Rugby '15 announced

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

Anyone who thinks rugby challenge played like actual rugby must never have played a game in their life!

Basics like defensive line movement were so so wrong. Wingers leaving 30 metres of space and their opposite number not marked.

In attack the cup would never do a 2 on 1 or even attack space. It didn't play like rugby at all.

I've never had a try scored against me in rugby challenge 2 which would of happened in real life.

And the stats, which you can edit but they are so wrong you have to edit every player! Wtf

Plus acceleration and sprint duration were done poorly creating super players.

And the worst of all is the carrier mode, so backwards from rugby 08 which we had years ago!

No player form, no real injuries, no need to ever change your starting 15!

It makes me feel like no one who likes rugby had a part in producing either game to be honest!

 

[satan1981]

Anyone who thinks rugby challenge played like actual rugby must never have played a game in their life!

Basics like defensive line movement were so so wrong. Wingers leaving 30 metres of space and their opposite number not marked.

In attack the cup would never do a 2 on 1 or even attack space. It didn't play like rugby at all.

I've never had a try scored against me in rugby challenge 2 which would of happened in real life.

And the stats, which you can edit but they are so wrong you have to edit every player! Wtf

Plus acceleration and sprint duration were done poorly creating super players.

And the worst of all is the carrier mode, so backwards from rugby 08 which we had years ago!

No player form, no real injuries, no need to ever change your starting 15!

It makes me feel like no one who likes rugby had a part in producing either game to be honest!

I play Rugby, maybe it's different in France !

I assume that rugby challenge is more realistic than RWC 2011 or Rugby 08 (witch was a good game in 2008).

I can't game to RWC 2011 with all players run after the ball.

Maybe you prefer RWC 2011, maybe you don't understand how to play to Rugby challenge 2.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

I don't agree with the praise of HB series vs the criticism of RC series.

Both games have been criticised. Both games have serious flaws. No-one is praising HB's games above RC. Someone said RC is "excellent". I disputed that point. That does not mean that RWC 2011 is a great game. It has serious flaws in different areas.

Read the rest of your post and agree with most of it.

Rugby Challenge 2 isn't perfect (passes, mauls ...), but it looks like rugby, maybe why you have trouble with this game

Yes, it isn't perfect. It looks graphically like rugby fields and players, but it's nothing like any rugby I see in Super Rugby or that I play for my club. I don't have trouble with the game, I just don't think it's particularly good. Neither is RWC2011.

Obviously, you have not made ​​adjustments (increase), defense urgency, attack urgency, for a perfect replacement players.

Yes, I have. I've made my own setting and roster adjustments and also used two other highly rated updates from other people. One made it worse, one made it marginally better.

It is perhaps a matter of taste.

Yes it is.

Remember if rugby challenge series has sold very well, it is because he is a good series.

That's if it has sold well or well enough. Only Tru Blu will know that for sure.

Personally, if Hb studios don't make a lot of work on the rucks, the inertia of the players, the freedom and of course the graphics, I will not buy Rugby 15 even if it is the only game rugby on PS4.

Good idea, I probably shouldn't either. I don't need another rubbish rugby game from them either.

Not forgotten that the most selling of Rugby Challenge are in France and that Rugby 15 must take some ingredients of it's series to succeed.

Yes, definitely there are some good points they should look at for sure, but there's a heck of a lot they should steer clear of.

 

[satan1981]

I'm glad to read that we agree on a lot of things.

On the selling of rugby challenge 1 and 2, we are the number of selling in France. It's 150.000 for Rugby Challenge 1 (almost the half of selling in the world) et and almost 250.000 for rugby challenge 2.

The selling was good for rugby challenge 1, the goal was attained (300.000). The selling of rugby challenge 2 was very good in France but I don't know for the rest of world.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

It makes me feel like no one who likes rugby had a part in producing either game to be honest!

I'm pretty sure none of them did; I read an interview where Mario said they all went along to a rugby club to play for an afternoon to 'see what it was like' as none of them had real experience of the game.
Maybe that's just the problem - the type of people who make video games are rarely the same people who play rugby for their clubs!

@Satan: Sales are not a good indicator of the strength of a game. Rugby Challenge was a new entry to the market and that in itself, along with its excellent graphics, was enough to make people sit up and pay attention. There's also virtually nonexistent competition in terms of a rugby game market, so unlike in other sports, people have a binary purchasing choice to make. People buy the game, not knowing if it's going to be any good. I can tell you that I bought a copy and therefore will be a part of these sales figures....but I don't like the game, and I wouldn't want Sidhe to think that I rated the game highly just because I bought a copy.

People buy the sequel hoping it will be better. And its not. If there are further ***les in the series and Sidhe don't make improvements, you will start to see a drop in sales.

As well as the points mentioned above:

Players on rugby challenge were not constrained by physics or momentum and could change direction instantly; they could be running at high speed down the field and all of a sudden turn and in .00001 of a second be running the other way. Most often this manifested itself in people zigzagging around the pitch, which is incredibly irritating and difficult to try and tackle!

Also, there was no proper animation for kicking the ball - the ball didn't actually connect with feet, it just catapaulted through the air; so it didn't matter if you tackled the fly-half before he could drop it onto his foot, the ball would still fly out of the tackle.

Mention should go however to the TMO mechanism which looked nice and led to some exciting moments.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

I'm glad to read that we agree on a lot of things.

On the selling of rugby challenge 1 and 2, we are the number of selling in France. It's 150.000 for Rugby Challenge 1 (almost the half of selling in the world) et and almost 250.000 for rugby challenge 2.

The selling was good for rugby challenge 1, the goal was attained (300.000). The selling of rugby challenge 2 was very good in France but I don't know for the rest of world.

We might well agree on most things in relation to rugby. I am interested in where you get your sales figures from though. I'm not saying they're inaccurate, just think it's worth citation.

 

[satan1981]

We might well agree on most things in relation to rugby. I am interested in where you get your sales figures from though. I'm not saying they're inaccurate, just think it's worth citation.

For Rugby Challenge 1, it was writing on sidhe forum.

For Rugby Challenge 2, it was publied by french website video games.
The game was in top 5 of video games selling during 3 or 4 weeks.
I know too the distributor in France.


HenryChinaski - Play to RWC 2011, I think you will change direction more quickly than on Rugby Challenge 2 !

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

For Rugby Challenge 1, it was writing on sidhe forum.

For Rugby Challenge 2, it was publied by french website video games.
The game was in top 5 of video games selling during 3 or 4 weeks.
I know too the distributor in France.

There's a few interesting posts on Sidhe's Forums and it's clearly stated in this following one, that it's commercially sensitive information and they'd never give it out. http://forums.sidhe.co.nz/showthread.php?46379-Only-60k-sold-worldwide-No.

Mind you, Mario does state in this thread that he uses data from his subscription to NPD which as he states "is the private sales tracking firm all the professionals use which gives us exposure to a much wider data set".

I think it's fair enough if you say you know the distributor in France, but if this person you know is fine with breaking non-disclosure agreements, I'm not sure he's the source we need. Also, a French distributor isn't necessarily going to have access to worldwide sales figures either.

As said earlier, I think Tru Blu are the only people placed to tell us how many copies the Rugby Challenge games have sold and they are never likely to do so (fair enough too). So really it's slightly irrelevant to use heresay in this way.

 

[satan1981]

There's a few interesting posts on Sidhe's Forums and it's clearly stated in this following one, that it's commercially sensitive information and they'd never give it out. http://forums.sidhe.co.nz/showthread.php?46379-Only-60k-sold-worldwide-No.

Mind you, Mario does state in this thread that he uses data from his subscription to NPD which as he states "is the private sales tracking firm all the professionals use which gives us exposure to a much wider data set".

I think it's fair enough if you say you know the distributor in France, but if this person you know is fine with breaking non-disclosure agreements, I'm not sure he's the source we need. Also, a French distributor isn't necessarily going to have access to worldwide sales figures either.

As said earlier, I think Tru Blu are the only people placed to tell us how many copies the Rugby Challenge games have sold and they are never likely to do so (fair enough too). So really it's slightly irrelevant to use heresay in this way.

I agree for the world; Tru Blu can only know, but in France, I assume that the distributor know how many copies have sold !

I think BigBen know that and that's why they have buying (expensive ?) top 14 and proD2 licences. I don't know how because I was thinking that the licences was secure by Tru Blu.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure the French market is a big one. No doubt about it. Just not 100% sure that the figures will be exactly right.

As for why the change away from Tru Blu? It may be that there was a one game deal and the rights were up for negotiation again. It could be that the French unions weren't overly impressed by Rugby Challenge 2. Or it could be that there are rumours that Tru Blu are considering using a new developer for a Rugby Union sequel and perhaps that induces feelings of lowered confidence.

Then again, one of Tru Blu's other main developers has recently released a game with massive customisation and online player sharing. If this developer was being selected for a Rugby Union game there'd be no need to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a license, when players can make create and share their players/teams and competitions online and give the developer more financial resource to make a better game.

At any rate the negotiations for Rugby video game rights is a very fractured process with the IRB, national unions, domestic unions, competition administration and others all needing a separate approach and approval depending who controls what. So, in this case it's quite likely that HB and Big Ben would've approached everyone with the best pitch they can and so far the first we hear about is the French licenses.

Aside for all of this, I don't even think we know enough about this ***le or Big Ben Interactive just yet to be sure this is all going ahead as we hear. Gaming press can be wildly off. I'm surprised that the "press release" wasn't accompanied by a screen shot or even a promo screen/art. Until something/anything is seen I'm mainly just discussing from a "it's fun to talk about rugby games" angle.

 

[Thingimubob]

I have to wonder, does the licensing of the French leagues play a big role in the game selling so well in France? I mean off the top of my head it was the only game apart from the awful Rugby Challenge 2006 (same name, but nothing to do with Sidhe's ***les) to have the French club teams fully licensed. I read somewhere on the Sidhe forums that they wanted to solidify their consumer base in France after seeing the first game do well, so they added the Pro D2 teams and tournament.

However, if the various announcements are to be trusted, Rugby 15 will have the Top 14 in it, so looks like they've nabbed the rights off Sidhe and it could lead to tidy sales in France.

 

[Draggs]

In the past year I have played maybe one hour of RC, not touched RWC, and never even played Rc2. I have played more R08, simply because it enjoy it more. It isn't as sevens and RC, and feels a bit more open than RWC. I hope that R15 can address the flaws of RWC.

 

[jmmontoro]

The main issue I have with HB series is that it's extremely easy, the AI is way too dumb and it's very easy to fall into exploit patterns. I don't have to enforce play nice rules on myself, the game shouldn't reward me for poor rugby. Put the worst team against the best team in the game at the hardest difficulty, tie your hands behind your back and still shutout win with a truckload of tries. RC series is tougher, but mostly by removing control from the user in exchange for poor AI. I still think RC2 could've been the best rugby game to date if HES/Tru Blu would've supported it with a patch to fix the main issues (mostly lineout bugs). RC3, if any, should focus mostly on player positioning and decision making, a.k.a. AI.

 

[Howzy]

This is why we need EA on board. They already have the original rugby 08 software which means all they need to do is update the system (abit like they do with FIFA every year) this means they save money as they have already put gameplay into place. I think a rugby game would benefit from a manager career mode (with fully functioning transfers, training, scouting, realistic leagues I.e relegations and promotions, all cups I.e Heineken cup + amlin challenge cup,realistic wage budgets, realistic injurys and suspensions and a big depth squad including academy players even if they don't have a face) and Also a realistic player career mode (where the player starts of as a small rating working his way up to a certain standard depending upon position I.e not having a prop with full acceleration, starting at any club but then being loaned out either full season or half season so not just pushing another player out of the team, chance to customise boots with actual real makes such as Canterbury, different veriaty of scrum caps e.g Adidas or Gilbert, not have your players muscles stupidly big like in RC1 and to be able to customise your players playing style). Both these modes if made correctly and updated regularly like FIFA would make an excellent rugby game/series.

An ultimate team is also a must this is the only reason why someone people buy an EA game. They could use the same system as they do for FIFA I.e such as player chemistry (which is determined whether they come from same country e.g George North and Lee-Byrne play for different clubs but are welsh. Or from them playing for the same club team e.g Tom Biggs and Nick Abendanon) a manager or DOR could be picked such as Dye Young with attributes depending upon how well known they are. Same as FIFA you could have bronze, silver, gold player cards with others such as lions edition card, MOM playing card, team of the year player card and in form playing cards. Realistic stats for the game would also be needed so some one like Cian healy is a fast prop compared to someone like Dan Cole. This could also apply for higher rating players such as Dan Carter who would probably be the Messi of a rugby game where his stats Wernt 99 like in madden ultimate team. A variety of club badges, club strips both home and away and club stadiums are available to customise your team.maybe you could have legends cards such as Sebastian Chabal (who is retiring this week), Jonny wilkinson, BOD, Jonah Lomu, Shane Williams, Martyn Williams and Jeremy gusgott. I think this would mix an ultimate team up rather than just having current players only available for selection. FIFA coins could be called RFU coins. Coaching cards would train things such as strength, passing etc. fitness cards would work in the same way as will contracts.

all in all with these things in place I Believe EA could make the Rugby series a success as once they create the ultimate team, the pictures only need to be done once so the only updates are to repair bugs and the system updates can be concentrated on. EA would also make a profit as they could release it for major platforms ps3,ps4, Xbox one, Xbox 360 and PC. It would also have a wider fan base rather than just focussing on France or Europe.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

EA has never made a rugby game, they were just publishers for HB Studios..........who made 08 and are making 15.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

The premise of Ultimate team is a way to absolutely milk the pockets of the consumer after they've already bought your game and I'm not into it with Fifa. With Rugby however, profitability has always been the problem for producers and Ultimate team would in this case provide a good way to make some money to pay for licenses. So I can understand it and would maybe even be on board with it if they pursued it after actually making a decent game (which of course must come first).

 

[Howzy]

The premise of Ultimate team is a way to absolutely milk the pockets of the consumer after they've already bought your game and I'm not into it with Fifa. With Rugby however, profitability has always been the problem for producers and Ultimate team would in this case provide a good way to make some money to pay for licenses. So I can understand it and would maybe even be on board with it if they pursued it after actually making a decent game (which of course must come first).

I share that point with you there. All the 12 year old kids will pay to get all there nations heros such as Dan Carter or Richie McCaw in extra shiney shiney so they can brag to there mates. I have a mate who gets paid £250 a week at a local ford dealership and he basically spends his weekly wage on FIFA points so he can brag and say look at these players I got.
So yer EA rugby ultimate team would benefit you!
is there actually any EA reps or producers on this site?

 

[jmmontoro]

Ultimate Team? EA? I don't know what you're smoking but I want in.
First of all, as TRF_Olyy said, EA never made a rugby game, they only published, and they have as much interest in rugby as we are in a Barbie Ultimate Team.
Second, Ultimate Team, as fun or addictive as it may sound, takes a huge portion from budget to make, including servers, security, and around the clock personnel, which would leave very little to finish the game. So basically it would be RWC2011 with a sticker album.
People need to understand that every available dollar has to be spent on gameplay or the game will fail like all have before. And licenses of course, even if partial, or you would end up with one of the greatest games no one has ever played.

 

[RoosTah]

This is why we need EA on board. They already have the original rugby 08 software which means all they need to do is update the system (abit like they do with FIFA every year) this means they save money as they have already put gameplay into place.

As a lot of people have already pointed out there, this is a simple misreading of the role EA have played in Rugby games.

The whole "get EA involved and it will be awesome!" line of reasoning is the zombie argument of the rugby gaming world; it doesn't matter how many times you smack it down with water-tight logic, it just keeps coming back.

EA ultimately were never impressed enough with the profit margins offered by Rugby games to want to give it to any of their big time developers and ultimately decided they didn't want to bother with it anymore after Rugby '08.

Since then, HB studios have been sitting on the software they developed and came up with RWC 2011, but it was a little half baked and they haven't really been heard from since its release. I personally liked the mechanics on that game a little better than Sidhe rugby, so I'm glad that they are back, but it's misguided to think that EA would ever be of any use unless the market for Rugby expanded exponentially and made it financially attractive to invest in.

Personally, I think that a more realistic (though still pie-in-the-sky) hope would be to convince someone IRB's marketing division to subsidize development of the game and get them to convince all the participator unions to give their licenses for free. The approach would be to explain to the IRB and its member unions that a high quality video game would effectively be part of the game's overall marketing strategy.

Rugby is not soccer or American Football; it is not a sport with total saturation in any major market, and so can't afford to play hardball with companies over licenses over what is effectively an advertising and fan engagement opportunity.

 

[Thingimubob]

Never got into Ultimate Team on Fifa myself, just never really appealed to me! The extra cost always put me off a little bit, and honestly always feel better building a cracking squad via manager mode than building one by buying glorified trading cards.
Honestly the perfect rugby game just has to have a proper career mode with proper leagues, a working transfer system with no transfer restrictions (I'm looking at you RC + RC2)!
I mean I'm still baffled by why Sidhe didn't just use Rugby League 3's career mode for RC! It was perfect for both codes, had salary caps, no restrictions, international fixtures and a ridiculously easy player transfer system where you could either pick up a free agent or agree a deal for the next season with a player in the last year of a contract. Give me that with everything fully licensed (or at least somehow fully customizable) and it'd go a long way to making a hell of a rugby game.