Don Bradman Cricket 14 General Discussion

[Alberts]

Irony is without the Ashes 13 forum and @Chief I doubt we'd have Ross here at all and we'd prolly know less about the game and therefore, who knows how well sales would be. I think PC.net has gone a long way to helping the game, but it's very small percentages.

Ultimately, to justify PC support and investment people have to buy the game, you can try and fudge the numbers any-which-way but the fact remains, it's getting shafted by folks in India stealing the game. If we believe in the product, as a collective, we HAVE to encourage people to support it with their wallets otherwise it'll be another 5 - 10 years until we see another PC supported cricket title of this kinda quality again.

I doubt we'll ever see another cricket series this good if this one fails. Big Ant have come in and been very brave here.

To be honest I've been trying my damnedest to get some kind of name out there for the game, but one person can only go so far. I'd actually say that if everyone on here flooded their facebook, twitter, annoyed their friends etc. with things about this game it would at the very least help spread the word a lot further.

I know at least two people who didn't buy the game because "it was made by Big Ant" and "AFL Live 2 was rubbish" (AFL Live 2 was not made by Big Ant). Good word about the game, anyway we can, could go a long way still, as could Steam sales to get the game some publicity on the front page of steam, and more importantly, get some splurg buyers to actually pick up the game and talk about it, post about it, spread the word themselves.

 

[Ricco_M]

I just can't imagine how infuriating this is for Ross and his team as I'm ******* off the impact this will have for the future of the title and pc games yet again.

I still think a big problem is that in Uk its definitely under the radar and its relying on word of mouth with no advertising and very few in the cricket community know about it. PC sales might be more gradual and I know a lot of people who are waiting for the steam sales to pick this up and once they realise how good it is then hopefully next versions will sell better.

Its such a shame as a lot of people (whi are decent and not pirates scym) don't know about this polished hidden gem of a game and it deserves to sell so well.....it might just take time and more exposure to do so.

 

[blockerdave]

I'd be very interested to know how the piracy looks with India out of the picture. To be honest I never thought that India would sell well at all, 10% of legal sales coming from there is actually a shock to me. Hopefully with some hooked, introduced bugs can force a few to buy it.

it's 10% of legal PC sales, which is likely considerably lower than console, so it probably still hasn't sold that well in India. That's why there being 90% of the people playing the game being in India is such a HUGE problem.

 

[venkniralac]

Actually the new government has allocated some nice amount for gaming industry in the budget so expect the upcoming days to be a golden era

 

[Alberts]

it's 10% of legal PC sales, which is likely considerably lower than console, so it probably still hasn't sold that well in India. That's why there being 90% of the people playing the game being in India is such a HUGE problem.

Taking India out of the picture though?

 

[Biggs]

So it is a process that needs tweaking for sure

A process that needs tweaking? That's putting it mildly. Hahah... It's tweaked.

 

[blockerdave]

Taking India out of the picture though?

can you explain why you think that's significant?

 

[Alberts]

I just can't imagine how infuriating this is for Ross and his team as I'm ******* off the impact this will have for the future of the title and pc games yet again.

I still think a big problem is that in Uk its definitely under the radar and its relying on word of mouth with no advertising and very few in the cricket community know about it. PC sales might be more gradual and I know a lot of people who are waiting for the steam sales to pick this up and once they realise how good it is then hopefully next versions will sell better.

Its such a shame as a lot of people (whi are decent and not pirates scym) don't know about this polished hidden gem of a game and it deserves to sell so well.....it might just take time and more exposure to do so.

There's near no advertisement in Australia either. I think the aim must be to get positive word of mouth this version, advertisement next.

 

[Biggs]

PC Cricket gaming is a pretty niche market, the issue isn't with the marketing. It's with the fact the most populous cricket nation on the planet has the most populous gamers online playing it and 80% of them haven't payed a single f'n dollar for it. That's your problem. It's $50! Just pay for it, christ. You brought the computer and the controller!

 

[Alberts]

can you explain why you think that's significant?

Because I'm curious how much of an impact piracy is having in Australia and the UK, India as a developing market is known for high piracy and it should be damn near expected, as disgusting as it is. If piracy is a huge problem in Australia and the UK as well, then that is even more worrisome.

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PC Cricket gaming is a pretty niche market, the issue isn't with the marketing. It's with the fact the most populous cricket nation on the planet is the most populous gamers online playing it and 80% of them haven't payed a single f'n dollar for it. That's your problem.

India is like that as a developing nation though, so it's not entirely unexpected. I hope it changes, but the UK and Australia need to be the primary markets still.

 

[MattW]

Another thing that could be beneficial is that if there are that many people who are willing to play a buggy, twitchy, pirated shadow of a version, you could look into the viability of making a DBC 14 "Lite", which has no access to the academy, mods, and has locked very basic team and match type (and conditions) settings, then see if any advertisers would pay to have their adds put into the game (basically the same way people make money off free mobile phone games). If there's such a number of the pirates, you could kill two birds with one stone by giving them basically what they have no, but without the bugs, actual support from the company, a chance to make a bit of money off them and of course the drive (more features and such) to buy the proper game. It would also be a tutorial on how to use steam (if you could get such a "Lite" version on steam) on how to buy the game properly.

I certainly wonder how well 'Pepsi Cricket Revolution' did - which was a free version of Cricket Revolution in Pakistan with entirely Pepsi adboards and matches played in Pepsi Stadium. Obviously that wasn't ongoing ad support, and I'm not sure how you'd even measure it in terms of valuing brand exposure, but the model of trying to fuse advertising with a cricket game in a cricket mad country makes sense.

I think that kind of model would however be the only way it would work in the medium term. But, I wouldn't be prioritising it. Indeed, I can't mention Cricket Revolution without noting that even with low development costs by being made in Pakistan - they aren't making any more cricket games.

I really hope that somehow we reach the threshold of it being financially viable to keep porting to the PC. Perhaps even if it means we all have to pre-order the next edition with cash upfront to fund the dev cost of getting the port - I'd be fine with that.

 

[KP_Nuts]

Im off to the Oval in August for the Eng v Ind Test, send me some fliers and I will spread them around the oval

Sod it send me a T-Shirt with the Game splattered all over it and I will even wear it all day!

 

[BigAntStudios]

Ultimately though the game needs to succeed in the UK and Australia for there to be another version. I can't believe Ross was banking on substantial Indian sales to prolong the franchise.
The Indian piracy thing is obviously appalling but low sales in the key markets are what will prevent future versions as far as I can see.

The Indian price being tied to the Australian price via the US$ has caused us great pain. If I had known about the low Indian sales volume then I would be honest and say I'd have priced it for Australia without regard to India.

 

[Alberts]

I certainly wonder how well 'Pepsi Cricket Revolution' did - which was a free version of Cricket Revolution in Pakistan with entirely Pepsi adboards and matches played in Pepsi Stadium. Obviously that wasn't ongoing ad support, and I'm not sure how you'd even measure it in terms of valuing brand exposure, but the model of trying to fuse advertising with a cricket game in a cricket mad country makes sense.

I think that kind of model would however be the only way it would work in the medium term. But, I wouldn't be prioritising it. Indeed, I can't mention Cricket Revolution without noting that even with low development costs by being made in Pakistan - they aren't making any more cricket games.

I really hope that somehow we reach the threshold of it being financially viable to keep porting to the PC. Perhaps even if it means we all have to pre-order the next edition with cash upfront to fund the dev cost of getting the port - I'd be fine with that.

To be completely honest I'd pay $250 now to guarantee I could get the PC version no more than 2 months after the console version next time around.

 

[BigAntStudios]

An error of judgement on my behalf for sure.