The football management genre has had one major series running away with success and that’s Football Manager. EA Sports have seen this trend continuing and has decided to cancel its own series, FIFA Manager, due to this near domination by Sports Interactive’s brand.
Gerald Köhler spoke to GamesIndustry about the decision, mention the domination of rivals and also said:
“The niche market and general trend toward online and mobile games were also contributing factors. Moreover, FM had reached a crossroads at which a new engine and/or corresponding online technology would be the only way to give the series a boost. When all these factors were evaluated, it led us to the decision to blow the final whistle.”
This now leaves Football Manager as pretty much the major sole entity in the genre, with FIFA Manager gone and Championship Manager existing in a state of ambiguity.
Source: GI.biz
Amphlett
This sounds a worrying alarm for me. Will FM be able to sit back a little and not progress as much as it could over the next few iterations? Of course there are those who say that progression of FM has been at a saunter over the last few years anyway.
The opposite argument is that this leaves the field open for FM to try a few risky developments without competition stealing a march should things not pan out.
Interesting times for the footy management genre…
Adam Guest
I’m quietly hoping this means we might see a few more in-depth management options sneak in to the full FIFA releases.
StevenHibs
Like a previous poster said, FM has stuttered the last few versions. Due to no competition, the current game is a mess