Big Ant Studios and Nacon have officially revealed Cricket 22, which will see the series debut on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S and introduce a number of important new licensed competitions and teams.Following on from 2019’s successful and extensively-supported Cricket 19, Big Ant claims Cricket 22 will deliver “the most robust, substantial game of cricket that fans have ever seen.”Cricket 22 will feature Australia’s T20 Big Bash tournament alongside the Caribbean Premier League, England’s The Hundred, and The Ashes, and it will also include fully-licensed national teams for Australia, England, New Zealand, the West Indies, and Ireland. As with Cricket 19, the men’s and women’s games will be represented throughout all of Cricket 22.Cricket 22 will also include new bowling and fielding controls, “real-time ray tracing elements”, and a “deep, narrative-driven career mode” including injury management and off-field commitments like training and press conferences. It will also feature a new commentary line-up, with Michael Atherton, Ian Healy, Mel Jones, Alison Mitchell, and David Gower.“The number of cricket fans that have been asking us about our next-generation cricket plans has been overwhelming,” said Big Ant CEO Ross Symons in a statement alongside the announcement. “We’re incredibly excited by what we’re able to bring to the table with Cricket 22. This is our fifth cricket simulation title, and it really represents the cumulation of everything that we’ve learned on this ten-year (and counting) journey. We have the most passionate fans, and we can’t wait to get this into their hands.”Cricket 22 – First ScreenshotsCricket 22 will be released on November 25, 2021 on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and pre-orders for these formats will get access to Cricket 22’s The Nets Challenge from mid-October. Big Ant has also confirmed any players who purchase the game on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One will be able to upgrade their version of the game for free if and when they decide to migrate to new generation consoles. Cricket 22 for Nintendo Switch will be available in January 2022.Publisher Nacon announced its acquisition of specialist sports studio Big Ant in January 2021 with the intention of becoming the world’s leading player in rugby, tennis, and cricket. At the time, Nacon noted cricket is considered the second most popular team sport in the world, with 120 million players and 1.5 billion fans, and that it regards Big Ant as “the world reference for video games in this discipline.”Luke is Games Editor at IGN’s Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter every few days @MrLukeReilly.
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