Don Bradman Cricket 14 PC PLAYABLE NOW!

[chickiboy]

Asking for the release date. That's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see if it pays off for him.

I should. I am confirming what has been promised and advertised if the release is indeed in 2013. Not a crime by any standards.

 

[MattW]

I should. I am confirming what has been promised and advertised if the release is indeed in 2013. Not a crime by any standards.

The game will be here in 2013.

...

 

[BRAB]

...

To be fair Matt, it is up in the air due to the release of the other game and how that affects the retailers attitude towards cricket games. It's not overly horrible to ask him if it will affect the release date, but Ross has said before he isn't sure

 

[chickiboy]

...

Ok. Was just wondering if there was a change in plan.. So BA will live up to the promise indeed..

 

[angad]

If the retailers are giving too much of a problem, BigAnt should just release the 'Nets' this week in a CA update and then release the game whenever they feel the retailers are ready

 

[chickiboy]

If the retailers are giving too much of a problem, BigAnt should just release the 'Nets' this week in a CA update and then release the game whenever they feel the retailers are ready

That would be great and the same can be passed on to all the people we know who play cricket titles.. A pre christmas surprise maybe.. How Fitting.. Kudos Angad!!

 

[mirajp1]

people suggesting for nets do need to realize that nets is a part of the game. They just cant copy the nets code from the main game and paste it into CA beta. Nets would be having its dependencies on things which are in game like UI,AI etc.

Its not that easy when a part of game has been coded without intention of making it work standalone and to be frank its not worth coding this for CA right now when they can work on Day One patch.

 

[angad]

people suggesting for nets do need to realize that nets is a part of the game. They just cant copy the nets code from the main game and paste it into CA beta. Nets would be having its dependencies on things which are in game like UI,AI etc.

Its not that easy when a part of game has been coded without intention of making it work standalone and to be frank its not worth coding this for CA right now when they can work on Day One patch.

Nets is a part of CA which is a part of the game too, which was released as a standalone tool for us to play around.

 

[mirajp1]

Nets is a part of CA which is a part of the game too, which was released as a standalone tool for us to play around.

Nets might be part of CA in the main game not in the CA beta released to us. The released CA wouldnt surely include stuff like game UI,AI etc

That is the reason releasing a demo costs them money and time.

see this:

Cricket Academy is a FREE Beta subset of the game, it has not had the time or budget (yet) to be as bug free as I would like but it does perform in terms of what it was designed to do.

 

[MattW]

Nets is a part of CA which is a part of the game too, which was released as a standalone tool for us to play around.

Nets are chosen from the main menu not the Cricket Academy.

 

[angad]

Nets are chosen from the main menu not the Cricket Academy.

My bad then. I remember Ross telling us long time back that nets would be a part of the CA, so I kinda hung onto that.

 

[BigAntStudios]

We had planned at one point to put the nets into CA.

 

[mrzdt]

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.

After some further thought, I wonder what effect the above had on pricing. I remember somewhere that Ross did say they had a quality product and will not discount it. I assume the retailers wanted to pay less than what Ross had in mind.

The retailers might not be willing to pay more for a game without the licenses because there will be one with the licenses. The cricket game market is small and they will only sell a limited number of cricket games. So they would have said no to Big Ant with their high price and yes to Ashes with their low price.

Ross and his team knew Ashes was going to be a disaster and therefore they did not need to reduce their price. They intimidated Ashes with screenshots, videos and the premiere.

Ashes released and it is a mess. The retailers would now see the game is not selling and DBC14 will be superior. They might then be willing to pay a higher price for a quality cricket game. If DBC released earlier and before Ashes, they would have gotten a lower price for their product thereby affecting their profitability in the long run. Now that Ashes is released they might get that price they want.

 

[Skater]

You make some good points mrzdt. This calendar year is surely out of the question now, I know Ross has dropped hints in his signature that it would be out in 2013 but with only a few weeks left it is very difficult to see it happening.

If they are indeed waiting for AC2013 to be all but forgotten then that would suggest they will wait until the actual Ashes series has finished, which is the 7th January.

 

[mrzdt]

You make some good points mrzdt. This calendar year is surely out of the question now, I know Ross has dropped hints in his signature that it would be out in 2013 but with only a few weeks left it is very difficult to see it happening.

If they are indeed waiting for AC2013 to be all but forgotten then that would suggest they will wait until the actual Ashes series has finished, which is the 7th January.

I wont say this year is out of question just yet. I remember Ross said people will know the release date by the end of November. That would mean this week. I expect some sort of announcement this week.

Ross is still here and still active on the forums. I think if he had something to hide he would not have been here. Hopefully we get the release date this week with a release this year.

Ross sounds like somebody who does what he says and he is not hiding or anything. The only reason he is keeping the date quiet is probably because of the opposition. They are literally going head to head. I think if Ashes announced a month ago that they would not be bringing out a game anymore, Ross would have told us the release date long ago.

Anything he tells us the competition will also know so he has had to be careful.