The Ashes starts today – but Ashes Cricket 2013 is still nowhere to be seen

The first day of the opening Ashes Test has gotten underway at Trent Bridge – but sports tie-in Ashes Cricket 2013 still appears to be no closer to release.

Confusion over the game’s absence continues to grow as fans become increasingly frustrated by the lack of answers from publisher 505 Games behind the game’s delay, and its failure to get the game out in time for the tournament.

Promised asset releases, including the first gameplay footage and additional in-game screens still haven’t materialised either, and a quick glance at the game’s twitter feed shows the publisher being swamped by fans requesting an update on the game’s release.

505 Games told VideoGamer.com this morning that “it is unfortunate that we have been unable to release the game in advance of the Ashes tournament” but that it is “doing everything we can to expedite the release”.

“Due to unforeseen issues in the end-phase of the development of Ashes Cricket 2013, it is unfortunate that we have been unable to release the game in advance of the Ashes tournament starting today,” a 505 Games representative said in a statement provided to us this morning.

“505 Games and Trickstar are currently doing everything we can to expedite the release and also keep the fans informed of our progress in real-time through weekly developer updates.”

Ashes Cricket 2013 was originally due to launch on June 21, but was pushed back to July just two days before release.

However, there hasn’t been any further update on the game’s release date, and the game still doesn’t appear to have been submitted for certification on at least one platform, a process that could take weeks to complete.

In an update posted on the game’s Facebook page last Friday, director Mike Fegan explained that “unfortunately we went into Xbox 360 submission on Thursday, a little bit later than we planned. But we’re getting updates from Microsoft on a daily basis and we’re just waiting on the outcome of that approval of submission.

“On the PS3 front, we’re preparing that right now to go into submission shortly, so we’re doing our utmost to get through the console submission process as soon as possible. On the PC build front, things are going well there, the game’s progressing [and] looking pretty good. At the moment we’re focussed on bug fixing and gameplay tweaking.”

Fegan’s comments have prompted speculation that the game may not even hit its new July date, and the lack of communication over the Wii U version has led to some people questioning whether the game will still see a release on Nintendo’s platform.

505 Games chose not to confirm whether the game was still in development for Wii U when questioned this morning.

In a statement released in the days following the game’s initial delay, 505 Games apologised for the lack of communication, admitting that it “should have been more transparent and honest with our community”.

“In an effort to make a truly authentic cricket title and one which stood up to the benchmarks of current sports games, 505 Games and Trickstar Games decided to rebuild the technology behind Ashes Cricket 2013 from scratch,” the publisher said.

“To ensure we delivered something that met our own expectations, we had to focus all resource on game development. As a result, creating assets such as screenshots or videos had to be put on hold so the team could completely focus on the development of the game. We understand that this hasn’t been popular with the community to date.”

Trickstar says that the first gameplay trailer for Ashes Cricket 2013 will be released “very, very soon”.