Declan Barry
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Posts posted by Declan Barry
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4 minutes ago, Hummingbird Saltalamacchia said:
Interesting reading the development blog. I wonder why the sales for the mobile game have slowly been declining over the last few years? If that is the case, is it due to there being minimal changes each year? Or maybe people are tired of playing mobile games? Maybe it’s a mixture of both? Although the mobile game is a fun game, the 23 edition I have barely played, maybe the mobile users want more I don’t know. I guess it makes sense what they have decided to do though, sounds like they want as many people to download the mobile game as possible and not just release the game each year knowing sales will continue to decline even more, having the game now available on Netflix you would imagine sales would be better and it opens the game up to a wider audience as stated. I see what Declan Barry is saying but games like Soccer Manager need to advertise and market their game a lot more than Sega have to with Football Manager which has been around for many years compared to Soccer Manager. It’s interesting to see how different this years game is compared to 23.
I agree a challenger brand needs to advertise more, but SI seem to mostly rely on their current consumer base and a little paid activity to propel the game to the top (basically 90% organic sales). When challenger brands are being so competitive, it’s no wonder SI are losing market share in the area by not investing in acquisition of new customers. For example, I type in “Football” into the App Store and the first thing I see is a Top Eleven ad. I cannot recall SI doing this with FM Mobile.
Likewise, relying on your core fan base is fine if the product matches expectations. However, casual players are not satisfied with an outdated UX and match engine vs competitors (3D is always one of the biggest feature asks), and for those that do play PC the game isn’t in depth enough as the feature set has stagnated in recent years. When FMH2006 came out it was based on CM2001. If we take that as the game was 5 years behind the PC version, the progression of the game has now drifted to be probably 15-20 years behind. Therefore, it’s failing to meet the modern expectations of PC players.
Coupled with the very little mentions SI give it throughout the year to expose more PC players to the series, it doesn’t take a genius to work out why sales are down.
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That’s all well and good but one thing that isn’t answered is why the game is an Netflix exclusive with no option to buy it on the stores?
I assume this comes down to the money offered for exclusivity and will never be answered as it’s confidential, but it’s incredibly disappointing that this wasn’t the mentioned.
I also feel like if FM Mobile wasn’t hitting sales targets then SI must consider why. The game gets next to no marketing (I see more paid ads on the App Store, TikTok etc… by Soccer Manager), has little thought in the SI marketing team all year round to the people that play the game to engage them to become advocates and has a very limited resource internally vs FM that leads to people getting bored of the game quicker as the game development is slow and there’s aspects that have been neglected for a long time (UX for instance) that would help people to play the game more often and for longer and reduce Churn.
Sadly I knew the outcome of this blog would always be blaming sales, but that seems like a cop out and the only way SI could position this to try and win positive sentiment back and not look like they’ve taken the pay check.
It also confirms my theory that in a few years FM Touch will likely be replacing FM Mobile for good and we can wave goodbye to the series.
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8 minutes ago, TopToffee said:
Also true of a game that comes as part of a subscription. The choice is not taken away at all.
There's still a choice but the choice is now:
A) Not buy the game
B) Spend 6x more than previously on the gameThis is of course presuming those fans who buy a Netflix subscription have done so just for the game. But you can argue that Netflix has a huge brand recall, therefore, most of those who don't have Netflix currently are not interested in getting it.
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23 minutes ago, Hildor said:
This whole thing reminds me of when clubs decided to create the European Super League and the fans revolted and actually forced the clubs to give it up, so the question here is, will SI actually listen to their die hard fans? I have doubts, the Netflix thing is probably signed and no way back.
The discord server also has shown people from some countries who find the game expensive/can't afford them/kids without a income yet. Netflix might be good for these kids for example if their parents have a subscription but for everyone who usually can't afford the game for it's normal price, how did SI think they can afford a Netflix subscription?
Overall where the fans taken into account or just a financial cutthroat corporate move?
We're seeing the same by the 31k members on the Facebook group too. It seems universal within the community that not many like this move and it's alienating fans further even though the main complaint has always been the price for specific regions.
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5 hours ago, StephenCronin said:
Translation: FMM was not profitable enough* for us to continue its development in the current manner. Therefore our only alternative was to shift to a new business model that would allow us to continue its development. We know this will upset you, but if we couldn't find a way to make it more profitable, we could not have continued to invest in it. This move will allow us to continue it's development and keep giving you (or whoever the new users are after you've left) this great game. <optional statement about the new business model allowing us to add exciting new features for you!>
*it's important to note that for a tech company in 2023, a product being profitable might not be enough to justify it's continuation. It has to be profitable enough. If you spend 10M on a product and have a profit of only 1M, then you need to consider how much more you could have earned if you spent that 10M elsewhere. And if a product is only making a small profit, you're better off retiring that product and spending the money on another product that will give you greater profits. And on top of that, if you want to attract investors, then you have to get the company profits into a certain ratio and can't be carrying any products with smaller profits.
I'm guessing that although FMM sells a lot, it also has a lot of costs and just isn't profitable enough from a business perspective
Of course, I could be totally off on all of this.
I think you’re spot on with this. To me it’s about milking every last penny from FM Mobile and attracting the casual fans (how many people will download for free and it rocket up the standings on the app stores’ charts at least temporarily allowing for new people to try it) before eventually killing off the series? With the Unity change and the Mobile series not getting this I dread that FM Mobile will become another FM Touch or FM Console where it’s just a streamlined PC version ported to a new system. I for one would hate this as I don’t have the time to play FM Touch and that’s why I love FM Mobile.
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7 minutes ago, Hildor said:
No sure what to think. At this point they should just come out and tell the community something before more damage is done 😢
They knew people would be disappointed but are proceeding to allow them to be upset for days until the blog that’s meant to make everything better is released. They’ve had months to prepare for this, surely that’s just a lack of care or they’re not actually bothered about it and want the problem to solve itself.
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I could comment and moan on this specific decision but what’s the point. FM Mobile has not occupied the minds of the higher ups for a long time now, starting with the rebrand to Mobile despite running on tablets. They said the vision would become clear but 10+ years later this hasn’t happened as the series has stagnated in both feature set and connection to the community.
I feel sorry for Marc Vaughan and the rest of the team delivering FM Mobile every year to a high standard. I applaud them for getting the experience to be so popular that it’s one of the biggest apps in the world with little support from the company.
It’s clear to me after so many years of playing the game and running/launching several FM Mobile fan sites and communities, that have reached hundreds of thousands of fans, that the series is seen as an after thought that is only there to maximise profit and margin. This Netflix decision underlines it as apparently the series was available to be bought by the highest bidder without considering the devout players who don’t want a Netflix subscription.
The fact that Miles hasn’t already prepared a statement around this and they’re not rushing to do so just underlines the lack of care for the series.I would say that I hope that the feature set is going to blow us out of the park as this new found wealth has been reinvested into the team, but I highly doubt it with Unity around the corner for every series apart from Mobile (surprise, surprise).
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3 hours ago, Zoot said:
I was second in my first season.
Given Champions League football leads to an influx of cash, I’d suggest that an additional €7m Euros over real life is quite stringent.
Nice are heavily backed by a rich British owner who tried to buy Chelsea and Man United too, so in my opinion this is realistic.
I do agree more financial depth would be great, however, I don’t want it like FM as it would be overkill in a game that the reviews say is already too complicated tactically.
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1 hour ago, Zoot said:
Latest save as OGC Nice second season transfer budget is 45 milion euros and Wage budget 859k euros per week. I think its waaaay too much and unrealistic and should be cut in half at least the transfer budget.
How did you do in the first season? Nice spent a net of €37m this season.
Source: Transfermarkt0 -
1 hour ago, Hummingbird Saltalamacchia said:
Great work by the mobile team 👏👏👏👏👏. Some excellent new features are there. In my opinion though the Medical Centre isn't necessary, don't we already know the condition and fitness already and if a player is at risk of getting injured etc, I guess this new features tells us what we already knew. I have always known the current health of my squad and if a player is at risk of getting injured due to low fitness. I'm not criticising at all but I think team talks or other features would have been better, maybe something more exciting. The Medical Centre looks rather pointless in my opinion as we can find out the relevant information when we look at our squad. Maybe once I see this feature then I might change my mind but I doubt it lol. Would love it if you can praise or critisice other managers and they do the same to you, play some mind games before a match or a big match, remember Ferguson and Wenger lol. Looking forward to purchasing this on the 9th of November, I usually purchase the game on iOS but will get it on the Play Store this year. Great work again 👏👏👏👏👏. I think I've already been sacked although the game ain't out yet lol. Here's hoping the game won't be as hard as last year's lol.
I believe the medical centre doesn't just look at fitness, but also considers match sharpness (something not displayed) and injury proneness (something your physio reports tell you). Therefore, whilst not necessarily completely new information, it factors in more than just the fitness of a player to allow you to decide when you should give a player a chance - or a rest if your player is injury prone and has been playing a lot of games in quick succession.
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John Terry is head coach? Are you sure? https://www.iambirmingham.co.uk/2018/10/10/aston-villa-appoint-dean-smith-new-manager-john-terry-assistant-coach/
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2 minutes ago, Totalfootballfan said:
Liam posted my activity since August and it showed that there's been about 10 posts or even less from accounts associated with my account and all those posts were strictly in my thread.
If you want to discuss this further, please message me as we’ve been told not to talk about Base here.
However, for transparency we did look into the database and found downvotes on other creators relating to your IP, it wasn’t necessarily comments.
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- Popular Post
4 minutes ago, Totalfootballfan said:On FM-Base Tzahy haven been offended and trolled all recent years... What was his fault? He was hated just because he liked my tactic and followed me? Has anyone apologized to him? Has anyone got banned for offending him? He is also SI's customer... and those offend could stopping him from playing...
People who followed me constantly were offended and accused to be me or my agents? But if you are wrong and what if you accused an innocent person… should you get banned for that too?
Recent years there almost wasn't any moderation at all on FM-Base so anyone can come to my threads and offend me or say anything that was far from constructive "critics". I remember that some guys told me that "my balls should be put cheese grater" because he lost a match with my tactic… Did something happened to those people? Nope… no one got banned or something like that…
I'm not trying to find any
excuses for what I did but just telling that there are many people on FM-Base who are also not "saint" at all.
Since August FM Base has been under new ownership, therefore we are clamping down on abuse of our system. 75+ accounts that boosted your tactics and degraded others’ is probably the biggest abuse to date and it is likely that it will be for a long time.
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Personally I don’t think the tactics are the issue, it’s the AI. Teams aren’t smart enough to learn to play to your weaknesses, there’s not enough fatigue/injuries and you don’t get much unsettling of players or big, hard to decline bids in for your players that will really make your team play poorly due to unhappiness.
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1 hour ago, Slamkid said:
Reserve leagues are a welcome idea. But the tactics system and agreed the scouting need just a little more oomph to make it more fun and realistic.
For my the tactics system is the perfect depth, we just need more player roles. However, given the long gametime of every FM game, it's always going to get boring after a year
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The Tactics System got revamped a few years ago, they're not going to revamp that so soon. I would have liked scouting to have the same treatment but reserve teams are much requested and the new youth set up looks a big step up in my opinion.
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2 hours ago, passenger58 said:
I'm not expecting a fancy webpage with screenshots. Just a bullet point list of features would be nice. I work in software development and I expect the scope of this release would have been defined months ago. Its not like they only started working on it in mid-October.
But features are the most exciting thing, why would you peak your marketing and get press coverage with no call to action that will make you actual money? The game relies on impulse buys as much as anything and with no option of that it’d be the worst marketing decision to do it early
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11 hours ago, Kennyd100 said:
It doesn't matter if Fmm doesn't get pre orders, the game sells and makes money its ranked number 4 in top selling games, so again it makes cash, so I don't think its unrealistic to ask for a couple of early features, as everything that's in the game will be in it by now, like they will know what new leagues etc
On one hand I agree, on the other hand from a marketing point of view it doesn't make sense to not give a call to action and talk about a game significantly.
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20 hours ago, passenger58 said:
Thanks for the response, Marc. I'm sure you guys are working really hard on things.
Just out of interest, why does FMM not get this sort of marketing several weeks before release?
Even if it's not on a fancy website, just a list of new features would be great to see.
It's simply that FM Mobile at present doesn't have pre-orders so it makes no sense for marketing to be done when people cannot purchase the game for a few weeks. Probably as well is that they don't want to lessen the impact of their highest margin product's release in the PC game.
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On 28/08/2019 at 15:04, hawk_c said:
is it gonna included greek superleague in FMM 2020??
we are asking for it 2 years now
last year you added the most unpopular league from china
omg
Leagues are decided on where the most sales come from AND a lot of people asked for China. Be an ambassador for Greece and ask all your friends to buy the game
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3. allow us to start unemployed
4. add VAR for mobile
Both of these are in the game already8. allow us to switch from enhanced match engine to classic match engine and vice versa
As they change more than just graphics I doubt that's possible0 -
On 18/07/2019 at 22:56, poopie said:
I still don't understand why there aren't more leagues in the mobile version.
There's so many popular leagues in Latin America that aren't on the mobile version.
ex.
Argentina - Superliga
Brazil - Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
Mexico - Liga MX
and so many more.
Behind European leagues, Latin American leagues are the most important to the world of football if not, the most.
I don't get it.
The game picks leagues based on sales in that region. Brazil used to be on but was removed due to license issues and the fact the game can no longer be sold in this nation.
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On 27/02/2019 at 15:12, TheFootballManagerer said:
I would also like the ability to skip replays. It's a bit jarring when you have to sit through each replay without being able to skip it just like full fat & Touch version.
You can turn replays off in your in-match settings I believe.
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@Lillywhite Dean For the second one I think if more clauses were introduced and/or team status then the game could be more clever with it such as...
"Messi wishes to be the club's highest paid player, and requests an option in his contract to match the top wage at the club"
"Hudson-Odoi believes he has the ability to be a rotation player for the first team and wants his status to reflect this"
"Due to the signing of youngster Mina for a big transfer fee, Hummels feels he will play a key part in his development and would like a wage increase"
This will cut down the amount of contract requests while being realistic in the requests managers deal with (and provide context). Personality can play a part too as a professional player won't care about others' circumstances, where as a disloyal player may request more and threaten a transfer request.1
FMM now stuck behind a Netflix subscription!?
in Football Manager Mobile General Discussion
Posted · Edited by Declan Barry
We ran the same post on our FM Mobile Facebook group. After 3 days here are the results.
678 total votes split up by:
58% already have Netflix
40% do not have Netflix and are not considering a subscription
2% do not have Netflix but are now considering a subscription