Mad Dog Game

Cricket’s most controversial method of dismissal has once again reared its head, with suggestions former West Indian captain Dwayne Bravo should have been sent packing by a Mankad in an IPL match this morning.

Bravo was batting for Chennai Super Kings in their match against Rajasthan Royals, when replays showed him well out of his ground as the bowler released the ball.

The incident happened in the final over of Chennai’s innings, bowled by Mustafizur Rahman.

Mustafizur was ruled to have overstepped on the second ball of the over, with replays showing his front foot millimetres over the line. At the same time, Bravo was well and truly out of his ground.

Leading commentator Harsha Bhogle was quick to point out that the batsman was gaining an unfair advantage.

“Look where Bravo is, you cannot be there,” he said.

“He has stolen more than a yard there, Dwayne Bravo.

“That is why I believe you’re entirely within your rights, it should almost be mandatory in team meetings to say, ‘Run him out.'”

The Mankad has long been a source of controversy, with many believing bowlers should give the batsman a warning before removing the bails.

However, that’s not a point of view shared by Bhogle.

“All this talk about not being in the spirit of the game is so much nonsense,” he said.

“He has taken a yard.

“I’ve never understood how it is in the spirit of the game to run less, and claim the run. I think that is against the spirit of the game.”

Former New Zealand bowler Simon Doull questioned why Mustafizur was no-balled for being slightly over the line, when the batsman was allowed to get away with a much larger indiscretion.

“That picture we just showed, where Bravo was so far out of his crease and the no-ball was shown, is a great example of why he should be run out,” Doull said.

“The bowler is minimally over, yet he gets punished.”

Bravo finished unbeaten with 20 from just eight balls, including a six from the final ball of the innings, as Chennai won by 45 runs.

Law 41.16.1 covers the non-striker leaving his ground early, in a section of the Laws headed ‘Unfair play’.

“If the non-striker is out of his/her ground at any time from the moment the ball comes into play until the instant when the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball, the non-striker is liable to be run out,” the Law reads.

The IPL is no stranger to Mankad controversies, with a 2019 incident dividing opinion amongst the cricket world.

Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin ran out Jos Buttler during a match between Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab, with Buttler taking exception to the dismissal, complaining the wording of the law wasn’t totally clear.

In that instance Ashwin never raised his arm to deliver the ball, instead waiting to see if Buttler left his crease.

“Of course a Mankading has to be in the Laws of the game because a batsman can’t just run halfway down the pitch trying to get a headstart,” Buttler told ESPNcricinfo in 2019.

“But I do think, the way the law is written, there is a bit of a grey area in that saying ‘when a bowler is expected to release the ball’. That is a bit of a wishy-washy statement.”

Ashwin’s actions drew strong condemnation from Australia’s greatest spinner, Shane Warne.

“So disappointed in @ashwinravi99 as a captain & as a person,” Warne tweeted at the time.

“All captains sign the #IPL wall & agree to play in the spirit of the game.

“RA had no intention of delivering the ball – so it should have been called a dead ball.

“As captain of your side – you set the standard of the way the team wants to play & what the team stands for!

“You must live with yourself & FYI – it’s too late to say sorry Mr Ashwin.

“You will be remembered for that low act.”

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!

Mark Levy is the host of 2GB’s Wide World of Sports radio show. Tune in from 6pm-7pm, Monday to Thursday!

It’s easy to lose sight of what rugby league was built on back in 1908, which is why It was important for the 2GB Continuous Call Team to return to Henson Park at Marrickville in Sydney’s Inner West on Saturday for ‘Thanks Tommy Day’.

It was suburban football at its best, with the smell of steaks and sausages cooking on the barbeque, combined with the dencorub emanating from the dressing sheds, where you could hear the coaches getting stuck into their players.

If it were an NRL match, you’d be watching your heroes in the sheds via the big screen and picking up your pre-cooked meal from a conveyor belt of hot chips and hot dogs; not to mention the absolute fortune you’d be paying for the privilege.

Give me a crowd on the hill at Henson Park over a half-empty major stadium any day of the week and the ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys is vowing to return the footy to the suburban grounds across Sydney, which should be music to the ears of every rugby league fan.

The rusted-on supporters fell in love with the game because of the atmosphere at matches involving the St George Dragons at Kogarah, the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Redfern, the Balmain Tigers at Leichhardt and the Canterbury Bulldogs at Belmore.

We’ve lost that tribalism in the modern game because of the money made by the clubs who take their home games to these major stadiums; which are fantastic when they’re full, but they unfortunately look like a ghost town if they don’t attract crowds over 20,000.

Let’s face it: the only time we’re getting big numbers of people through the turnstiles are State of Origin matches, grand finals and special occasions like ANZAC Day.

It paints a shocking picture for the broadcasters who are paying a premium to televise the NRL, it’s impossible to capture the excitement on radio and how demoralising is it for the players who are running on to the field in front of a half-empty stadium.

These blokes work their backsides off to crack the big-time and the atmosphere mirrors that of a park footy game, when it should be like the 80’s and 90’s when the fans were hanging over the fence and waving their flags.

V’landys made it clear when he became the ARLC chairman that the grassroots of the game are his priority and that’s where tribalism is built.

He told 2GB’s Continuous Call Team: “They (fans) want to be able to walk to their facility, they want to be tribal and we’re not going to give up until we’ve got all teams playing out of suburban grounds in Sydney.

“I was very proud to walk into Bankwest last week at Parramatta, it’s such a great facility, it’s got the latest technology, you’re close to the action, you’re well looked after, but that’s just one club – you need to do it for all.

“You need to do it for Manly, you need to do it for the Tigers and the Bulldogs, you need to do for the Panthers and that’s going to be one of the main objectives of the commission, to get these suburban grounds (updated) and go back to the good old days of tribalism.”

I walked away from Henson Park on Saturday with a renewed appreciation for the suburban grounds and my colleagues Darryl Brohman, Mark Riddell and David Morrow all said the same thing: “This is what rugby league is all about, this is why we love the game.”

It was refreshing to look out over Henson Park from our broadcast box on the third level of the kiosk as the fans lined up for a beer and a feed on the hill. The kids were allowed on to the field at half-time and full-time of the NSW Cup to kick the footy and the fans weren’t ushered out of the ground early; they instead sat on the hill to enjoy their afternoon.

The crowd number hasn’t changed at Henson Park in years, with 8972 people turning up to celebrate the life of Tommy Raudonikis and to cheer on the Newtown Jets, who returned home for the first time since August 2019.

If the ARL Commission is serious about restoring the tribalism in the greatest game of all, then it’s worth bottling whatever they’re doing at the Jets, because they’ve involved the local community and they’re kicking goals.

It’s important for the game to move with the times, but let’s not lose sight of what made rugby league such a success through the glory years.

**Would you support more games at these iconic venues and a return to suburban footy? Let me know what you think by emailing me via the Wide World of Sports radio show feedback page here

Back-to-form Manly are in a prickly situation with veteran five-eighth Kieran Foran.

The 30-year-old pivot has been a key figure in the Sea Eagles’ back-to-back wins but only rejoined the club this season on a one-year deal.

Manly has promised boom utility Josh Schuster, who has been playing in the back row since debuting a few weeks back, the No.6 jumper in 2022 and therein lies the dilemma.

If Schuster gets the five-eighth spot, it will leave Foran out in the cold.

The former Kiwi Test ace is only on a $200,000 deal this year as he attempts to re-establish his career and Manly may agree to keep him if he is happy to stay on the same money.

But Foran is likely to ask for an upgrade following his return to form, leaving the Sea Eagles with plenty to think about.

There is no doubt that Schuster will become the club’s marquee player in coming years and Manly won’t want to upset the talented youngster.

SHARKS’ DODGY DECEPTION IN MORRIS AXING

Among the many lies the Sharks told John Morris when he met the board last Monday was that they hadn’t even spoken to any other prospective coaches.

Morris left the meeting with his tyres pumped up, with the board saying he had given an excellent presentation and was well placed to take up the third year of his contract.

Yet within 24 hours, he was out the door – with Roosters assistant Craig Fitzgibbon handed the reins for 2021.

It’s Cronulla’s right to sack their coach – but the underhanded way they did it was appalling and I’ve heard of several loyal fans handing back their memberships in disgust.

RABBITOHS ICON MAKES PARK COMEBACK

Some 18 months after retiring from footy, Rabbitohs legend John Sutton made a surprise comeback last weekend, back where it all began – in the Rabbitohs’ junior league.

Now a sprightly 36-year-old, the man who played over 300 games for the Bunnies and still runs the bottle for the NRL team played for South Eastern Seagulls in A Grade against La Perouse.

Sutton lasted the full 70 minutes too and is hoping to play more games for the club when his commitments with the Bunnies allow.

Sutton’s six-year-old son also plays for the club, making it a family affair.

FRESH SEX TAPE SCANDAL ABOUT TO EXPLODE

Rugby league is about to be hit by another unsavoury sex scandal.

A woman has engaged a legal firm, who are preparing a civil suit against a player who allegedly filmed a sex act and then distributed it among his mates.

The lady in question insists the incident was filmed without her knowledge or consent and is seeking aggravated damages from the player in court.

The case will hit the media as soon as the paperwork is filed and the publicity is just what the game doesn’t need … yet again.

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

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[The GameDiscoverCo game discovery newsletter is written by ‘how people find your game’ expert & GameDiscoverCo founder Simon Carless, and is a regular look at how people discover and buy video games in the 2020s.]

Welcome to this week’s first GameDiscoverCo newsletter! We’re back in your general area, listening to the 25th anniversary re-release of Goldie’s Timeless album, feeling a little bit ancient, and musing upon the fundamental nature of things. Which brings us to today’s specialist subject…

Steam demos/prologues and your game loop

We actually wrote a pretty detailed column about game demos and prologues back in January, for anyone who remembers it! We analyzed a whole bunch of Steam prologues to compare their performance with the final game’s performance.

At the time, we showed that demo/prologue success can vary massively, just like final game success can vary. And we believe strongly that demos of overly ‘shallow’ games – or ill-considered demos which give away too much of the final game – can be a net negative.

But we also said that “we think the short, sharp playable demo/prologue – in both content and duration of availability – is the best bet. But.. this isn’t always the case, and the devs of The Riftbreaker, which has had a super popular prologue, would disagree with us.”

And since that column, we’ve seen other examples of breakout Steam titles where the demo really helped. So we wanted to better define the exception – when you should leave your demo up for longer – here. This is, in our view, if you have a demo with a standout (but short!) gameplay loop, where players don’t get bored of the demo and can play it many times, yet still want to buy the full version.

The most obvious recent example of this is Devolver’s Loop Hero. When the publisher asked how many hours people had put into the demo in late February, answers ranged from 2-7 hours (more ‘normal’), to, uhhh, 160 hours (!), for one response. That’s pretty crazy, and was a big reason for its sales breakout on launch.

The Loop Hero demo debuted in this year’s first Steam Festival (called Steam NextFest going forward!), and ended up spawning hit Northernlion videos like ‘Checking out 2021’s Hottest Demo’. So obviously, the hype was real here, because the title has a killer – and brief – gameplay loop. (Although Devolver did take down the demo a few weeks before the game came out, in this case.)

But doubling down on this ‘your game has a great, short replayable demo and people still want more’ concept, Paweł Lekki of The Riftbreaker creator EXOR Studios was kind enough to share some data from his studio’s base-building survival action-RPG title. It has both a free demo and a standalone Prologue version which are permanently available. And also seems to be ‘winning’ – the game is #23 of all 5,000 unreleased Steam titles in terms of wishlists.

Paweł comments of the demo/prologue: “They are physically identical, but exist on Steam as separate apps at the same time for increased visibility and technical reasons for the festivals. Right now we have 170,000 + 245,000 downloads of each respectively -> 415,000 total downloads. The demo is designed to be a 30 minute sample of the game. However some players tend to play it a lot more…”

So here’s the complete stats from the Steam back end for the Prologue. It has 3,300 reviews, so about 52 reviews per user – within the ranges for regular Steam games. The bottom axis uses time increments of 10 minutes, btw:

And here’s the play time stats for the demo, which are – as you might expect – similar. And also very impressive. BTW, both demo and prologue are translated into 9 other languages, which also helps:

What’s interesting here, as Paweł notes: “I took a dive into the playtime stats for each and it looks like there is a large group of players that play the demo for more than 200 minutes.” And some people a LOT more, apparently – if you believe this playtime number:

Anyhow, there’s 22,500 of these ‘long players’ for the Prologue, and 12,000 for the demo respectively, adding up to 34,500 super hardcore fans. The devs add: “We have seen this manifest in the form of a thriving modding scene for our demo on our Discord server (yes, people are making mods for the demo to extend the experience). I think that demos can be a great way to build up and nurture a community of super fans.”

So, in some ways this is almost like an Early Access version of the game before it even launches. And if well harnessed, can really help discoverability. It only works with certain types of game, of course. But perhaps you should also be thinking of making that type of game?

To end, the Riftbreaker devs noted: “Our next step is to add UTM tracking links into the wishlist buttons that we have built into the demo/prologue. We have an average of ~500 daily active users in the past 7 days for the demo, so this should be enough to provide some interesting data samples.” That’ll be interesting to see, too.

The game discovery news round-up..

And after that graph-festooned first section, it’s time to get to a second section, featuring… yet more graphs. But also a whole bunch of useful information about platforms, festivals, and ways to get your game seen:

• What’s going on around E3 and not-E3 this year, ‘virtual press event’-wise? This Kotaku article attempts to round up some of the major confirmed showcases so far in the summer months, from the Wholesome Direct stream through Summer Game Fest/E3 events, Ubisoft Forward, the PC Gaming Show, PAX Online, (virtual) GDC & more. More detail to come here, but a good overview!

• There’s a big milestone coming up for cloud gaming: Xbox is opening up a ‘public’ beta for Xbox Cloud Gaming: “We’ll begin sending out invites to select Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members to start testing [via] Windows 10 PCs and Apple phones and tablets via web browsers. We’re launching xbox.com/play where invitees can play over 100 Xbox Game Pass titles through Edge, Google Chrome, or Safari.” You can use a controller or touch controls – the latter custom-configured for 50 of the titles.

• Microlinks: Superjoost points out re: Apple that “the upgrade to its Arcade service to include a bunch more titles and improve its value proposition required Apple to change its policies”; interesting to see a Stellaris DLC land at second place in the latest Steam weekly revenue charts; the Before Your Eyes devs get some Steam reviewer pushback for ‘short game’ reasons.

• Regarding the ‘busy’ release schedule for Nintendo Switch, this latest TouchArcade round-up of Switch debuts and sales literally has the author saying: “I am very, very tired. I know I said I would go over what was in the Indie World Showcase today, but that was before hundreds of sales dropped and several additional games hopped onto the schedule.” Well… the platform is getting packed. But Steam has been unsummarizable for years, so maybe Switch is just finally getting to that stage?

• Third-party cross platform mod platform Mod.io recently hit 500,000 unique daily users, as founder Scott Reismanis says, “thanks to the v1 launch of Totally Accurate Battle Simulator on April 1st. Amazing creator community this game has, with over 3,000 pieces of content submitted daily!” Interesting to see the range of titles and number of downloads for each on Mod.io – the front end is fairly transparent!

• Sony has ended up backpedaling on closing the PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita, due to outcry over access to digital games that would be ‘lost’ as a result. Sony’s Jim Ryan: “We see now that many of you are incredibly passionate about being able to continue purchasing classic games on PS3 and PS Vita for the foreseeable future.”

• Core, the platform that hopes to help creators build games and players experience them “…has launched for free in early access. It’s available exclusively on the Epic Games Store and already includes over 20,000 free playable games across a wide variety of genres including team-based multiplayer shooters, RPGs, and side-scrollers.” Keep a close eye on this in an ‘adult Roblox’ stylee – Sullygnome’s Twitch stats for it look fairly decent, right now.

• Microlinks Pt. 2: so, Google Stadia “…isn’t perfect. But for plenty of players, it’s enough”; latest NPD U.S. game hardware (& select software!) monthly results, with spending at $5.6 billion, 18% higher when compared to a year ago; why Facebook is embracing subscriptions for Oculus VR titles.

Finally, Logan ‘Indie Wolverine’ Williams picked up Lars Doucet’s data from GameDataCrunch to create this very helpful graph of historical pricing on Steam games:

As Lars comments in his Twitter thread on the data: “This chart tells you nothing about performance, but it does indicate that there hasn’t been a collapse in prices of games on Steam.” Rather than a pricing race to the bottom, it looks like just… more games in general?

[We’re GameDiscoverCo, a new agency based around one simple issue: how do players find, buy and enjoy your premium PC or console game? You can subscribe to GameDiscoverCo Plus to get access to exclusive newsletters, interactive daily rankings of every unreleased Steam game, and lots more besides.]

Houston Rockets small forward Sterling Brown suffered facial lacerations during an assault Sunday night, the team said.

In a statement Monday, the Rockets said Brown “had no prior knowledge of or interaction with the assailants.”

He is expected to make a full recovery, according to the team.

The Rockets are in Miami for a Monday night matchup against the Heat. Brown is with the team but had previously been ruled out for the game due to a knee injury.

“Heart-wrenching. Rips your heart out,” Houston coach Stephen Silas said before the game. “It’s one of your guys, someone on your team that you care about, someone that you’re with every day. As far as how I’m feeling and how the team is feeling, we’re all just thankful, No. 1, that he’s going to be OK — and also down about what happened.”

It wasn’t immediately known if any incident reports were filed with police.

Brown, 26, is in his first season in Houston, averaging 8.2 points and 4.4 rebounds in 51 games.

He had spent the previous three seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks, averaging 5.2 points and 3.1 rebounds.

While in Milwaukee, Brown was thrust into the national spotlight when he alleged that police officers targeted him outside a Walgreens store on Jan. 26, 2018. He alleged that Milwaukee officers targeted him because he is Black. They used a stun gun when he didn’t immediately remove his hands from his pockets when ordered to while waiting for a parking citation.

Brown first filed a lawsuit against the city of Milwaukee in June 2018 after body-camera footage was released showing a police officer stepping on his ankle during the arrest while others mocked his potential civil rights complaint.

Brown reached a $750,000 settlement with the city in November.

Four-time World Snooker Championship champion John Higgins battles his way into second round after winning six frames on the spin; fellow Scot Anthony McGill sets up last-eight meeting with Ronnie O’Sullivan; last year’s finalist Kyren Wilson also through

John Higgins blamed the suffocating Crucible pressure for his poor performance despite battling his way into the second round of the World Snooker Championship with a 10-7 win over China’s Tian Pengfei.

The four-time champion hit back from 7-4 behind to win six frames on the spin, belatedly finding his form in a match that twice went over its allotted schedule time by completing his victory with two consecutive centuries.

It may be the 45-year-old’s 27th appearance at the Crucible but, despite his colossal experience, Higgins admitted the venue’s weight of history was still impossible to ignore.

Higgins said: “It’s this place that does it – I think I stopped breathing a few times out there. That’s what it does to you – the pressure can be that intense.

“It was a poor game by me and I’ve dodged a bullet there big time because Tian had enough chances to beat me. I’ve brought him down to my level and it’s a big relief.”

Higgins’ compatriot Anthony McGill proved he had no Crucible hangover from his agonising semi-final defeat eight months ago as he cruised into the second round with a 10-5 win over Ricky Walden.

Resuming with a slender 5-4 advantage over his fellow former semi-finalist, McGill extended his lead with back-to-back breaks of 83 and 130 before a 98 from Walden reduced the deficit.

But McGill responded to close out the match with three frames in a row, including two more half-centuries, to set up a last-eight meeting with Ronnie O’Sullivan.

“I’ll just try to play my own game,” said McGill. “I don’t think there’s anyone in the game who’s got the aura that Ronnie’s got – he’s the best ever and I’m really looking forward to it.

“I won’t approach the match any differently. I can only play as well as I can play, and if the other guy is too good then that’s fine.”

Kyren Wilson, beaten in last year’s final by O’Sullivan, was forced to battle for a 10-8 first round win over Gary Wilson.

Wilson trailed 5-1 in the early stages but hit back with three centuries to wrest the match in his favour, and despite a gallant effort from the underdog, the Welshman completed a cool 73 break to avoid another decider.

For those on the move, we will have the Snooker & Pool season covered via our website skysports.com/more-sports, our app for mobile devices, or our Twitter account @skysportspool for latest news and reports.

Back-to-form Manly are in a prickly situation with veteran five-eighth Kieran Foran.

The 30-year-old pivot has been a key figure in the Sea Eagles’ back-to-back wins but only rejoined the club this season on a one-year deal.

Manly has promised boom utility Josh Schuster, who has been playing in the back row since debuting a few weeks back, the No.6 jumper in 2022 and therein lies the dilemma.

If Schuster gets the five-eighth spot, it will leave Foran out in the cold.

The former Kiwi Test ace is only on a $200,000 deal this year as he attempts to re-establish his career and Manly may agree to keep him if he is happy to stay on the same money.

But Foran is likely to ask for an upgrade following his return to form, leaving the Sea Eagles with plenty to think about.

There is no doubt that Schuster will become the club’s marquee player in coming years and Manly won’t want to upset the talented youngster.

SHARKS’ DODGY DECEPTION IN MORRIS AXING

Among the many lies the Sharks told John Morris when he met the board last Monday was that they hadn’t even spoken to any other prospective coaches.

Morris left the meeting with his tyres pumped up, with the board saying he had given an excellent presentation and was well placed to take up the third year of his contract.

Yet within 24 hours, he was out the door – with Roosters assistant Craig Fitzgibbon handed the reins for 2021.

It’s Cronulla’s right to sack their coach – but the underhanded way they did it was appalling and I’ve heard of several loyal fans handing back their memberships in disgust.

RABBITOHS ICON MAKES PARK COMEBACK

Some 18 months after retiring from footy, Rabbitohs legend John Sutton made a surprise comeback last weekend, back where it all began – in the Rabbitohs’ junior league.

Now a sprightly 36-year-old, the man who played over 300 games for the Bunnies and still runs the bottle for the NRL team played for South Eastern Seagulls in A Grade against La Perouse.

Sutton lasted the full 70 minutes too and is hoping to play more games for the club when his commitments with the Bunnies allow.

Sutton’s six-year-old son also plays for the club, making it a family affair.

FRESH SEX TAPE SCANDAL ABOUT TO EXPLODE

Rugby league is about to be hit by another unsavoury sex scandal.

A woman has engaged a legal firm, who are preparing a civil suit against a player who allegedly filmed a sex act and then distributed it among his mates.

The lady in question insists the incident was filmed without her knowledge or consent and is seeking aggravated damages from the player in court.

The case will hit the media as soon as the paperwork is filed and the publicity is just what the game doesn’t need … yet again.

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

---

 

[The GameDiscoverCo game discovery newsletter is written by ‘how people find your game’ expert & GameDiscoverCo founder Simon Carless, and is a regular look at how people discover and buy video games in the 2020s.]

Welcome to this week’s first GameDiscoverCo newsletter! We’re back in your general area, listening to the 25th anniversary re-release of Goldie’s Timeless album, feeling a little bit ancient, and musing upon the fundamental nature of things. Which brings us to today’s specialist subject…

Steam demos/prologues and your game loop

We actually wrote a pretty detailed column about game demos and prologues back in January, for anyone who remembers it! We analyzed a whole bunch of Steam prologues to compare their performance with the final game’s performance.

At the time, we showed that demo/prologue success can vary massively, just like final game success can vary. And we believe strongly that demos of overly ‘shallow’ games – or ill-considered demos which give away too much of the final game – can be a net negative.

But we also said that “we think the short, sharp playable demo/prologue – in both content and duration of availability – is the best bet. But.. this isn’t always the case, and the devs of The Riftbreaker, which has had a super popular prologue, would disagree with us.”

And since that column, we’ve seen other examples of breakout Steam titles where the demo really helped. So we wanted to better define the exception – when you should leave your demo up for longer – here. This is, in our view, if you have a demo with a standout (but short!) gameplay loop, where players don’t get bored of the demo and can play it many times, yet still want to buy the full version.

The most obvious recent example of this is Devolver’s Loop Hero. When the publisher asked how many hours people had put into the demo in late February, answers ranged from 2-7 hours (more ‘normal’), to, uhhh, 160 hours (!), for one response. That’s pretty crazy, and was a big reason for its sales breakout on launch.

The Loop Hero demo debuted in this year’s first Steam Festival (called Steam NextFest going forward!), and ended up spawning hit Northernlion videos like ‘Checking out 2021’s Hottest Demo’. So obviously, the hype was real here, because the title has a killer – and brief – gameplay loop. (Although Devolver did take down the demo a few weeks before the game came out, in this case.)

But doubling down on this ‘your game has a great, short replayable demo and people still want more’ concept, Paweł Lekki of The Riftbreaker creator EXOR Studios was kind enough to share some data from his studio’s base-building survival action-RPG title. It has both a free demo and a standalone Prologue version which are permanently available. And also seems to be ‘winning’ – the game is #23 of all 5,000 unreleased Steam titles in terms of wishlists.

Paweł comments of the demo/prologue: “They are physically identical, but exist on Steam as separate apps at the same time for increased visibility and technical reasons for the festivals. Right now we have 170,000 + 245,000 downloads of each respectively -> 415,000 total downloads. The demo is designed to be a 30 minute sample of the game. However some players tend to play it a lot more…”

So here’s the complete stats from the Steam back end for the Prologue. It has 3,300 reviews, so about 52 reviews per user – within the ranges for regular Steam games. The bottom axis uses time increments of 10 minutes, btw:

And here’s the play time stats for the demo, which are – as you might expect – similar. And also very impressive. BTW, both demo and prologue are translated into 9 other languages, which also helps:

What’s interesting here, as Paweł notes: “I took a dive into the playtime stats for each and it looks like there is a large group of players that play the demo for more than 200 minutes.” And some people a LOT more, apparently – if you believe this playtime number:

Anyhow, there’s 22,500 of these ‘long players’ for the Prologue, and 12,000 for the demo respectively, adding up to 34,500 super hardcore fans. The devs add: “We have seen this manifest in the form of a thriving modding scene for our demo on our Discord server (yes, people are making mods for the demo to extend the experience). I think that demos can be a great way to build up and nurture a community of super fans.”

So, in some ways this is almost like an Early Access version of the game before it even launches. And if well harnessed, can really help discoverability. It only works with certain types of game, of course. But perhaps you should also be thinking of making that type of game?

To end, the Riftbreaker devs noted: “Our next step is to add UTM tracking links into the wishlist buttons that we have built into the demo/prologue. We have an average of ~500 daily active users in the past 7 days for the demo, so this should be enough to provide some interesting data samples.” That’ll be interesting to see, too.

The game discovery news round-up..

And after that graph-festooned first section, it’s time to get to a second section, featuring… yet more graphs. But also a whole bunch of useful information about platforms, festivals, and ways to get your game seen:

• What’s going on around E3 and not-E3 this year, ‘virtual press event’-wise? This Kotaku article attempts to round up some of the major confirmed showcases so far in the summer months, from the Wholesome Direct stream through Summer Game Fest/E3 events, Ubisoft Forward, the PC Gaming Show, PAX Online, (virtual) GDC & more. More detail to come here, but a good overview!

• There’s a big milestone coming up for cloud gaming: Xbox is opening up a ‘public’ beta for Xbox Cloud Gaming: “We’ll begin sending out invites to select Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members to start testing [via] Windows 10 PCs and Apple phones and tablets via web browsers. We’re launching xbox.com/play where invitees can play over 100 Xbox Game Pass titles through Edge, Google Chrome, or Safari.” You can use a controller or touch controls – the latter custom-configured for 50 of the titles.

• Microlinks: Superjoost points out re: Apple that “the upgrade to its Arcade service to include a bunch more titles and improve its value proposition required Apple to change its policies”; interesting to see a Stellaris DLC land at second place in the latest Steam weekly revenue charts; the Before Your Eyes devs get some Steam reviewer pushback for ‘short game’ reasons.

• Regarding the ‘busy’ release schedule for Nintendo Switch, this latest TouchArcade round-up of Switch debuts and sales literally has the author saying: “I am very, very tired. I know I said I would go over what was in the Indie World Showcase today, but that was before hundreds of sales dropped and several additional games hopped onto the schedule.” Well… the platform is getting packed. But Steam has been unsummarizable for years, so maybe Switch is just finally getting to that stage?

• Third-party cross platform mod platform Mod.io recently hit 500,000 unique daily users, as founder Scott Reismanis says, “thanks to the v1 launch of Totally Accurate Battle Simulator on April 1st. Amazing creator community this game has, with over 3,000 pieces of content submitted daily!” Interesting to see the range of titles and number of downloads for each on Mod.io – the front end is fairly transparent!

• Sony has ended up backpedaling on closing the PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita, due to outcry over access to digital games that would be ‘lost’ as a result. Sony’s Jim Ryan: “We see now that many of you are incredibly passionate about being able to continue purchasing classic games on PS3 and PS Vita for the foreseeable future.”

• Core, the platform that hopes to help creators build games and players experience them “…has launched for free in early access. It’s available exclusively on the Epic Games Store and already includes over 20,000 free playable games across a wide variety of genres including team-based multiplayer shooters, RPGs, and side-scrollers.” Keep a close eye on this in an ‘adult Roblox’ stylee – Sullygnome’s Twitch stats for it look fairly decent, right now.

• Microlinks Pt. 2: so, Google Stadia “…isn’t perfect. But for plenty of players, it’s enough”; latest NPD U.S. game hardware (& select software!) monthly results, with spending at $5.6 billion, 18% higher when compared to a year ago; why Facebook is embracing subscriptions for Oculus VR titles.

Finally, Logan ‘Indie Wolverine’ Williams picked up Lars Doucet’s data from GameDataCrunch to create this very helpful graph of historical pricing on Steam games:

As Lars comments in his Twitter thread on the data: “This chart tells you nothing about performance, but it does indicate that there hasn’t been a collapse in prices of games on Steam.” Rather than a pricing race to the bottom, it looks like just… more games in general?

[We’re GameDiscoverCo, a new agency based around one simple issue: how do players find, buy and enjoy your premium PC or console game? You can subscribe to GameDiscoverCo Plus to get access to exclusive newsletters, interactive daily rankings of every unreleased Steam game, and lots more besides.]

Houston Rockets small forward Sterling Brown suffered facial lacerations during an assault Sunday night, the team said.

In a statement Monday, the Rockets said Brown “had no prior knowledge of or interaction with the assailants.”

He is expected to make a full recovery, according to the team.

The Rockets are in Miami for a Monday night matchup against the Heat. Brown is with the team but had previously been ruled out for the game due to a knee injury.

“I have spoken to him, and he’s feeling better,” Houston coach Stephen Silas told reporters before the game.

“Thankfully, he’s going to be OK.”

Brown, 26, is in his first season in Houston, averaging 8.2 points and 4.4 rebounds in 51 games.

He had spent the previous three seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks, averaging 5.2 points and 3.1 rebounds.

While in Milwaukee, Brown was thrust into the national spotlight when he alleged that police officers targeted him outside a Walgreens store on Jan. 26, 2018. He alleged that Milwaukee officers targeted him because he is Black. They used a stun gun when he didn’t immediately remove his hands from his pockets when ordered to while waiting for a parking citation.

Brown first filed a lawsuit against the city of Milwaukee in June 2018 after body-camera footage was released showing a police officer stepping on his ankle during the arrest while others mocked his potential civil rights complaint.

Brown reached a $750,000 settlement with the city in November.

Back-to-form Manly are in a prickly situation with veteran five-eighth Kieran Foran.

The 30-year-old pivot has been a key figure in the Sea Eagles’ back-to-back wins but only rejoined the club this season on a one-year deal.

Manly has promised boom utility Josh Schuster, who has been playing in the back row since debuting a few weeks back, the No.6 jumper in 2022 and therein lies the dilemma.

If Schuster gets the five-eighth spot, it will leave Foran out in the cold.

The former Kiwi Test ace is only on a $200,000 deal this year as he attempts to re-establish his career and Manly may agree to keep him if he is happy to stay on the same money.

But Foran is likely to ask for an upgrade following his return to form, leaving the Sea Eagles with plenty to think about.

There is no doubt that Schuster will become the club’s marquee player in coming years and Manly won’t want to upset the talented youngster.

SHARKS’ DODGY DECEPTION IN MORRIS AXING

Among the many lies the Sharks told John Morris when he met the board last Monday was that they hadn’t even spoken to any other prospective coaches.

Morris left the meeting with his tyres pumped up, with the board saying he had given an excellent presentation and was well placed to take up the third year of his contract.

Yet within 24 hours, he was out the door – with Roosters assistant Craig Fitzgibbon handed the reins for 2021.

It’s Cronulla’s right to sack their coach – but the underhanded way they did it was appalling and I’ve heard of several loyal fans handing back their memberships in disgust.

RABBITOHS ICON MAKES PARK COMEBACK

Some 18 months after retiring from footy, Rabbitohs legend John Sutton made a surprise comeback last weekend, back where it all began – in the Rabbitohs’ junior league.

Now a sprightly 36-year-old, the man who played over 300 games for the Bunnies and still runs the bottle for the NRL team played for South Eastern Seagulls in A Grade against La Perouse.

Sutton lasted the full 70 minutes too and is hoping to play more games for the club when his commitments with the Bunnies allow.

Sutton’s six-year-old son also plays for the club, making it a family affair.

FRESH SEX TAPE SCANDAL ABOUT TO EXPLODE

Rugby league is about to be hit by another unsavoury sex scandal.

A woman has engaged a legal firm, who are preparing a civil suit against a player who allegedly filmed a sex act and then distributed it among his mates.

The lady in question insists the incident was filmed without her knowledge or consent and is seeking aggravated damages from the player in court.

The case will hit the media as soon as the paperwork is filed and the publicity is just what the game doesn’t need … yet again.

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