So everyone has their own theories on why Big Ant and their team have not released yet... Here is mine.
Big Ant probably knew from the start that they will have a better game. The problem was/is with the licensing. When you walk into the shop and you are not a member of this site and have not done your research, you will pick Ashes because it is licensed.
From my experience licensed games tended to be better than unlicensed ones. So Big Ant knew releasing at more or less the same time would really dent their sales. Most people would buy only one of the 2. Meaning revenue and the market would be shared by the 2 games. Given that it is a small market, you want to dominate it to be really profitable.
I don't know what the original plan of Big Ant was, but they probably thought if Ashes releases in June by the time November comes, everyone will want a proper game. There would also be a bigger market in Australia in November. Cricket fever would be starting up again. Which game would you rather buy 2013 cricket which was released a few months ago or DBC14 which says "2014" and which just came out?
But Ashes did not release in June and they moved to November. In hindsight it would have been perfect for DBC14 to release in June, but the game was not finished then. Now Ashes was releasing when DBC14 was to be released. This was a huge setback because now DBC14 would not be the only game on the market.
So in August(or somewhere around there) DBC14 released a few trailers and screenshots. This might have been a strategy to push back Ashes13 further as they now had a measurement. If DBC14 had more features and most importantly the latest features in cricket, it would give Ashes13 a hiding.
Big Ant then thought about releasing in October, giving them time to get into the market and by the time Ashes 13 released DBC would already be a success. But either Big Ant suspected that Ashes13 was having trouble or they had some information that the developers are struggling to complete the game and add the features they knew DBC had.
So Big Ant thought, what if we could get them out of the market? They pushed back the release date back and announced their world premier. They made their move and now Ashes had to make theirs. So the world premier took place, the developers from Ashes saw that they would not be able to compete with this game at all. This is exactly what Big Ant wanted. Ashes 2013 now announced that their game would be available on Friday on Steam. Their is most probably not going to be another release or anything further from them this year or early next year.
Big Ant would always get more sales if Ashes did not release around the same time they did or if they did not release at all.
Big Ant is probably just waiting for final information about any Ashes release this year before they release their game.
If what I described above is correct, I would say it is a brilliant move by Big Ant.
Big Ant probably knew from the start that they will have a better game. The problem was/is with the licensing. When you walk into the shop and you are not a member of this site and have not done your research, you will pick Ashes because it is licensed.
From my experience licensed games tended to be better than unlicensed ones. So Big Ant knew releasing at more or less the same time would really dent their sales. Most people would buy only one of the 2. Meaning revenue and the market would be shared by the 2 games. Given that it is a small market, you want to dominate it to be really profitable.
I don't know what the original plan of Big Ant was, but they probably thought if Ashes releases in June by the time November comes, everyone will want a proper game. There would also be a bigger market in Australia in November. Cricket fever would be starting up again. Which game would you rather buy 2013 cricket which was released a few months ago or DBC14 which says "2014" and which just came out?
But Ashes did not release in June and they moved to November. In hindsight it would have been perfect for DBC14 to release in June, but the game was not finished then. Now Ashes was releasing when DBC14 was to be released. This was a huge setback because now DBC14 would not be the only game on the market.
So in August(or somewhere around there) DBC14 released a few trailers and screenshots. This might have been a strategy to push back Ashes13 further as they now had a measurement. If DBC14 had more features and most importantly the latest features in cricket, it would give Ashes13 a hiding.
Big Ant then thought about releasing in October, giving them time to get into the market and by the time Ashes 13 released DBC would already be a success. But either Big Ant suspected that Ashes13 was having trouble or they had some information that the developers are struggling to complete the game and add the features they knew DBC had.
So Big Ant thought, what if we could get them out of the market? They pushed back the release date back and announced their world premier. They made their move and now Ashes had to make theirs. So the world premier took place, the developers from Ashes saw that they would not be able to compete with this game at all. This is exactly what Big Ant wanted. Ashes 2013 now announced that their game would be available on Friday on Steam. Their is most probably not going to be another release or anything further from them this year or early next year.
Big Ant would always get more sales if Ashes did not release around the same time they did or if they did not release at all.
Big Ant is probably just waiting for final information about any Ashes release this year before they release their game.
If what I described above is correct, I would say it is a brilliant move by Big Ant.
