In the lead up to this year's Rugby World Cup in Japan, Bigben and Eko Software have announced that after plenty of speculation, there will indeed be a new rugby game coming out to coincide with the tournament.
The announcement was largely overlooked by mainstream rugby media but will come as exciting news for those fans who have enjoyed previous rugby games, and have been hoping for that all elusive improvement on some disappointing titles in the past.
"Eko Software has been working for nearly two years on a new rugby game. They’ve relied heavily on the feedback from the Rugby 18 community in order to create a title that is even more faithful to the sport," said their press release.
"The goal is to create a new gold standard in rugby simulations for this year’s World Cup in Japan. Numerous details have been reworked for this new opus: the tactical depth and graphic rendering have been improved, and the AI has been revamped.
"During the development of this new rugby game, the studio has surrounded themselves with experts in order to faithfully reproduce team tactics."
They also confirmed that the game will be released on PlayStation 4TM, Xbox One, and PC.
It sounds promising for rugby fans. Now we just sit and wait for further news.