Hi Everyone,
I have been lurking the forums and following development of Don Bradman Cricket 2013/2014 since the last year in the summer. The recent uproar on BigAnt and TruBlu's lack of updates has persuaded me to make this thread.
A bit background about myself before everyone goes crazy on me. I ran the largest Prince of Persia fan site called Prince of Persia Legacy on the internet (1999 to 2009). The site is offline due to no new console based Prince of Persia game. During my site's heyday, the site was hosted and part of IGN/Gamespy network and I had many opportunities to go to Ubi Montreal, E3, and do many interviews with the team. I still have many friends that are currently working Ubisoft or have moved on to Warner Bros, EA, and other independent small companies.
So I do have fairly good understanding of how game development occurs and how marketing works when releasing large or small games. So please hear me out here.
From what I have been following; Big Ant probably created a wonderful cricket game for all the platforms.
1) Delay of the game
The publisher and Big Ant delayed the game due to fixing any problems with the game and to differentiate it from the horrible Ashes 2013 game. The casual audience will think about the same game as this Ashes game. You'll surprised on how the casual will view this cricket game when a horrible news and disinformation is available concerning a similar type of game. So the delay there is justified from the publisher's perspective.
2) Release date mystery
I think, we all can say is that we want the game to release now then later. But the company is working with new territories and publishing partners. I can say for sure that there is a lot of red tape that they experiencing. TruBlu's strategy of having the game release in every territory at the same time is very difficult. I can attest for this as I know Ubisoft, a large company experience this when they publish in Europe where they have to deal with every nation and most of the time, they release the game a few days to a months apart.
So please everyone be patient.
3) The fear for piracy.
This is where I have some reservations with TruBlu's strategy. I know they are afraid of piracy and they have every right to be. The problem I see is that, the only console that is prone to piracy is the Xbox 360. The PS3's piracy situation can be avoided by having a requirement of having the latest firmware requirement for the game to install and run. Now if they do this, Microsoft will get angry with them about this. So they can not do this as they are small publisher in the first place. As for PC version being delayed, I have no problem about it as PC games do get pirated to the nth degree. I am talking as PC and console gamer. Another option that TruBlu can do is that they can release the game digitally on PSN and XBLA store only.
4) TruBlu and BigAnt,
The most of the folks here seem to get angry at Ross and BigAnt for not having the game release. BigAnt is a small developer and in matter fact from my experience with small developers; these developers are powerless and the decisions of the publishers. Please if you want to be angry at someone please be angry at TruBlu. I have commend Ross and BigAnt for the valiant and for transparency between the fan base and the development team. I would say, majority of the game developers will never do what they have done with Cricket Academy nor with the communication with the fans. It really is amazing on how we can edit things!
5) TruBlu Marketting Strategy
This is where I don't agree with how they are handling things. I mean most of my friends who would buy this game did not even know about this at all!!! I was able to tell them about this game by showing them videos. This got them interested about the game in USA. I told that we have multiplayer and we will be able to play for free online.This was awesome for them. Is it possible to have 2 or 4 folks players on the same team on multiplayer? My advice to TruBlu is not to do 30 days or less bombardment of news about the game, build hype about the game for at least for 6 months by just posting more videos on Facebook/youtube. This way the casuals will be able to get to know about the game and be willing to spend their money on the game.
Anyway, this is just some insight about the whole situation. I think all we can do is wait due to point 2.
I have been lurking the forums and following development of Don Bradman Cricket 2013/2014 since the last year in the summer. The recent uproar on BigAnt and TruBlu's lack of updates has persuaded me to make this thread.
A bit background about myself before everyone goes crazy on me. I ran the largest Prince of Persia fan site called Prince of Persia Legacy on the internet (1999 to 2009). The site is offline due to no new console based Prince of Persia game. During my site's heyday, the site was hosted and part of IGN/Gamespy network and I had many opportunities to go to Ubi Montreal, E3, and do many interviews with the team. I still have many friends that are currently working Ubisoft or have moved on to Warner Bros, EA, and other independent small companies.
So I do have fairly good understanding of how game development occurs and how marketing works when releasing large or small games. So please hear me out here.
From what I have been following; Big Ant probably created a wonderful cricket game for all the platforms.
1) Delay of the game
The publisher and Big Ant delayed the game due to fixing any problems with the game and to differentiate it from the horrible Ashes 2013 game. The casual audience will think about the same game as this Ashes game. You'll surprised on how the casual will view this cricket game when a horrible news and disinformation is available concerning a similar type of game. So the delay there is justified from the publisher's perspective.
2) Release date mystery
I think, we all can say is that we want the game to release now then later. But the company is working with new territories and publishing partners. I can say for sure that there is a lot of red tape that they experiencing. TruBlu's strategy of having the game release in every territory at the same time is very difficult. I can attest for this as I know Ubisoft, a large company experience this when they publish in Europe where they have to deal with every nation and most of the time, they release the game a few days to a months apart.
So please everyone be patient.
3) The fear for piracy.
This is where I have some reservations with TruBlu's strategy. I know they are afraid of piracy and they have every right to be. The problem I see is that, the only console that is prone to piracy is the Xbox 360. The PS3's piracy situation can be avoided by having a requirement of having the latest firmware requirement for the game to install and run. Now if they do this, Microsoft will get angry with them about this. So they can not do this as they are small publisher in the first place. As for PC version being delayed, I have no problem about it as PC games do get pirated to the nth degree. I am talking as PC and console gamer. Another option that TruBlu can do is that they can release the game digitally on PSN and XBLA store only.
4) TruBlu and BigAnt,
The most of the folks here seem to get angry at Ross and BigAnt for not having the game release. BigAnt is a small developer and in matter fact from my experience with small developers; these developers are powerless and the decisions of the publishers. Please if you want to be angry at someone please be angry at TruBlu. I have commend Ross and BigAnt for the valiant and for transparency between the fan base and the development team. I would say, majority of the game developers will never do what they have done with Cricket Academy nor with the communication with the fans. It really is amazing on how we can edit things!
5) TruBlu Marketting Strategy
This is where I don't agree with how they are handling things. I mean most of my friends who would buy this game did not even know about this at all!!! I was able to tell them about this game by showing them videos. This got them interested about the game in USA. I told that we have multiplayer and we will be able to play for free online.This was awesome for them. Is it possible to have 2 or 4 folks players on the same team on multiplayer? My advice to TruBlu is not to do 30 days or less bombardment of news about the game, build hype about the game for at least for 6 months by just posting more videos on Facebook/youtube. This way the casuals will be able to get to know about the game and be willing to spend their money on the game.
Anyway, this is just some insight about the whole situation. I think all we can do is wait due to point 2.
NO SNOWY DONT KILL MR.ED
