Don Bradman Cricket 14 PC PLAYABLE NOW!

[blockerdave]

God I hate, just hate the IPL...........thanks for reminding me why.

the one thing i like about the IPL, is reminding us the real reason behind all the KP fall out - KP, 880k, 10 other England Players - 0.

this is of value in this season and this season only, of course.

 

[BigAntStudios]

Steam is all well and good, but driving 20km to a friends house who has a good internet connection with my tower PC, and back whenever something needs downloading, is going to prove a real headache.. It's left a real us and them in terms of PC gaming with countries with poor internet.. Now games are released that are rubbish out of the box and you have to download gigabytes worth of patches to get them to work

If you can get it on Disk then I don't see the difference, you'd always have needed the internet for the CA part of the game and of course playing online.

----------

Not really. Steam just take the same sort of percentage that any retailer would take. You get around the manufacturing/delivery cost, but that's not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things.

What it DOES give you is flexibility to change the price as you see fit. Sales promotions are where you can tempt those who otherwise might have bought it.

I'm greatly interested to see how it goes: We never did an IC10 PC version because (*disclaimer* according to public sources online) sales of AC09 on PC would not have even covered the cost of development (reportedly less than 0.5% of the console sales). But since then the playing field has changed greatly (AC09 was only available digitally on Boonty. *BOONTY*!) and now only 5 years later digital is a HUGELY more developed market. I would expect it, with Steam, to make up a *much* bigger percentage of sales now.

For DBC I'd reckon 20% of sales will be digital, and a good chunk of that will be PC.

Our previous PC versions have lost us money, I don't think we will make too much from this but we're willing to throw the dice on it.

 

[Lebanna]

What it DOES give you is flexibility to change the price as you see fit. Sales promotions are where you can tempt those who otherwise might have bought it.

My biggest fear with regards to exactly this and DBC is the controller requirement. Now we all know that a) a controller is required and b) is 10,000 times better than keyboard but to the complete casual who is just browsing steam might look interestedly at the game then go "oh I don't have a controller".

That said I imagine that the majority of people buying the game aren't going to be "on a whim" type people and actually are actively looking for a cricket game and then will go "ok I need to get a controller". That's the scenario I'm desperately hoping for with DBC as I want lots more versions!

 

[Chief]

My biggest fear with regards to exactly this and DBC is the controller requirement. Now we all know that a) a controller is required and b) is 10,000 times better than keyboard but to the complete casual who is just browsing steam might look interestedly at the game then go "oh I don't have a controller".

That said I imagine that the majority of people buying the game aren't going to be "on a whim" type people and actually are actively looking for a cricket game and then will go "ok I need to get a controller". That's the scenario I'm desperately hoping for with DBC as I want lots more versions!

I think that most of the Steam users that might buy a cricket game would either A) have a controller already or B) be prepared to buy one.

 

[MattW]

I'm greatly interested to see how it goes: We never did an IC10 PC version because (*disclaimer* according to public sources online) sales of AC09 on PC would not have even covered the cost of development (reportedly less than 0.5% of the console sales). But since then the playing field has changed greatly (AC09 was only available digitally on Boonty. *BOONTY*!) and now only 5 years later digital is a HUGELY more developed market. I would expect it, with Steam, to make up a *much* bigger percentage of sales now.

AC09 eventually made it to Steam - but was pulled around the same time that the online servers were taken offline. BLIC 2007 was on there as well - now also gone. Would love to get a Steam copy of BLIC 07, the DRM on the DVD version refuses to work for me now.

Getting the beta patches on PC (which didn't work with the Steam version) helped make not getting IC2010 a bit easier to handle. Missing a few editions in the series is okay by me - modifications of PC games help demonstrate how little is really 'new' in yearly console updates.

I would suggest that DBC14 will struggle on PC - it will be abnormally expensive for a Steam game*, and the history of other recent cricket games will make it even harder for all but the biggest fans of the sport to purchase it. It'll be helped by (ideally less than) two months of console user reviews to get rid of the 'new cricket game on Steam' stench of AC13, but it's tough.

Still, considering Ross has implied RLL2 has an unreleased PC version, you'd have to think even getting a few thousand copies sold would be better than literally nothing.

But, I suppose it's worth making the point that despite my rage at the 2 month delay, it's certainly appreciated that they didn't simply ignore PC gamers entirely.

I think that most of the Steam users that might buy a cricket game would either A) have a controller already or B) be prepared to buy one.

Steam might even push it a bit on that basis as part of trying to make big picture mode a thing - though that might just be for the games ported to Linux (as the 3 cricket games fans running Ubuntu go wild).

I wonder how it plays on that controller Valve are making for the Steam Machines?

* Which is the downside to the never ending sales model of Steam - it's so hard to get noticed on the store with all the crap and only big price cuts in the sales can drive widespread attention outside those looking for it directly.

 

[Chief]

The Steam Box controller is awesome: really tactile. You have to retrain your fingers a little bit (including having two new buttons where you don't expect them) but it's great.

Had no idea AC09 made it to Steam (and VERY surprised about BLIC07!) but most of Codies' back catalogue has made it there eventually (which was all on sale last week for next to nothing for charity).
The patches were pretty much exclusively played by people on here, fixing things people on here cared about (right down to actually remotely taking over people's PCs (with their permission, obviously!) so we could see what was going on). These days it would have been called an "IC10 early access" and we could charge you up front for it.

People in the industry aside, I think the notion that any potential consumer would confuse the two games, given the wide publicity, is underestimating the market. People who are interested in buying a cricket game, and PC gamers in particular, are much more savvy than that.

 

[fiction]

Steam is great, especially for sinusitis.

 

[MattW]

People in the industry aside, I think the notion that any potential consumer would confuse the two games, given the wide publicity, is underestimating the market. People who are interested in buying a cricket game, and PC gamers in particular, are much more savvy than that.

I worry slightly about people thinking it was just taken down and rebadged (The War Z style?) - especially for people who don't get cricket.

These days it would have been called an "IC10 early access" and we could charge you up front for it.

Nah, it was way too functional and feature complete for that.

 

[Chief]

I worry slightly about people thinking it was just taken down and rebadged (The War Z style?) - especially for people who don't get cricket.

If they know enough to know about it, then surely they know enough to know the difference. #know

 

[blockerdave]

I worry slightly about people thinking it was just taken down and rebadged (The War Z style?) - especially for people who don't get cricket.

not to restart old wars and obviously the retailers had their oars in it but to my mind this was always the best argument against not delaying, because there was no time to "repackage", it was obviously "different".

i'd like to think the market is more savvy, but look how many people here bought AC13 on the argument "at least it's a new game", or "we don't know if it's bad"... people are idiots.

 

[Chief]

i'd like to think the market is more savvy, but look how many people here bought AC13 on the argument "at least it's a new game", or "we don't know if it's bad"... people are idiots.

Maybe 10 or 20 hardcore cricket gaming fans out of curiosity rather than expectation?
Harsh to tag that on "people" at large (although "people at large" also pay to see Adam Sandler movies and kept "Only Fools and Horses" going for 20 years, so maybe where there's smoke there's fire...)

 

[barmyarmy]

Harsh to tag that on "people" at large (although "people at large" also pay to see Adam Sandler movies and kept "Only Fools and Horses" going for 20 years, so maybe where there's smoke there's fire...)

Whole forest up in flames...

 

[blockerdave]

Maybe 10 or 20 hardcore cricket gaming fans out of curiosity rather than expectation?
Harsh to tag that on "people" at large (although "people at large" also pay to see Adam Sandler movies and kept "Only Fools and Horses" going for 20 years, so maybe where there's smoke there's fire...)

what's your beef with only fools and horses? it was outstanding! (if the beef is simply with the last few "specials", and it should have been stopped earlier, i'll agree on that.)

there were people on here, who should be savvy, who made the argument that because we hadn't seen much/any "assets" beforehand, we didn't know it wasn't going to be a good game. they couldn't work out that the "assets" were hidden were because the game was crap? they couldn't work out from the view screenshots that were released it was sub-mobile quality shit? they couldn't work out from the abortion of a manual that even if what was in it worked properly it was still gonna be a limited, half-assed piece of crap?

now nobody who bought it knew beforehand just how bad it would be, but everyone on here knew enough not to buy it. but they still did. and this is the supposedly "savvy" end of the market.

 

[Chief]

what's your beef with only fools and horses? it was outstanding! (if the beef is simply with the last few "specials", and it should have been stopped earlier, i'll agree on that.)

If a comedy show's biggest laugh after 20 years, and the first thing people generally remember about it, remains to be a man falling over... Well...

 

[blockerdave]

If a comedy show's biggest laugh after 20 years, and the first thing people generally remember about it, remains to be a man falling over... Well...

the thing i always first remember about OFAH is Del trying to dissuade Rodney from going out with some bird while "separated" from Cassandra by repeatedly calling her a dog, when Rodney's out the room, Albert asks if she's really ugly, and Del says "well i would" - that's genius.