EA admits defeat to SEGA’s Football Manager, no more FIFA Manager series

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Before SEGA owned Sports Interactive and the Football Manager series, SEGA fought against EA Sports with their brand called ‘SEGA Sports’. Seems that SEGA finally gets a small victory (especially after they took the NFL license and was forced to sell Visual Concepts and its 2K brand of sports titles to Take Two). EA Sports has announced that they will not longer publish their own FIFA Manager series.

FIFA Manager 14 will be the last entry in the franchise, here is lead designer Gerald Köhler explaining the reason for leaving the Football sim market.

“The football manager genre at this level of sophistication is highly specialised and primarily played in two countries (England and Germany), in which – on top of everything – one game has practically dominated the market in recent years. 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. We hope you’ll keep playing FM as long as possible, and that the fan sites will go all out to expand and improve the game wherever they can. For all your years of support and all your passion for our game, we thank you.”

I hope the FIFA Manager team finds jobs developing other games, I don’t like people losing their jobs. But hey, at least SEGA didn’t pull a grimy move and buy some sort of sports license to kill the competition, right?

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5 responses to “EA admits defeat to SEGA’s Football Manager, no more FIFA Manager series

  1. Aki-at says:

    OMG

    George man did I ever tell you were my favourite writer? You know how to connect with your readership so well ie. Me.

  2. Adam says:

    Hey, George, I dig the compassion for workers. I may sound idealistic, but I hope one day developers won’t be at the whim of corporate big wigs and be able to determine their own destinies.

  3. Unknown says:

    Hahahahaaa…..

  4. SkyBlue says:

    Well…I certainly “did not see” that one coming!

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