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Anglo-Australian cricket brawl spills over into coding clash

Cricket 2013 game ditched after dev drops the ball

The British publisher behind the game Ashes Cricket 2013 has pulled the product from sale and given up on further development, blaming the Australian developer it contracted to do the job for a buggy and unplayable product.

Milton Keynes-headquartered 505 Games farmed out the job of developing the game to Melbourne-based Trickstar Games. Both parties hoped to cash in on the latest series of five Test Cricket matches between England and Australia. The two nations have been playing each other at cricket since 1877 and The Ashes have been the prize since 1882.

England's mens cricket team has held The Ashes since 2009 and trounced Australia in Britain during the northern summer. The return bout commenced last week with Australia unexpectedly lathering England to take a one-nil lead. Along the way, Australian captain Michael Clarke threatened to inflict a broken arm on English player James Anderson after he suggested he might punch another Australian player. Such insults and threats are held not to be cricket, leading media in both nations to wring their hands a lot.

Cricket games, the light and easy Stick Cricket aside, have never reached great heights, which is probably a big disappointment for the gaming industry given the sport is India's national game. But Ashes Cricket 2013 was reportedly not just buggy but also dire.

The video below shows why: a real match would never feature eight fielders standing around doing nothing.

Watch Video

The game popped up on Steam earlier this week and quickly earned so many negative comments that it has been pulled from sale and the game's Facebook page has been pulled.

505 Games has issued a statement apologising to all involved, blaming Trickstar.

“At the start of the project, 505 Games received all assurances from the developer that the engine was up to the task of creating a dynamic, cutting-edge cricket game for the modern age across multiple platforms, and unfortunately those assurances were found to be misplaced,” the statement says.

Trickstar's silent on the matter.

Full refunds will be offered to anyone who paid for the game. Lawyers have presumably started salivating. ®

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