"The game is now more realistic and authentic than ever before with more teams, and fine-tuned gameplay aspects such as passing and formations and many other details of the game."

We haven’t heard too much about Rugby Challenge 3 since its initial announcement in July. How is development currently progressing?

Development is complete!  We invested a lot of development time to add Be A Pro mode, Rugby Sevens and an online FanHub for users to create players and teams – each of these major features bring a whole new experience to the existing game. As well as this, significant time was spent improving subtle details of the games based on a lot of fan feedback that had been captured.

Can you tell us about the different teams that will feature? How does the roster selection compare to the previous game?

All Blacks, Wallabies, Springboks and England. They appear in international and sevens international competitions: Avivia, The NRC, Currie Cup, Super Rugby, ITM Cup and more!

How is Ruby Challenge 3 working to differentiate the various teams as well as their respective players from each other?

Each team has unique team lineups and players with unique appearances. The stats also affect the gameplay on field. Furthermore, we tried to get the overall ratings roughly the same level as the real life teams IRB rankings.

What kind of effort has gone into creating the authentic rugby atmosphere that players enjoy most from the sport (for example, the commentary, crowd ambience, etc.)?

Most of the work went into new features. The game is now more realistic and authentic than ever before with more teams, and fine-tuned gameplay aspects such as passing and formations and many other details of the game.

Be a Pro mode is one of the bigger new additions and allows players to build themselves up over 13 seasons. What can you tell us about the various challenges that can be expected on the way to international fame?

You can play rugby from a professional rugby players point of view, customise and control your player though their career. Gain an all new insight and experience from controlling the game from a single player’s perspective. As you progress you are given objectives depending on your position, which get more difficult over time and tie into the new be a pro achievements.

"We really had to squeeze to get all the new features into the old generation consoles. Each feature we added meant we had to optimize and save some space somewhere."

Will there be any new additions to the multiplayer modes this time around?

The game now supports the addition to multiplayer, the Sevens or 15’s options in either a private or a quick / ranked match.

Rugby Challenge 3 will be heading to the Xbox One and PS4 as well as Xbox 360 and PS3 (aside from PC as well). Can you tell us about some of the new visual touches and features?

On next generation consoles our main goal was to achieve 1080p. This meant we were able to increase the detail of all the textures, and sharpen the graphics of the stadia as well. The new game is about 4x the resolution of the previous titles. We also made sure we kept the same overall visual, style and look and feel from the previous titles in the series.

Will the game run at 1080p resolution and 60 FPS on current gen consoles? Did you have any issue bringing all of the game’s features to the previous generation of consoles?

The game will be running in 1080p at a smooth 30 FPS. We really had to squeeze to get all the new features into the old generation consoles. Each feature we added meant we had to optimize and save some space somewhere. Due to the experience and technical skills of the Wicked Witch team, this was not only possible, but quite amazing to see how much more could be packed into an already fully featured game!

What can you tell us about the potential behind FanHub when it comes to fans creating and sharing players in the community?

This is one of the big new features to RC3, this area allows fans to create player likenesses the way that they see them, and edit stats of players and teams as time goes on.  You can also create your own dream teams with any players that you want!

What is the one feature you’re most excited about in Rugby Challenge 3 and how will it change the way people view the franchise going forward?

It is a tossup between Seven’s and Be a Pro mode. The studio is divided on which one of these is the best feature, as they both bring a whole new playing experience to an already great game.

"We are always optimizing and improving our game engine with Direct X updates, some features certainly improve performance so we always ensure we are up to date."

We have had several developers in the past confirming to us that it’s a challenge to handle Xbox One’s eSRAM whereas some others are using it wisely for storing z-buffer and texture streaming. How did the development team handle the eSRAM issue of the Xbox One?

Yes, there were challenges on both next generation platforms, preserving the gameplay and increasing the resolution and texture densities. The eSRAM issue was handled fairly easily by the development team as one of the many challenges!

Are you using the latest SDK that allows more CPU power for the Xbox One? If yes, how is this impacting the game’s performance?

We are using a recent SDK that allows us to use the core that was previously dedicated to the Kinect.  This has been helpful in getting some better performance for the Xbox One and allowing us to run at 1080p.  This is the first installment of RC3 on Xbox One / PS4 and we are confident we can build on this and improve features and performance overtime.

What are your thoughts on upcoming technologies such as DirectX What kind of impact do you think it will have PC and Xbox One games?

We are always optimizing and improving our game engine with Direct X updates, some features certainly improve performance so we always ensure we are up to date. Microsoft is great at releasing updates and providing direct support to our studio that enables us to do that.

Is there anything else you want to tell us about the game before we let you go?

We hope that you all enjoy what we have done with the Rugby Challenge franchise, and if you have any questions or feedback, please let us know!

Despite talk of upgraded Xbox One consoles, the console’s eSRAM still remains a point of contention for many developers. It’s becoming a lot more manageable recently as a Wicked Witch Software executive told GamingBolt. We asked the Rugby Challenge 3 developer about eSRAM and the challenges it posed for other studios (with some using it more wisely for texture streaming). Did the development team face any issue with eSRAM when working on the Xbox One?

“Yes, there were challenges on both next generation platforms, preserving the gameplay and increasing the resolution and texture densities. The eSRAM issue was handled fairly easily by the development team as one of the many challenges.”

Is the studio using the latest SDK for more CPU power and does it impact the game’s performance? “We are using a recent SDK that allows us to use the core that was previously dedicated to the Kinect. This has been helpful in getting some better performance for the Xbox One and allowing us to run at 1080p. This is the first installment of RC3 on Xbox One/PS4 and we are confident we can build on this and improve features and performance overtime.”

Rugby Challenge 3 launches this year for the PS4, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and PC later this year.

Rugby Challenge 3 has gotten its first gameplay trailer just ahead of the game’s official release. The game was originally supposed to be releasing in late 2015 but the title was delayed a number of times until it was eventually pushed into 2016. This is the third game in what has actually become a long running series, with the first Rugby Challenge getting released in 2011.

This new gameplay trailer shows off some in-game footage and even teases what a few of the teams will look like in Rugby Challenge 3. This game is the first in the series which is making its way to the current generation of console. That’s one of the reasons the title is looking so good. The new trailer shows a few teams that are among the best of the best in the world such as England, New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia.

Those teams not shown off but promised to be in the game include teams from “Rugby Union, Rugby Seven’s (featuring in the 2016 Olympics), plus England (Six Nations Grand Slam Champions), to the Aviva Premiership, South African clubs, plus The Springboks, The All Blacks (World Champions) and The Wallabies, the Currie Cup”. Rugby Challenge 3 is set to release for the  PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on April 22 in Ireland and the UK.

Rugby fans the world over can officially rejoice as Tru Blu Entertainment and Wicked Witch Software announced on Tuesday that they were releasing Rugby Challenge 3 later this year for the Xbox One, the Xbox 360, PS3, PS4 and the PC. The first game in this now long running series was first announced back in 2011 and because this is just the third game in the franchise, it’s clear this isn’t a yearly release. That makes the news that this iteration of the game is coming this year that much better.

The two companies are touting the abilities of the current generation consoles especially when it comes to bringing the realism of the Rugby pitch to players’ televisions. Some of that realism is packed in a new feature that is being introduced for the first time in the series in the form of seven-a-side Rugby. As is the case with more sports games than ever before, Rugby Challenge 3 will also have the ability to step into the shoes of a professional Rugby player with the “be a pro” mode. This allows users to take on the role of a rookie who is trying to make it in the best Rugby leagues in the world.

The game also has improved, in-game commentary from seasoned rugby commentators Grant Nisbett and former All Blacks player turned announcer Justin Marshall.  The title will include French language commentary from Eric Bayle and Thomas Lombard. There are a number of different game modes to be enjoyed in this particular iteration including Single Match; multi-team Competition; extensive multi-year Career Mode; Be a Pro Mode; and Online Multiplayer Mode. Rugby Challenge 3 will hit during the final quarter of this year, though an official release date is still unknown.