Ashes Cricket : behind CA's quest to make a cricket game that's as good as FIFA

[sourab10forever]

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Ashes Cricket is perhaps the finest cricket game available right now and Cricket Australia has a lot to do with it. Cricket Australia (CA), of course, is the body that governs cricket in Australia and it has taken an active interest in video games to promote the sport. Last year, the board invested in the Big Bash League game for Android and iOS and was blown away by the results, particularly because it got 3 million downloads from India and 5 million overall, Cricket Australia representatives told Gadgets 360.

Big Bash League, of course, is an Australian T20 tournament where teams can bring in players from other countries but it’s primarily a showcase of the best talent Australian domestic cricket has on offer. Considering the Big Bash League has no real Indian connection, those are pretty good download numbers.

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This year, with Ashes Cricket for PC and consoles, and the upcoming Big Bash Cricket for mobile, Cricket Australia is betting big on video games. Gadgets 360 spoke with Chris Simpson and Apurwa Sarve, strategy managers who head the gaming vertical for Cricket Australia, to find out why the board made this move.

“So the case study that we used is FIFA," says Simpson. "Some statistics we used last year about FIFA promoting awareness of soccer… I know that FIFA has done a fantastic job of popularising the sport.”

“We don’t need to prove to people that we will get people off the couch and into the field," he adds. "We just need to prove that they’ll be playing cricket instead of Call of Duty. Learning the players’ names, you know walking on as David Warner.”

 

 

 

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“There was a cut shot in Don Bradman that was very weird. We were walking around the studio and saying, ‘You wouldn’t play a yorker like that, it wouldn’t go to third-man or fine leg,’" Simpson explains. "We spent a lot of time annoying Big Ant with this, standing over their shoulder. We’ve got different types of bowling animations as well. Different styles of bowling — wristy style, rigid, et cetera.” It’s clear that Cricket Australia added a lot more than just licensing to Ashes Cricket, and we even mentioned this in our review. The Nice, Garry meme is in the game and so are authentic fan chants, such as those from The Barmy Army.

The player stats for Australia you see in-game come via CA too. This includes skills ranked on a scale of 0 to 100, apart from each batsman’s strongest and weakest shots, and bowlers’ best and worst types of deliveries. “Our high performance unit worked directly with the male and female teams," says Sarve. "Our teams worked to provide real life sports science data to come up with strengths and weaknesses real life data.” A spreadsheet with some 30-odd points was used to map this data for each player.

Licensing is a big part of creating an authentic experience. Ashes Cricket opens a window of opportunity for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to try something similar in the future. Sarve and Simpson say that Cricket Australia has a great relationship with the ECB, but the developer of the game is practically in the board's backyard. That helped in the development of the game and the two hope that the ECB will do something similar for the 2019 Ashes, which will be held in England.

While FIFA has been proactive in striking licensing deals with EA for its games, the same can’t be said about cricket boards around the world, including ICC, the international governing body of cricket. At the moment it’s just Cricket Australia that’s pushing for better cricket games, but if the game is successful, perhaps more boards will join in, prompting the ICC to invest in this space. “We would love to have everyone. Next teams touring, next summer are an obvious target,” says Simpson.

 

 

More at : 

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/games/features/behind-cricket-australias-quest-to-make-a-cricket-game-thats-as-good-as-fifa-1778200

 

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/games/reviews/ashes-cricket-review-1776761

 

[sourab10forever]

really hope that this game is a big hit. 

[sourab10forever]

Anyone here has played this? Share your experience..... 

[maniac]

Dbc 15 is pretty good... have played 17 at a cousins house...both were really good than the old crappy cricket games they used to make.

 

If this is better than sure will give it a shot .

[mancalledsting]

Had it delivered to my house at 9am on the release date. Best cricket game ever. Feels very realistic. Cricket fans have been crying out for a game like this for decades. Only thing required is for all boards to give go ahead for official licences to be used- that would make the game awesome! 

[maniac]

10 minutes ago, mancalledsting said:

Had it delivered to my house at 9am on the release date. Best cricket game ever. Feels very realistic. Cricket fans have been crying out for a game like this for decades. Only thing required is for all boards to give go ahead for official licences to be used- that would make the game awesome! 

Which platform are you playing it on? PC or consoles

[mancalledsting]

4 hours ago, Shaz1 said:

How does it compare to Don Bradman Cricket 17?

 

If its better than why do you think it is better?

More realistic stroke play and better graphics

[mancalledsting]

4 hours ago, maniac said:

Which platform are you playing it on? PC or consoles

PS4

[mancalledsting]

7 hours ago, Shaz1 said:

Does it play the same way as Don Bradman? Like the controls?

Similar

[sourab10forever]

56 minutes ago, Shaz1 said:

Kool I’ll buy it when I get a job

Ashes 2019 will be out by then...