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Stop milking the FM-franchise with new versions every year!!


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I think SI should get back to releasing Football Manager with the sequels a few years aparts and with yearly season-packs between them. For example, say Football Manager 2009 was a full game (since it had the new engine) with full price. Then we could have two season-packs FM 09/10, FM 10/11 between with just minor fixes and updated squads. They would cost as expansion packs. Then this year we could have Football Manager 2012 as the full sequel with major changes and new features.

I don´t think it is justified having a full-price new version of the game every year. If Football Manager 2012 included all the changes from FM10, FM11 and this years FM12 it would be a major update, worthy of a sequel and the full price. Also, it would mean less significant more time for SI to come up with changes instead of having to rush out a new version every year!

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What do you mean 'get back to releasing Football Manager with the sequels a few years aparts'?

There has always been a new full price game released every year - and most players would be very disappointed if this stopped (myself included).

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What do you mean 'get back to releasing Football Manager with the sequels a few years aparts'?

There has always been a new full price game released every year - and most players would be very disappointed if this stopped (myself included).

I mean get back to how CM was originally released (see above!).

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What do you mean 'get back to releasing Football Manager with the sequels a few years aparts'?

There has always been a new full price game released every year - and most players would be very disappointed if this stopped (myself included).

What 15 years ago? Anyway again its nothing at all to do with SI, its to do with SEGA, or EDOS as it was back in CM days.

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Do all FM-players really buy every new version anyway?

Not ALL, clearly. Silly thing to say. But a lot do.

After playing FM for a few hours each day, for 365 days - I don't just want a "transfer update". I want new features and improvements.

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I actually agree with the OP. I'm still playing FM2010 as there didn't seem to be thirty pounds worth of improvements/new features in FM2011. However I would have spent, say.. £9.99 on a season pack with an updated database.

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I actually agree with the OP. I'm still playing FM2010 as there didn't seem to be thirty pounds worth of improvements/new features in FM2011. However I would have spent, say.. £9.99 on a season pack with an updated database.

What were the general attitude among CM-players 10 years ago when CM was released the way I propose? Did most players yearn for a full new game each year or were they happy with the seasonal updates?

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I don't like games. I like football. I play FM and PES.

Well, perhaps I´m just not a hardcore FM-player so I don´t mind if it takes years between new releases. There are so many other great games that I switch between and FM is just one of them.

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Well, perhaps I´m just not a hardcore FM-player so I don´t mind if it takes years between new releases. There are so many other great games that I switch between and FM is just one of them.

With respect, surely a non-hardcore-FMer has no right to be talking about "milking franchises"?

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I actually agree with the OP. I'm still playing FM2010 as there didn't seem to be thirty pounds worth of improvements/new features in FM2011. However I would have spent, say.. £9.99 on a season pack with an updated database.

FM 10 was an unplayable ****! **** narrow formations.

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With respect, surely a non-hardcore-FMer has no right to be talking about "milking franchises"?

Why? They might not be milking casual FM-players like me, but I think they milk the community. Just like Sims with its expansion packs and Valve with new releases of Left 4 Dead only a year apart.

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What were the general attitude among CM-players 10 years ago when CM was released the way I propose? Did most players yearn for a full new game each year or were they happy with the seasonal updates?

As someone that has bought every single version SI has released I am very happy with the way they release games.

Even with CM it was much more than just a seasonal update and sold for a similar price each year.

I really can't believe you are whining about an annual release when CM/FM has always been towards the cheaper end of the new release market and offers far more playtime than 99.9% of games on the market. In terms of value for money (cost per hour played) CM/FM has to be light years ahead of most games for most people.

Aside from that as others have already said no-one is twisting your arm to buy it each year, its entirely your choice.

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Why? They might not be milking casual FM-players like me, but I think they milk the community. Just like Sims with its expansion packs and Valve with new releases of Left 4 Dead only a year apart.

I think you've got it all wrong.

They'd be "milking it" if they just released an update, like you suggest - and charged you for it!!! I'd be furious.

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I think you've got it all wrong.

They'd be "milking it" if they just released an update, like you suggest - and charged you for it!!! I'd be furious.

Not really, since it would not be full price.

But since it seems most of you here disagrees, I suppose SI has valid reasons to do what they do, even if I loathe the more "business" type aspects of the industry. I will continue to buy the game with say 2-3 versions in between at least.

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Yup like cougar said, the CMs were sold for around the same price every year.

CM03/04 cost as much as CM4 etc, your asking for them to charge full price for one year and then cheaper for updated season and tweaking some bugs, which is what si did with the CM's but it was not sold any cheaper.

I wouldnt mind SI doing this again, id still pay full price for a updated/polished game. Every year si had new features to try and out do the last version so people will buy it, but every year we end up with more bugs from the new features.

Like the agent fee bugs this year, the fans morale on the board room screen last year, i think we all come to expect a new feature to be buggy the first year its added, but to be fair si normally sort it for the next version, by which time they have added another new feature which is buggy untill the next version and so on.

Maybe its a ploy from si, they fix a previous feature but add a new on thats not quite right, so that people will have to buy the next version of FM because they cant do with the buggy feature. If the game was perfect who would want to buy the next one? Well i would, id buy for the season updates and maybe some more cosmetic features added each year..

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milk the community.

Buying FM every year isn't that costly, they should keep it the way it is.There are games on the market ala Homefront with 4 hour campaigns, FM offers hundreds of hours.Talkin' about getting your money's worth.

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But you still need to buy FM every year to get the new players. I can´t get an updated database in my FM08, right? So it is really a non-issue...

New players? Again have you actually looked in the editors forum? There are tons of database updates, including kids SI wont yet include, updated transfers, finances, staff anything really you could think of. No there is not likely an FM08 update, the game is close to 4 years old now, very very few games out there still being updated 4 years later.

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I completely hate the idea of this. Every time I buy a new FM it feels like a new game to me, all those who say "this game is exactly the same!!" I really don't know what you're talking about.

I'd rather just have a new FM each year, I hate sticking by games that feel old so this idea would make me lose any interest.

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New players? Again have you actually looked in the editors forum? There are tons of database updates, including kids SI wont yet include, updated transfers, finances, staff anything really you could think of. No there is not likely an FM08 update, the game is close to 4 years old now, very very few games out there still being updated 4 years later.

I wouldn´t expect new databases for FM08 either, and I personally don´t mind that much if my database is a little dated. After playing a few seasons, most of the players are generated by the computer anyway.

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so whats your point then?

I was just interested to see what the general consensus was about the way SI releases these games. But since most of the fans here seems to be happy with it and don´t feel cheated, I suppose it´s ok. Maybe it is more a concern for more casual fans like me, and several of the official reviews have also complained about some versions of FM not being justified enough to be released as a new game for full price (for example FM08).

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Whaat? FM has always been released each year, since it was created. For the price the game costs, I probably get best value from FM than ANYTHING ELSE IN MY LIFE - not just games, for time spent on it compared to the amount I pay.

I am once again really looking forward to FM12....

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FM 10 was an unplayable ****! **** narrow formations.

Its your tactics ;)

I think perhaps the thread title is a little more aggresive than the actual opening post suggests and the poor guy is taking a bit of flak now. It's worth asking the question regarding yearly releases - would an 'every other year' release improve the game? There appears to be a significant amount of FM players who refuse to buy the game until the x.3 patch; would an extra year allow for a higher quality initial release due to the extra QA and development times that an extra year would provide?

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I think perhaps the thread title is a little more aggresive than the actual opening post suggests and the poor guy is taking a bit of flak now. It's worth asking the question regarding yearly releases - would an 'every other year' release improve the game? There appears to be a significant amount of FM players who refuse to buy the game until the x.3 patch; would an extra year allow for a higher quality initial release due to the extra QA and development times that an extra year would provide?

Given that SI/Sega have said in the past that their business plan is based around an annual release I doubt you'll see anything else in the near future, especially given that football has annual seasons.

In terms of would an extra year mean a better game I think you would find the improvement to be fairly minimal:

A) Older game would be supported for longer (Currently about 5 months but no doubt this would increase to 10-12 months).

B) More development time would probably mean more features being added/improved.

C) The length of time given to testers to find bugs would probably be similar.

D) The length of time given to fix bugs after testing would probably be similar.

E) Several bugs appear as a result of fixing other bugs.

F) Several bugs (particularly minor ones) are only found by users when the game is released.

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I've bought every version since CM01/02 apart from FM09 and FM10 when my old computers graphic card wasn't up to showing the 3D match play. I have often thought that a yearly database update would be a good idea and give SI the time needed to come out with a game that works out of the box rather than 3-4 months and 2-3 patches later. The truth of the matter though is that in our greed is good society profit rather than excellence is the bottom line and just because the FM series happens to be the best of its type is a handy bit of luck in this respect.

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I think SI should get back to releasing Football Manager with the sequels a few years aparts and with yearly season-packs between them. For example, say Football Manager 2009 was a full game (since it had the new engine) with full price. Then we could have two season-packs FM 09/10, FM 10/11 between with just minor fixes and updated squads. They would cost as expansion packs. Then this year we could have Football Manager 2012 as the full sequel with major changes and new features.

I don´t think it is justified having a full-price new version of the game every year. If Football Manager 2012 included all the changes from FM10, FM11 and this years FM12 it would be a major update, worthy of a sequel and the full price. Also, it would mean less significant more time for SI to come up with changes instead of having to rush out a new version every year!

terrible idea, you know how much money they would lose in doing that ? it would drive them out of business

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Given that SI/Sega have said in the past that their business plan is based around an annual release I doubt you'll see anything else in the near future, especially given that football has annual seasons.

In terms of would an extra year mean a better game I think you would find the improvement to be fairly minimal:

A) Older game would be supported for longer (Currently about 5 months but no doubt this would increase to 10-12 months).

B) More development time would probably mean more features being added/improved.

C) The length of time given to testers to find bugs would probably be similar.

D) The length of time given to fix bugs after testing would probably be similar.

E) Several bugs appear as a result of fixing other bugs.

F) Several bugs (particularly minor ones) are only found by users when the game is released.

But the problem if the game isn't released annually is - can SI afford to keep on the same amount of staff? So you could get a longer time to testers, but with fewer testers...so the end result stays about the same.

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I agree with ArsenalFan7. I like the yearly releases and what they bring to the table has been worth the price every year for me. This becomes very obvious every time I try to replay last year's version.

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