Cricket 24 The Official Game of the Ashes PS5 PS4 Announcements 1

After a somewhat successful first attempt at a next-gen cricket game on PS5 and PS4, long-time partners Nacon and Big Ant Studios are back to bowl up another serving of virtual bat-and-ball action. The press release confirms that Cricket 24 will build upon the foundations of the previous game, although it’s promising the “most complete video game simulation of cricket seen to date”.

The press release expounds: “From the cover through to each immersive game mode in Cricket 24, Big Ant Studios continue their commitment to equality and equal representation with both the Men’s and Women’s cricket having equal representation throughout.” As the official game of the Ashes, it’ll also lean hard on that aspect, including unique commentary, cutscenes, and more to mark the occasion of the tournament.

But that’s not all: there’ll be over 200 officially licensed players in the game, all represented with authentic photogrammetry. And that expands to all major national teams, like England, Australia, and the West Indies, as well as rosters from The Hundred and a handful of teams from the Indian T20. It looks like the developer has gone hard on the licensing, which is good to see.

The Road to the Show-esque Career Mode will return, while fielding – which, let’s be honest, was horrific in the previous game – has been given a complete rebuild. There’ll also be a Diamond Dynasty-esque Pro Team mode, where you’ll collect player cards to build your own squad with – and this will include both single player and competitive online modes, with full console crossplay.

Obviously cricket is an acquired taste, but we thought the developer did a decent job with its previous effort, and it sounds like this version is making improvements in all the right places. We’re really eager to see that all-important fielding gameplay, because that aspect felt dreadful in Cricket 22, and is obviously a third of the experience, beyond just batting and bowling.

The title’s due out in June, with no official release date just yet. However, considering the Ashes are scheduled to get underway on 16th June, we’d expect it to drop somewhere around there.