Don Bradman Cricket 14 PC PLAYABLE NOW!

[blockerdave]

To be able to market against it.

The majority of people won't buy both games - it's been three years since a console cricket game, so there's a good market out there for a new game - but only one. So as well as getting the timing right, they need to cover all the bases on why their game is the one to get.

Sure they can't satisfy the three people who buy a cricket game to hear Michael Slater - but even if Ashes genuinely can deliver an 'and more' to DB14 - or even just say that they have, then they will want to be able to cover those bases.

They will want to focus their marketing on countering any possible reasons to buy the other game, based on how AC13 is marketed. I imagine they will heavily focus on the Cricket Academy editor to counter the Ashes licences, and Don Bradman!

Given what you say, which I agree with, my personal opinion would be they would benefit from getting it out earlier rather than later to get word of mouth spread. The longest time between DBC releasing and AC the better for DBC I would have thought.

I'd also question how effective the assumed month long (ish) marketing lead time would be to maximise publicity. Here DBC is kicking AC's ass, typically 10x more viewers of this forum than AC, but it's actually only 150 to 15 usually. On Facebook as awful as the standard of discourse there is, it's turned around in Likes with AC 10x ahead but then you're talking 50k to 5k which gives AC a huge reach advantage if they do get their act together.

The interaction we get here is awesome for us but I would love to see the other social media channels being better utilised.

Obviously, Ross' strategy is different to what mine would be. I am sure he has more experience in this area so I am happy to stay patient(ish) and hope he has got it right because I want this game to be a success and become a franchise.

 

[MattW]

The fact is both game companies aren't very famous. BigAnt Studio and Trickstar ... Both of them didn't introduce any groundbreaking game so far. So this time competition is rather tough. As I didn't like IC2009 very much and didn't play IC2010 as I didn't had a ps3 back then(but heard it was bad) so I can assume BigAnt will easily win here. If codemasters would be developing IC2013 then I would have had a different view.

The "Ashes Cricket" brand is associated strongly enough with the Codemasters releases, which people associate with some of the better cricket games on the market. It's no mistake that the name keeps the old title, references to 505 Games and especially Trickstar will be as minimal as possible to keep that assumption going among consumers.

The Ashes Cricket brand, and the assumption that AC 2013 will be four years of work over AC09 will be hard to overcome.

It's kinda like making this and using the comparably good name that the previous game had to sell copies.

 

[BigAntStudios]

Given what you say, which I agree with, my personal opinion would be they would benefit from getting it out earlier rather than later to get word of mouth spread. The longest time between DBC releasing and AC the better for DBC I would have thought.

I'd also question how effective the assumed month long (ish) marketing lead time would be to maximise publicity. Here DBC is kicking AC's ass, typically 10x more viewers of this forum than AC, but it's actually only 150 to 15 usually. On Facebook as awful as the standard of discourse there is, it's turned around in Likes with AC 10x ahead but then you're talking 50k to 5k which gives AC a huge reach advantage if they do get their act together.

The interaction we get here is awesome for us but I would love to see the other social media channels being better utilised.

Obviously, Ross' strategy is different to what mine would be. I am sure he has more experience in this area so I am happy to stay patient(ish) and hope he has got it right because I want this game to be a success and become a franchise.

The key is the "talking about figure" on FB we have less likes but always double to triple the amount of people "talking about" us...

Right now 37764 likes and 448 people are talking about the Ashes FB page, we have 5468 likes and 991 talking about Don Bradman Cricket 14.

 

[MattW]

I'd also question how effective the assumed month long (ish) marketing lead time would be to maximise publicity. Here DBC is kicking AC's ass, typically 10x more viewers of this forum than AC, but it's actually only 150 to 15 usually. On Facebook as awful as the standard of discourse there is, it's turned around in Likes with AC 10x ahead but then you're talking 50k to 5k which gives AC a huge reach advantage if they do get their act together.

I think Tru Blu know how to kick a marketing campaign on - they are at 18k likes for AFL Live 2, a game that only just got a trailer and is releasing in two weeks.

Half of the discussion on the AC13 facebook page is about Cricket itself and not the game.

 

[BigAntStudios]

It's kinda like making this and using the comparably good name that the previous game had to sell copies.

Yes, there is certainly some irony to be had...

 

[blockerdave]

The key is the "talking about figure" on FB we have less likes but always double to triple the amount of people "talking about" us...

Right now 37764 likes and 448 people are talking about the Ashes FB page, we have 5468 likes and 991 talking about Don Bradman Cricket 14.

That's perfect

You know, I almost put the caveat about I don't know the talking about figures, but didn't want to sound like a fence sitter. Kind of wish I had now

Also those figs are interesting as they show AC has lost a lot of likes because it was over 40k previously

 

[Orangzeb]

Best cricket game ever was BLC99 as everyone already know then BLC 2005.. that's it.

I hated EA07 from heart.

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

Best cricket game ever was BLC99 as everyone already know then BLC 2005.. that's it.

I hated EA07 from heart.

I have to say BLIC2005 was very enjoyable despite it's arcade feel, bowling someone out with a quick felt so nice!

 

[isrararrafi]

There's no chance AC13 will be out first.

Ross said a while back that part of the reason for originally saying before October was to give enough time after AC13 to have the market ready for a cricket game - Ashes can't release before November (and probably late November), so to keep the promised '2013' date, there's not enough room after AC13 releases to give that same breathing room to market a different game.

I don't think 505 have the same market position to announce a release date close to release - Big Ant could probably organise the launch and release the game with weeks to spare after 505 announce when the game would be out.

I have a feeling basically Big Ant will hold off to start to see if there's any obvious hidden features in AC13 and then start a two-three week marketing campaign before release.

Agree. Said it before myself. Do not expect ross and big ant to start anything until they are completely sure what their competition will be offering....OR if there will be any competition. I say this because i remember ross mentioning, some source has told him 505 games has given trickstar until mid september to get this game done or that will be the end of it.

 

[Biggs]

Facebook "likes" mean nothing, as Ross said. Facebook allows you to "buy" them via targeted advertising these days, so they're irrelevant. What you want is that "talking about" stat to be nice and high and LOTS of community interaction on your page. That's a sign of healthy social media... Twitter is slightly different, you do want people following you but again, retweets mean more than volume of people following you, because again, they're liking what you're tweeting and sharing and growing your information with others...

 

[DeadShot]

Right now 37764 likes and 448 people are talking about the Ashes FB page, we have 5468 likes and 991 talking about Don Bradman Cricket 14.

We have to also compare how many likes for DBC14 after it is officially announced. May not be correct to go with just the numbers.

 

[Chief]

Facebook "likes" mean nothing, as Ross said. Facebook allows you to "buy" them via targeted advertising these days, so they're irrelevant. What you want is that "talking about" stat to be nice and high and LOTS of community interaction on your page. That's a sign of healthy social media... Twitter is slightly different, you do want people following you but again, retweets mean more than volume of people following you, because again, they're liking what you're tweeting and sharing and growing your information with others...

Sadly, not *everyone* believes that Facebook "likes" mean nothing... which mean that they currently *do* in certain situations.

I've seen some (an awful lot of) people high up in companies (and importantly these include some video games companies, retailers, and especially publishers) seeing them as an incredibly easy way to judge popularity/performance, and see them as a guide to how something will sell (they have little else to go on!)

For those people underneath them who are being judged, because they know they can easily fabricate them, they (unfortunately) are quite happy for the bosses to believe it and tend to simply re-enforce that belief.
Sadly this means there is a whole economy built on something that is, in fact, irrelevant... But there's so many people making so much money out of doing it, why would they stop?

Actual, useful, turn-into-sales-able word of mouth is much MUCH harder for people to generate and sustain. But then the "talking about" statistic on its own is pretty irrelevant as well: I've seen agencies present "engagement" numbers, but with no evidence of whether what people are saying is good or bad

Eventually the bubble will burst and the bottom will fall out of it. Until then sadly we (those who know) can't get heard and many will play along.

 

[blockerdave]

Facebook "likes" mean nothing, as Ross said. Facebook allows you to "buy" them via targeted advertising these days, so they're irrelevant. What you want is that "talking about" stat to be nice and high and LOTS of community interaction on your page. That's a sign of healthy social media... Twitter is slightly different, you do want people following you but again, retweets mean more than volume of people following you, because again, they're liking what you're tweeting and sharing and growing your information with others...

you're right of course. but the "legitimate" likes increase your reach because it hits walls and there is always the share button in the same way as twitter's retweet.

I think we all understand that the average facebook user is even more impatient than the most impatient people here (like me!) and so I can fully appreciate Ross wanting to limit the activity there until they are closer to being ready for "go time". but, to take the example of the screen shots released the other day, Ross wasn't going to release them on FB until prompted. I'm not here to second-guess him, he knows his strategy etc. and has the track record to back up that he knows what he's doing, but I found that strange.

That's 5k+ walls his images could have hit, probably some shares... but he had to be prompted to do it.

(Obviously what that shows is a)PC is ace cuz we get stuff first, and b)we're still at least 3 weeks from go-time on the launch!)

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Sadly, not *everyone* believes that Facebook "likes" mean nothing... which mean that they currently *do* in certain situations.

Well, as I said, what they do do provide is reach, through your posts hitting walls, and those posts potentially being shared. the fb version of word of mouth.

Hey, I know 40k likes doesn't mean 40k definite customers, but a certain percentage of that will be legitimate, will see your posts and will share.

it aint hypervaluable, but it aint worthless either.

 

[Terry Alderman]

Is the game going to be released before 2014? A straight yes or no will suffice.

 

[blockerdave]

ross has said 2013 definite