CC 2025 and future of this game

[Anku31]

As a dedicated fan of this series (been playing daily since 2004 - started with 2000 version), I do not really have high hopes for the incoming 2025 version. It’s June already, and given that releases have been early-mid June last few years, I hope to see another version with new helmet color logo and features no one asked for or uses (score simulator and honours board last year - seriously? who uses them and who asked??)

It’s a small team behind this game - we get it. But are there any serious plans to expand in the future?

[boonz101]

Cmon man posts like this don't help. You say you get the fact that there is a small team, but I don't think you understand what really goes into making a game like this every year. Constantly updating the database alone must be a fairly time consuming undertaking.

I get the frustration, but this isn't EA. There is no huge budget for these games, nor is there demand massive enough to enable such a budget.

I use the honours board and score simulator all the time, I think they were great additions. It's fair that people want bigger changes and additions (myself included), but it isn't fair to critizise the work they do do or write it off as "features no one asked for or uses".

[Anku31]

Cmon man posts like this don't help. You say you get the fact that there is a small team, but I don't think you understand what really goes into making a game like this every year. Constantly updating the database alone must be a fairly time consuming undertaking.

I get the frustration, but this isn't EA. There is no huge budget for these games, nor is there demand massive enough to enable such a budget.

I use the honours board and score simulator all the time, I think they were great additions. It's fair that people want bigger changes and additions (myself included), but it isn't fair to critizise the work they do do or write it off as "features no one asked for or uses".

What helps? I genuinely wanted to ask a question, hoping to get a reply from the developers who seem to be away for 11 months and are only active in June.
I understand the challenges of creating software, having been doing it for a decade and writing code for a living. The entire purpose of this forum is for fans to post their requests and for developers to consider them. Everyone knows it’s not EA Sports, so I asked if there are any expansion plans.

I can’t recall a post where someone specifically wanted a simulator.

As an old fan who buys the game the day it releases, I feel it’s my duty to ask questions about the future of the game.

[boonz101]

Fair enough, sorry man didn't mean to offend you. Was just saying not to be too harsh on what they already do. Hoping the new game can deliver

[bryce87]

Things that fans have been requesting for up to 25 years:

1. Regen players not to take over the game so quickly and instead young real life players actually become good
2. “A” team tours
3. Bowling speeds
4. Umpire reviews/DRS
5. Loan players
6. A way to tell who the team captains are
7. Green seamer pitches
8. Improved online game experience
9. Technique training to actually yield something
10. Tour matches

[CricCapFan]

Cmon man posts like this don't help. You say you get the fact that there is a small team, but I don't think you understand what really goes into making a game like this every year. Constantly updating the database alone must be a fairly time consuming undertaking.

I get the frustration, but this isn't EA. There is no huge budget for these games, nor is there demand massive enough to enable such a budget.

I use the honours board and score simulator all the time, I think they were great additions. It's fair that people want bigger changes and additions (myself included), but it isn't fair to critizise the work they do do or write it off as "features no one asked for or uses".

I am honestly really tired of this 'small team' and 'limited budget' excuse. This game has sold way over a million copies. Thats a LOT of money made over the years. Plus they keep releasing on different platforms (thats where their efforts are focused). They aren't starving, and they aren't pulling their weight in giving what the fans want.

After nearly 15 years of shipping the same game year over year, the fans who have bought every edition deserve to vent their frustration. Go read the subreddit of the game on reddit. People are pissed.

Some really simple features that take little effort and people have been demanding for years are never implemented. Mark my words, people are going to stop buying this game unless there are big improvements. It might start this year, because most people aren't even excited anymore like previous years.

[Scritty]

I'm sort of caught between two stools here.
I bought the original version of this game in (1998?) and have bought all but 2 of them since. I even have it on Ipad, Switch and used to have it on PSP (CC3)
So it's 27 years old this year.

It is a small team. But my term of reference is OOTP (Out of the Park Baseball) which I also put 500 hours into most years.
That was originally coded by one man. A German called Markus Heinsonn. Even then before the developers dalliance with Sports Interactive (for OOTP 6 which was not a good version using the FM database structure which did not fit the game well at all). He did most of the work himself, then expanded to a team of 2.

For the past 12 years it has had a much larger team, About a dozen we are told. But if you go back prior to 2006 OOTP was still a game with many more features, players and elements in terms of breadth and width of gameplay than Cricket Captain is now. And it was coded by one man.

I'm not expecting miracles. But so many features have been requested for 20+ years now. As regular as clockwork, the same lists hit this forum.
Now and then a little crumb is offered.

But if you play the original CC from 1998, and CC25 - a game 27 years later with 25 updates (I believe there was a year off after CC3 was released). It's not a game that is 25 iterations and 27 years improved. It's hard to justify maybe 10 or 12 updates.
I don't think many people here are asking for the world. But we would like more than has been offered.

I have given up on that many years ago, but now and then it irks me that the only game in the genre (Cricket Coach long being a distant memory, and as buggy as hell if you even glanced at the editor).
Cricket fans deserve better. Better than Big Ant's shallow and clunky game and better than Childish Things glacially slow improvements.
So not miracles. But more than we have been getting by a noticeable amount.

[Lynx54321]

It's a small team but I don't think they work full time on the game, they have other jobs. I think each year they spend a bit of time in the Spring sharpening up the next release, they get it out and the proceeds are probably like a bonus they use for their holidays or a new motor etc.

It is what it is though, the game isn't expensive and you know what you get at this point. Nobody is forced to buy it.

[Scritty]

Maybe. I get that argument "it is what it is"
But looking at the PC gaming landscape for cricket games the argument "Yeah it's pretty stale - but hey ho. It is what it is" doesn't move us forward.
My little bit of niggle is meant positively.. I believe a lot of potential in terms of product and sales is being left on the table.

- Do cricket games sell moderately because they are cricket games?
- Or do mediocre cricket games only sell moderately because they are mediocre games?

Let's have that discussion. Leaving whether it is Childish Things or Big Ant out of it. Let's just talk cricket games.

Cricket is the second most popular spectator sport in the world after soccer.

Regardless of who makes it. As a sport that now pays its top players millions of US$ per year. A sport with 2.6 billion active followers per year. That's a long way behind soccer but also slightly ahead of basketball, but comfortably ahead of baseball and NFL. Look at the games those sports have. Sims, arcade. Some superb games that if you look at San Diego Studio, 2K and EA to see how much they spend on making the, 40-60 million US$ per year per game? That's a pretty close ballpark

I'm not saying cricket needs that. A tenth of that to begin with maybe?
Cricket is such a poor relation to those less popular sports it hardly bears comparison. In fact comparisons are embarrassing. Cricket is woefully underserved.
What I am saying then is that cricket deserves much better representation on PC.

Even frisbee golf has better arcade representation. And Ice Hockey (almost exactly one 6th as popular as cricket with just over 400 million active audience) has 2 superb sims, one published by the same team as OOTP and a fantastic legacy of arcade games from Wayne Gretzky onwards.
Cricket a sport that has grown massively in wealth and popularity in just half the time Cricket Captain has been developed (thanks to franchise T20).still seems stuck in 2005.

That's a discussion I think cricket fans who like to see their sport on PC should have. I predict someone somewhere is going to make a game that breaks open the potential of this huge market. If Childish Things or Big Ant are not interested in making that step. Maybe someone else is.

[hallmitchell]

Things that fans have been requesting for up to 25 years:

1. Regen players not to take over the game so quickly and instead young real life players actually become good
2. “A” team tours
3. Bowling speeds
4. Umpire reviews/DRS
5. Loan players
6. A way to tell who the team captains are
7. Green seamer pitches
8. Improved online game experience
9. Technique training to actually yield something
10. Tour matches

Can we just have some effort!! Some new uniforms, at least the ability to make an historical three way tournament? Just something other than a new database please!! Otherwise won't be purchasing. I can't just buy new databases anymore.

[CricketFan]

It's a small team but I don't think they work full time on the game, they have other jobs. I think each year they spend a bit of time in the Spring sharpening up the next release, they get it out and the proceeds are probably like a bonus they use for their holidays or a new motor etc.

It is what it is though, the game isn't expensive and you know what you get at this point. Nobody is forced to buy it.

Yes, If I recall, sureshot mentioned sometime ago that this is a labour of love. They dont have FT program/coding staff on this game, they are probably volunteers.

[bryce87]

What about Dropbox syncing custom fields? How unbelievably annoying is it to manually input your fields on another device every time you change them.