Glenn Stiemens
School Boy/Girl Captain
Some interesting points have been raised in this thread so far.
I don't think theres a great deal of need to worry about the supposed lack of cricket management games at the moment. I think there's a great deal of interesting projects going at the moment that if they come to something we could have some special games in a few years.
I am particularly excited by Neil's program - if he can get the hawkeye-like realism in there then he could be onto a real winner. And of course Dan Thomas' Cricket Manager which is being built upon the great engine of ITC.
As for Rockingham Software and Cricket Coach, we've got some interesting features that have never (and that is for certain) been seen in a cricket management game before. They might not be groundbreaking but they are certainly very, very interesting and I'd of thought particularly to those seeking a real cricket feel.
I am or rather was a huge fan of the CM/FM series but feel they've gone too far into the simulation side of things and are now less of a game than they were. A few years ago I'd have agreed and said Sports Interactive creating a cricket management game would have been a great idea, now I feel it would be less of a good thing (although maybe I'm a tad biased).
I think we need to keep track on where the CM/FM series started and it was essentially from the bedrooms of a couple of fanatics. There isn't a great deal stopping someone from taking up the cricket management game mantle from Empire and ICC and actually driving the genre forward with innovative features. There is interest from publishers although obviously the budget would be a lot less than a football management game.
EA will be the first to admit they don't invest nearly as much money into the likes of Cricket 2004 compared to their bigger titles such as Madden and FIFA, so I don't think they are willing to spend a huge amount of money on cricket. The main problem being that outside of the United Kingdom and Australia there really isn't a huge market. Sadly, piracy is such in areas such as Pakistan, India etc that it wouldn't generate enough revenue from those areas where interest in the game is so high.
I don't think theres a great deal of need to worry about the supposed lack of cricket management games at the moment. I think there's a great deal of interesting projects going at the moment that if they come to something we could have some special games in a few years.
I am particularly excited by Neil's program - if he can get the hawkeye-like realism in there then he could be onto a real winner. And of course Dan Thomas' Cricket Manager which is being built upon the great engine of ITC.
As for Rockingham Software and Cricket Coach, we've got some interesting features that have never (and that is for certain) been seen in a cricket management game before. They might not be groundbreaking but they are certainly very, very interesting and I'd of thought particularly to those seeking a real cricket feel.
