particular, have as much to do with the piss poor distribution and marketing, especially the archaic, almost flat earth approach to social media

In the UK I think it's probably been a combination of factors. Distribution didn't help, but anyone searching for it online would have found it instantly. On PS4/360 I think price was a huge factor. I think the marketing/social media could have been a lot better, but there a similar games which have performed a lot better with similar campaigns (And the PS3/360 versions charted pretty high in Australia/NZ despite similar marketing... ) So I think that the license HAS to enter into it as a factor in the poor UK performance.

 

[Stu10]

I wish I had a dollar for every time the ball was hit straight back to the bowler who then drops it or stops it, and gets a replay.

 

[Deleted member 9102]

Although Bradman is an absolute legend of the game and the greatest ambassador in the sport's history, a significant portion of the target market for this game probably don't know too much about his legacy and the game's title didn't mean anything to them.

India probably would have gone 10x as crazy about the game if it was called "Sachin Tendulkar Cricket 14", not that many more of them would have actually purchased it .

 

[Gamer Pradosh]

IMO this shouldn't be given as a wide...Was just too close to the stumps...

 

[handsome]

How does one bowl spin?

I have used the left analog stick and have got perfect/good length balls but the RPM still shows 400 -450 . Any idea guys?

I generally rotate the LAS 3 times until it finishes in the perfect zone while the RAS controls length ( mostly good length) but still the ball does not have any RPM

 

[blockerdave]

Although Bradman is an absolute legend of the game and the greatest ambassador in the sport's history, a significant portion of the target market for this game probably don't know too much about his legacy and the game's title didn't mean anything to them.

India probably would have gone 10x as crazy about the game if it was called "Sachin Tendulkar Cricket 14", not that many more of them would have actually purchased it .

Bottom line is, any "license" or brand for a cricket game is of limited utility - there aren't a lot of games out there to choose from, there's one. Anyone in the market for a cricket game - whether they come as a serious cricket fan or a casual gamer who happens across the game - has the choice of precisely one game.

As a "brand statement" I think Bradman is perfect for the game that was delivered. As a legend of the game, from a classical time, the name suggests heft and depth to the game, which is delivered in terms of the academy and customisation (admittedly the lack of stadiums cuts against this). Any focus on "t20" would suggest a more arcadey version and turn off the cricket classical nerds like me; similarly Ashes, World Cup or individual current player licenses/endorsements can give off a whiff of the cheap cash in.

Nobody who knows cricket would be "turned off" by the Bradman license... anyone who doesn't know Cricket won't know their Bradman from their Tendulkar from their Blair Pocock. The biggest problem this game had was visibility and the biggest failure was social media.

 

[Chief]

Nobody who knows cricket would be "turned off" by the Bradman license... anyone who doesn't know Cricket won't know their Bradman from their Tendulkar from their Blair Pocock. The biggest problem this game had was visibility and the biggest failure was social media.

Rugby 15 has been awful with social media and marketing in general: I don't see them having done anything different to what DBC did.

Add to this that it was, by most accounts, a poor game compared with DBC reviews, coupled with the fact that Rugby and Cricket are very similar in terms of market... and you have to wonder why they have fared so much better.

I can only conclude that the things they did the same are no factor, and only the differences can explain the disparity in sales.