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[Banjo-Kazooie]

Developer: Hb Studios (The Golf Club, Rugby World Cup 2011)
Publisher: Bigben Interactive

Licenses include the "Top 14" and "Pro D2" leagues. These are considered to be the top tier.

http://segmentnext.com/2014/04/30/new-gen-rugby-15-announced-golf-club-developers/

Announced on twitter by Bigben earlier today: https://twitter.com/bigbeninteract/status/461418219568640000
https://twitter.com/bigbeninteract/status/461420483028992000

Translation: "Starting this fall, We will offer the first Rugby game on PS4 and Xbox One! As well as PS3, Xbox360, PC and Vita"

No pictures or videos that I could find.

 

[Cardon]

I was mostly disappointed with the Rugby World Cup game, I much prefered the rugby title Sidhe released, but as a fan of the sport I'll remain optmistic that this may be an improvement.

 

[BSherrod]

As someone who knows almost nothing about this sport, I loved the PS2 version put out by EA. I played it a lot with my friends back in the day.

 

[Squidofman]

No southern licenses? Lack of Super Rugby would be a killer.

 

[Omikaru]

RWC 2011 wasn't too great, but more rugby games is always a plus. If it's good I'll check it out on Vita.

 

[Succinct Verbosity]

I'm always happy to see rugby games announced, but I know that they'll be pretty difficult to play due to the complicated nature of the sport.

 

[BanGy.nz]

I guess Sidhe and Tru Blu Entertainment have the Super Rugby licences on lock?

 

[LiquidSolid]

I was mostly disappointed with the Rugby World Cup game, I much prefered the rugby title Sidhe released, but as a fan of the sport I'll remain optmistic that this may be an improvement.

I seriously doubt it will be. This will be HB's fifth attempt at a rugby game (they made most of EA's rugby games), you'd think by now they would've come up with a formula that worked.

Rugby Challenge was better than anything they ever produced but not without its flaws as well (too arcadey for my liking, plus very buggy and they got a couple of the laws wrong).

 

[indigo-cyclops]

As someone who knows almost nothing about this sport, I loved the PS2 version put out by EA. I played it a lot with my friends back in the day.

Same here, loved playing it with my brother. Always hoped a new Rugby game would come at some point.

 

[Conrad Link]

I live and breathe rugby, its my absolutely favourite sport and a huge part of my life.

I will play this game but I have next-to-no expectations, so jealous when I look at games like Madden or the NBA ones and see the quality and effort put in. A rugby game with that kind of care and budget is just a forever dream sadly.

Also no southern license will make this particular one a lot harder to enjoy being from New Zealand.

Can spend hours renaming my beloved All Blacks and Hurricanes but its just not the same.

 

[FireSol]

please be good, please be good

 

[CrimsonCommie]

I've always wanted to play a rugby game.

As someone who knows almost nothing about this sport, I loved the PS2 version put out by EA. I played it a lot with my friends back in the day.

Awesome avatar!

 

[TheRev404]

Not including the Southern Hemisphere teams will always hurt these games. I would love to see EA try again with all the licenses but I don't see that happening any time soon.

 

[Deimo5]

Really only French teams that are licensed?

 

[JP]

Just seen this on the PlayStation Store (UK) although according to the official Rugby 15 site , the release dates are as follows:

• UK territory (including Ireland): January 23rd 2015
• Europe, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, International version : November 21st 2014
• American territory : February 2015

Play as all of the official Aviva Premiership Rugby, TOP 14, PRO D2 and Pro12 teams in THE best rugby simulation. Experience all the emotions of a real match with the players, jerseys and official statistics of the 2014-2015 season and commentary by Stuart Barnes and Miles Harrison. Whether you are an expert or casual fan of rugby, the controls are adapted to your style of play, so you can make all the moves: sidesteps, hand-offs, pop passes, shoulder charges, grubber kicks, drop goals, tackles…

All the rugby tactics are here: manage your team before and after matches, choose between kicking for touch, pick and go and tap kicks, change your formation in real time and try an overlap or an up and under… Take part in lots of tournaments and championships, or create your own and select the rules you want!

According to Wikipedia, these are the included teams and championships.

Aviva Premiership

1. Exeter Chiefs
2. Bath Rugby
3. London Welsh
4. Saracens
5. Sale Sharks
6. Northampton Saints
7. Newcastle Falcons
8. London Wasps
9. London Irish
10. Leicester Tigers
11. Harlequins
12. Gloucester Rugby

Top 14

1. Aviron Bayonne
2. Lou Rugby
3. Stade Rochelas
4. Stade Toulousain
5. RC Toulon
6. Stade Francais Paris
7. Racing Metro 92
8. Oyonnax Rugby
9. Montpellier
10. FC Greonble
11. ASM Clermont
12. Castres Olympique
13. CA Brive Correze
14. Bordeux-Begles

Pro D2

1. AS Beziers Herault
2. Biarritz Olympique
3. Bourgoin-Jallieu
4. Colomiers Rugby
5. Montauban
6. RC Narbonne
7. Montauban
8. Rugby Club Massy
9. Section Paloise
10. Stade Aurillacois
11. Stade Montois Rugby
12. Tarbes Pyrenees
13. US Dax Rugby Landes
14. US Carcassonne

Pro 12

1. Benetton Treviso
2. Zebre
3. Ulster Rugby
4. Scarlets
5. Ospreys
6. Leinster Rugby
7. Munster Rugby
8. Newport Gwent Dragons
9. Glasgow Warriors
10. Edinburgh Rugby
11. Connacht Rugby
12. Cardiff Blues

Super Rugby

1. Blues
2. Chiefs
3. Waratahs
4. Bulls
5. Force
6. Rebels
7. Lions
8. Hurricanes
9. Sharks
10. Highlanders
11. Crusaders
12. Stormers
13. Brumbies
14. Cheetahs
15. Reds

International

1. New Zealand
2. Romania
3. Samoa
4. Namibia
5. Fiji
6. Wales
7. South Africa
8. USA
9. Russia
10. Italy
11. Ireland
12. Australia
13. Georgia
14. Scotland
15. England
16. Argentina
17. Japan
18. Canada
19. Tonga
20. France

It also says on Wikipedia...

The game will feature licences for all clubs in the Top 14, Pro D2, Aviva Premiership and Pro12 and there is only one stadium covering every team.

...which makes no bloody sense at all!

With the different release dates and the PlayStation Store only showing that Top 14, Pro D2, Aviva Premiership and Pro12 teams are appearing may mean that there will be different licensing agreements in different places as has happened in the Rugby Challenge games which will be a shame.

I can't help but feel that this isn't going to be very good but as I do with ALL rugby games I'll likely buy it at launch due to how infrequently we get them.

 

[JP]

It is now available to buy in the UK Store and like an idiot I bought it straight away which I always do, purely because it's rugby and it'll probably be really bad and I'll just complain about it all the time. The 1.64 GB (which isn't at all worrying) file is downloading now but I'm REALLY hoping that's just the client and there will be quite a few more GBs on top of that.

 

[JP]

The 1.64 GB (which isn't at all worrying) file is downloading now but I'm REALLY hoping that's just the client and there will be quite a few more GBs on top of that.

Nope! 1.64 GBs it is, which is understandable for what looks like a PS2 game. Only tried it briefly but pretty much is what you'd expect from Hb.Everything about it screams £10 PSN game. I'll still play it like I always do and hope that someday EA buy Sidhe and we get a fully licensed rugby game that they've had time to make work properly.

 

[vwnut13]

I had Rugby 2005 for PS2. I don't think I ever finished the tutorial. Shit was confusing man.

 

[Icefire1424]

Little disheartened by the "one stadium" comment and how little info has been published on this. We're due for a really solid rugby game, especially given the increased popularity over the last couple years (in the States anyways, know it's huge across the pond).

 

[Hasney]

Holy shit, they want £54 for this? Bahahaha.

 

[Cardon]

Damn, shame to hear that the game seemingly isn't that great. If only Sidhe could make another rugby game at some point.

 

[JP]

Thought I'd show some PS4 captures using the inbuilt Share facility, the quality isn't up to what you'd get from a card but it's easily good enough for here.

MAIN MENU (Although the "Aviva" Premiership is clearly sponsored notice lack of sponsors from the other leagues. Non-official versions of the 6 Nations Championship, The Rugby Championship & The European Cup are included.)

SETTINGS (This is the entirety of the options screen. You get a total of two camera options.)

SIDE-ON VIEW

END-ON VIEW

CUSTOM CUP (These are the options for setting up your own competition)

SOUTHERN 15 (These are the "Southern 15" teams which are clearly not licensed but I suppose they may be in other regions as it's released later elsewhere.)

These are the international teams which are also not licensed. You can edit things like player names but it has to be done manually and will take some time if you do that.

For example, this is the starting 15 for The Blackness. Being Welsh I would absolutely love for us to be facing the likes of Kenton Esch, Denis Tristan and their mates tomorrow afternoon but as a serious rugby fan I'd much rather be playing against the real team here.

A common question with sports games is how good the player likenesses are. In Rugby 15 the only player likenesses you have are what you see in the two view options I've shown here so you're not really going to be able to tell if they look like them or not. The same with stadiums. Is there only one stadium in the game? No fucking idea but as you can see in the screens all you don't actually see any stadiums.

I haven't mentioned the gameplay because what I've shown here should tell you exactly how it plays. It's exactly what I was expecting and it's exactly what I always expect from these games, I know I'll keep playing it though despite it's flaws.

 

[JP]

Also, 1.64 fucking gigabytes!!!!

 

[Ganzlinger]

Yeah, I'll just get Rugby Challenge from Sidhe.

But more rugby games the merrier.

 

[Conrad Link]

I'm sad they didn't go with funny 'fake' names, I was looking forward to giggling at Ricard McLaw etc.

As a New Zealander who loves rugby I'm not sure how I'm meant to feel about the game, on one hand yay its a rugby game (which I'm always excited about even though they suck), on the other, meh at it not catering to me in the slightest license wise (which really hampers my enjoyment sadly).