Championship Manager will never be the same again.

[DutchFootballRulez]

This is from www.sigames.com

Sports Interactive and Eidos to part company

Publisher and developer of the best-selling Championship Manager series of football management games agree to work together once more before going their separate ways.
04/09/03: Sports Interactive and Eidos today announce that they have mutually decided to end their longstanding relationship in relation to the development of the Championship Manager series of computer games. The two companies will work together on Championship Manager: Season 03/04, which will be the last game in the series to be developed by Sports Interactive. The game will be released by Eidos in the fourth quarter of this calendar year.

Both parties will retain their respective intellectual properties, with Eidos retaining the name ‘Championship Manager’ and Sports Interactive keeping ownership of the player database and source code.

Eidos will develop Championship Manager internally, with an update release planned for the 2004/2005 football season, while Sports Interactive will announce its plans for future football projects in the first quarter of 2004.

"If this were the music industry, we would be talking about a classic case of 'musical differences'," says Miles Jacobson, Managing Director of Sports Interactive. "We've enjoyed an excellent relationship with Eidos for many years now and will work closely with them to make sure that our final collaboration is the best version of CM ever. After that, I expect that we will become the friendliest of rivals."

“We would like to thank everyone involved with Sports Interactive for their hard work in helping establish Championship Manager as one of the industry’s most successful franchises,” says Jonathan Kemp, Eidos’ European Managing Director. “Moving the development of Championship Manager to our newly-created internal studio will enable us to build upon the phenomenal success of the game and develop the brand further.”

Championship Manager was created by brothers Paul and Ov Collyer in the late 1980s and first published by Domark in 1992. The brothers formed the development company Sports Interactive in 1994 and Eidos took over the publishing reins in 1995 when it acquired Domark. To date, the game has sold more than 4,000,000 copies, while the latest edition (Championship Manager 4) became the UK's fastest-selling PC game upon its launch on March 28th 2003.



WOW, after 03/04 we'll have to decide whom to purchase SIGames all new manager or Eidos-bastardized CM4 04/05.

[NASL Fan]

Originally posted by DutchFootballRulez
This is from www.sigames.com

Sports Interactive and Eidos to part company

Both parties will retain their respective intellectual properties, with Eidos retaining the name ‘Championship Manager’ and Sports Interactive keeping ownership of the player database and source code.



Sounds like a no-brainer to me. You gotta go with what the Collyers come up with. They're keeping the code and the database, the essence of the game.

Maybe they'll ditch the 2D and go back to a more "pure" form of the game.

You figure they're parting company because they had a dispute about either one or both of two things: 1) the "direction" of the game and 2) money.

[DutchFootballRulez]

I figure Money and displeasure toward how CM4 ended up.

I think EIDOS rushed SIGames into what CM4 turned out to be (buggy). I think SI decided "If you're going to rush us into hurting our reputation, we want more money."

So Eidos will pretty much lay off of SI while they make CM 03/04 which will probably be outstanding. I actually like the 2D somewhat. However, Cm4 is my first game so I have no frame of reference.

What disappoints me is that Eidos is going to retain the Champ Man name. Which means the Champ Man history will be tainted by the next release. People (like me) are already biased against CM 04/05.

[stattosoftware]

Is it really as big as everyone thinks it is? All that really is happening is that there's going to be an Eidos CM and a SIGames SI.

[sendorange]

Yep, SI pushed for this, they were very unhappy about being rushed into releasing CM4 before it was ready.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=53139

With CM4 selling so well, SI having such a devoted fanbase and Eidos in financial trouble, they had the muscle to break away and will easily be able to get another publisher for their game without any problems. The source code and the data base are what makes CM great, the name on it's own will rapidly become valueless. The only interesting thing is who will take it up, the first candidate is EA - because they own the FIFA licenses and have long tried to compete with SI. That would be a perfect alliance, but apparently EA have been going all out on Total Club Manager, so might not want to dump that for SI. The other main candidate is Microsoft, and they certainly have the money to beat off the competition.

I think this will actually work out great for SI, sure they'll have to build the brand name of their game up from scratch to regular punters, but their legions of fans will back them and spread the word, which will make that easy. Also since the horrendous bugs of CM4, it's probably better for them to have a fresh start with a new game title. I've bought every version of CM since the first, right back in the Domark days, and even my faith was severely dented by CM4.

[stattosoftware]

EA won't do it, they've already got TCM 2004. I'm sure Eidos will find some group willing to do so.

Microsoft? THAT came from left field, I'm not sure that they would even care about it unless Seattle got an MLS franchise.

Just watch out for the free Statto Soccer Manager... sorry had to plug myself.

This just means nonCM 5+ will be great.

[Tony Cheval]

SI technical talents + Microsoft marketing=BLING BLING. And at bottom, that's all the latter really cares about, isn't it? :D

I'm probably a bit less surprised by this move than most, from what I've heard among the gaming community at large, Eidos has some serious issues, best for the Collyers to jump the sinking ship now.

[DutchFootballRulez]

Yes, EIDOS sold off other franchises, another which I can't remember. I guess they put too much stock behind Tomb Raider and its endless crappy sequels

But SIGames may not want the publisher BREATHING down its neck. Rushing it into another 'CM4'. It depends on the kind of working deal SI gets one that allows it to setup its own deadlines, so we won't see another bug-filled release. SI may end up w/ Infrogrames (ATARI) or Take-Two. IMO

[Elwood]

My only hope is that this means there'll be a useful game come out if one of the companies. CM4 was, IMO, a disgrace. If Eidios was to blame, good riddance! The fact that there'll be a 2nd game published this calendar year (when the first one was, basically, crap) is annoying, though. I'm gonna pass on CM 03/04 and give TCM 04 a try, and then see what SI and Eidios come up with next year.

[stattosoftware]

Well because of this maybe other SMGs will get some play, like SAAP, not just the big ones.

[K.J.]

Originally posted by stattosoftware
Well because of this maybe other SMGs will get some play, like SAAP, not just the big ones.

I certainly concur that Mac Howard's Sick as a Parrot (SaaP) has been, sadly if I may add, much under-appreciated by the football gaming public. Still, it does enjoy a strong cult following. Indeed, SaaP could well be the next big thing waiting to be discovered by the mainstream public.

[DutchFootballRulez]

Where can I get SAAP?

[K.J.]

Originally posted by DutchFootballRulez
Where can I get SAAP?

DutchFootballRulez, you may download a copy of Sick as a Parrot (SaaP) from http://www.users.bigpond.com/machoward/site_map.html

Before you commence the game, I would recommend that you first read the Manual, Faq, and Userguide files. They would orientate you to the very different demands of SaaP as compared with other SMGs such as CM. While its interface is not as glamorous as that of CM, for instance, SaaP is certainly much more reflective, in my opinion at least, of the demands on a real-life football manager.

Briefly put, to succeed at SaaP, you would have to maximize the form of your players, provide them with the proper match preparation, and place them in a tactical system where they could collectively express themselves as a team.

[eneste]

This is great news if this means no more (relative) disasters like CM4 for SI.

[GersMan]

Hey guys - my understanding is I can't order CM from the U.S. anymore. Is that correct? I should like to get the latest version of the game but some of you seem to say it is no good. What is the problem with it exactly, and, assuming I am not persuaded, can someone help me buy a copy of the game?

[DutchFootballRulez]

Several options available. Order from Thailand through EBAY, or order from the UK. CM4 is relativley cheap now as CM 03/04 is about to release (November to be exact)

[Mac_Howard]

I think it's wrong to suggest that they "abandoned a sinking ship" as has been suggested - I understand the contract between SIGames and Eidos came to an end and SIGames didn't want to extend it. There's always a price that goes with running with a mainstream publisher, particularly when that publisher generates the sorts of numbers that Eidos have with CM, and it may be that SIGames are not prepared to pay that price.

Hopefully this will mean that SIGames will be more innovative in their design decisions and CM, or whatever they call it, will move on faster than it has in the past ;)

[DutchFootballRulez]

Somebody will jump on the SI Games boat, probably a European based publisher. Possibly, Take-Two there relationship w/ the Max Payne developers (in Sweden or Switzerland)