RUGBY Rugby 15

[Gamer Pradosh]

They made most of the later EA Crickets.

I haven't played it, but they also did "Rugby 15" which was pretty much the same game without the WC license: I gave that a cursory hour - it was pretty terrible.

I wouldn't like to speculate as to why it's so bad, but I notice that they are using Unity - I think this is is the only console game in history to use it that actually made it out to market. As discussed at great length a few Septembers ago...

Ok, I havent played any rugby game but thats just too bad...

 

[Chief]

Ok, I havent played any rugby game but thats just too bad...

For me there's not really been a good one since the mid 90s - The Audiogenic ones were great (for the time obviously). They also made Graham Gooch's Cricket, and they abandoned Rugby games when most of their devs went to Codemasters to make, funnily enough, the original Brian Lara game!

 

[Gamer Pradosh]

For me there's not really been a good one since the mid 90s - The Audiogenic ones were great (for the time obviously). They also made Graham Gooch's Cricket, and they abandoned Rugby games when most of their devs went to Codemasters to make, funnily enough, the original Brian Lara game!

Is even thinking about making a cricket game hard for a company??Or is it the same with sports games except for EA...

 

[Chief]

Is even thinking about making a cricket game hard for a company??Or is it the same with sports games except for EA...

It's *extremely* hard, I'm sorry to say.

Unless you have everything in place, you're always going to lose money, which makes it very hard to persuade the suits to make one. Which means that basically no-one will ever make one unless you ARE the suits. Kickstarter or a benefactor willing to put the money in is the only way it will happen - you can't make one to make money - it won't happen unless thousands of stars align.

Same with Rugby.

 

[Gamer Pradosh]

It's *extremely* hard, I'm sorry to say.

Unless you have everything in place, you're always going to lose money, which makes it very hard to persuade the suits to make one. Which means that basically no-one will ever make one unless you ARE the suits. Kickstarter or a benefactor willing to put the money in is the only way it will happen - you can't make one to make money - it won't happen unless thousands of stars align.

Same with Rugby.

Thought so, what's the main reason for that on consumer's side?? Those who watch dont play??

 

[Chief]

Thought so, what's the main reason for that on consumer's side?? Those who watch dont play??

Many factors, but I think the two main factors are that these are lesser-supported sports in the key video games markets, and then the catch-22 of "the games aren't competitive with other sports games, so I won't buy it", which means they don't get better, which means people don't buy them, which means they don't get better... etc etc.

I've seen Ross having this argument in the past week - the one where people criticize the price of the game being the same as FIFA etc when it's not in the same league. I'm always mixed on that - on the one hand I have despaired in the past because the economics of launching it at a reduced price simply don't work. On the other, I concede that value/price SHOULD come into the equation when rating something: it definitely is part of the buying decision equation, so it should be noted.
What is frustrating is that even IF you release it at a budget price, sometimes people don't acknowledge that! I worked on one game that the idea was you'd get 80% of the game, but for 25% of the price (IE: the game was only $15 and 6/10 as opposed to $45 and 7/10). It wasn't even mentioned in some reviews!

 

[MattW]

It wasn't even mentioned in some reviews

Which is the general downside to reviews being done with review copies, either provided by a publisher or supplied by an employer. Some reviewers genuinely don't know the price of a game, they'll just be handed a copy and told to review it.

 

[Chief]

Which is the general downside to reviews being done with review copies, either provided by a publisher or supplied by an employer. Some reviewers genuinely don't know the price of a game, they'll just be handed a copy and told to review it.

Yeah. It's kind of like letting someone review a Ferrari and a VW on a level playing field. I think that value has to come into the proposition if it's a consumer-facing site (which almost all are).

These days most reviewers aren't on staff anywhere in particular - most just use freelancers who write for various sites as and when required. I think this works better for publications (they can call on people with better knowledge of the subject matter), but it can make the reviews seem inconsistent ("Gamespot gave this a 10 and this a 5? CRAZY! When they were probably written by completely different people)

 

[Dutch]

Just watching the Wales Aussie match.....Wales camped on the Aussie line......got to make this game @BigAntStudios !!!

 

[Chief]

So hard to make a commercial case for it. Looking at the sort of sales that Rugby World Cup 15 has done it's hard to justify (although there's obviously all sorts of black marks in their copybook). Mind you, you would have thought the cost of development would be vastly reduced - you would have thought that switching "codes" would be much less than switching "code". Buddumtish.

 

[blockerdave]

So hard to make a commercial case for it. Looking at the sort of sales that Rugby World Cup 15 has done it's hard to justify (although there's obviously all sorts of black marks in their copybook). Mind you, you would have thought the cost of development would be vastly reduced - you would have thought that switching "codes" would be much less than switching "code". Buddumtish.

May be wishful thinking but for me the commercial case is:

7s in the next Olympics
Japan as the next nation for major development: Super Rugby Franchise (should be next year but some issues currently), next WC.

Next but one Olympics also in Japan.

Japan a big gamer nation.

A good 15s & 7s game could make money over the medium term I think.

Key is good.

 

[Chief]

Next but one Olympics also in Japan.

Japan a big gamer nation.

Japan not a huge buyer of Western games. My biggest worry would be how many the licensed (although not the teams that matter, but from the look of the box it's a fully licensed game) Union game OR the licensed League game not doing great numbers. And I always thought that the license would boost it up quite considerably.

Maybe a similar model to what I've been pushing for Cricket, with a subscription model for hardcore fans rolling out to a glossy product for the mainstream might work. But certainly retail right now, where you NEED to do big numbers, is looking very bleak for this sort of game.

 

[IceAgeComing]

Good News: Big Ant are going to make the Union game that Dave really wants

Bad News: Its going to be an anime Rugby game

 

[MattW]

Bad News: Its going to be an anime Rugby game

Stop stealing my pitch documents.