Q: How long has the game been in development?
A: Around 18 months or so.
Q: What teams and competitions will be licensed?
A: The game includes 96 teams and 31 stadia, including official team and competition licences for the All Blacks, the Qantas Wallabies, the USA Eagles, Tri Nations, Bledisloe Cup, Super Rugby teams, Aviva Premiership Rugby, Top 14 Orange, RaboDirect PRO 12, ITM Cup, and Ranfurly Shield.
Q: Was it difficult to get a licence for the All Blacks?
A: Getting the wider NZRU licence including the All Blacks during a World Cup year is obviously significant for the game and for us as New Zealanders.
Ultimately, I think it came down to us proving that the New Zealand teams would be well represented in our title and that the title itself would be a high-quality offering.
Q: How current will the team rosters be?
A: 2010-2011 rosters will feature in Rugby Challenge.
Q: Was Sidhe wary of accepting the challenge of developing a rugby game, given some earlier rugby titles were met with a lot of criticism?
A: The freeform and flowing nature of rugby union certainly poses challenges in developing a video game around the sport. It is unsurprising then that when other developers have attempted to recreate the sport in video game form that they have sometimes fallen short. While this is our first rugby union title, we have been able to leverage technology and techniques built up from our other sports titles.
Combined with growing up in a country with rugby as the national sport, and being able to tap into professional expertise of coaches, players, and support staff, we thought we had a good shot. So, while there hasn't been a truly great rugby union video game in years, we were eager to rise to that challenge and are happy with what we have been able to produce.
Q: How many New Zealand stadiums will appear in the game, and how realistic will they be?
A: Fourteen New Zealand Stadiums feature in Rugby Challenge, all modelled exactly how you see them in real life. We sent our artists to photograph every little detail of each stadium, because we know how much more immersive sports games can be when stadia are accurately represented.
Q: How did you cope with the challenge of Forsyth Barr Stadium?
A: Forsyth Barr was modelled from a combination of blueprints, architectural renderings and photographs of the half-constructed stadium. The official Forsyth Barr Stadium website was a good reference point for up-to-date information, including their live construction webcam. Special care had to be taken when using older pre-visualisations of the stadium, as the plans evolved over the length of construction. We had to make sure we were always drawing from the most recent material.
Q: Can you confirm Jonah Lomu will appear in the game somewhere?
A: Yes. Jonah Lomu, the legend himself, will feature in Rugby Challenge, not just as a winger but a captain of his own personalised team: The Jonah Lomu All Stars.
Q: Who are the commentators?
A: Former All Black Justin Marshall and seasoned commentator Grant Nisbett have added their voices to the game.
They also added their own touches to the script we provided to give a very personalised performances.
Q: I'm a North Otago fan. Will I be able to create North Otago and its players?
A: Rugby Challenge features extensive customisation tools which will allow you to create every player or team you can imagine.
Apply one of our custom strips or the Otago strips and you're good to go.
Q: An official RWC game is also being released. Confident yours will be better?
A: I think RWC 2011 has the opportunity to be a good game, and we've been conscious of their development. Competition drives us to make the best game possible though, and we have really looked to bring fresh ideas to the table.
We're very happy with Rugby Challenge in terms of quality and the depth provided by the myriad competitions, franchise mode, and online play will have fans playing the game for a long time to come, not to mention having the All Blacks, ITM Cup, Ranfurly Shield, and NZ Super Rugby team licences exclusively will have extra appeal to the local market.
• All Blacks Rugby Challenge is due to be released before the start of the Rugby World Cup on September 9.
