FIFA Manager 14 will be the last installment in the series, wrote founder and designer Gerald Köhler on the game’s official blog, leaving Sports Interactive’s Football Manager as the undisputed king of football simulation.
Köhler attributed the decision to end the series to several factors, including Football Manager’s dominance.
“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 (Football Manager) has practically dominated the market in recent years,” he wrote. “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.”
While I’ve never really played Football Manager, I have to be honest that I didn’t even know FIFA Manager was a game that existed in our world. But I guess a round of applause for Sports Interactive is in order for kicking ass and taking names. As for Köhler and his team at Bright Future, we hope EA will give them another IP to work with. We hear EA Tiburon could use some help on the NBA Live series.
[Via Polygon]