It’s been a couple of years since Cricket 22, and having taken a year off for the series last year, publisher Nacon and developer Big Ant Studios have now announced a new instalment. Cricket 24 will be launching just in time for the Ashes this year, and it’ll be bringing plenty of new additions for fans to look forward to.
One of the biggest headlining additions is Pro Team, a new Ultimate Team-like mode that will see players collecting player cards to build their dream team, complete with an Auction mode. Pro Team will allow players to take on single player weekly challenges in addition to playing against other players online.
Career Mode will also see various improvements, chief among them being players being afforded greater control over what sort of a cricketer they want to be- you can focus on specializing in shorter versions of the game for ODI or T20 cricket, you can focus on Test matches, or you can try and be a jack of all trades.
Big Ant Studios is also promising the biggest collection of licensing for a cricket game to date for a number of tournaments around the world, including The Ashes, the KFC BBL and Weber WBBL, The Hundred, the Caribbean Premier League, and a number of Indian T20 teams that will be announced at a later date- whether the latter refers to IPL teams remains to be seen. Meanwhile, licenses for major international teams like Australia, England, New Zealand, Ireland, and the West Indies will also be included, as will over 50 detailed official stadia.
Of course, players can expect The Ashes to receive special treatment as well- the mode will boast unique cutscenes, special commentary, press conferences, team training sessions, and more. Additionally, players will be able to play not only as either Australia or England, but also as specific individual players.
On the pitch action is also seeing some changes, with Cricket 24 featuring a new and overhauled fielding system that, according to the developers, will be “the most realistic and responsive fielding controls ever seen in a cricket video game.” Meanwhile, support for full cross-platform multiplayer has also been confirmed.
Cricket 24 will launch for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC in June, with free current-gen upgrades also offered. The game will also launch for the Nintendo Switch in November.