retired_vkya215

I've played over 33 seasons in this game so i've no problem playing it but, it seems a lot of people have issues with the whole game. I do of course have the odd thing that annoys me but not enough to stop playing.

Anyway my question is this should SI only bring out new complete versions of the game every 2 years and not every year.

They would of course lose them money so i guess its not going to happen as after all this is a game and they are in it to make cash and fair enough. I however would prefer to pay £10 or so after 12 months for a add on to the current game which would put it right and give them more time to create the next one.

Example would be bring out the new game and then a couple of quick free patches as the do now and then working on the next full version to come out a couple of years later, in the mean time they also work on any problems that are being brought up and as such bring out the update (to pay for) about a year after. And then one year after that a new version of the game comes out.

Like I said this wont happen as it will cost the company money but the way some of the threads on here are going on, alot of people wont be buying 2009 version anyway.

As for me like i've said i'm enjoying this game and i've seen it improve over the years and I still can not get enough of it even with the so called many faults

retired_sejalam

This is almost exactly what I suggested. Ter said they can make updates as they go anyway so it's not an issue but I'm guessing it's SEGA imposing the deadline of one game a year.

I fully agree though, I feel the game would benefit far more if they spent about 2-3 years per game and simply did data updates inbetween.

I am not a programmer though so what do I know? Seems logical to give yourself as much time as possible to get it right though.

Please can any of the guys at SI set us straight on why this is not considered?

deantibbetts

They couldn't do this because people would jsut make their own dat updates every year or download one of the many available net wide, I think I had FM05 updated to the start of this season at one point.

I for one wouldn't pay £10 for an update.

Even with the faults I will buy it year after year and the people who say they aren't going to buy it are people who have moaned about things that have been fixed and then find new things to moan about.

2-3 years for the next game may be a bit too much but I take your point that the game could do with some changes, however I don't see why it isn't possible to make these changes in a single year.

retired_dbaguado

They dont release games every 2 years as its not financially viable to them as a company. If they didnt release a game for 2 years, who would pay their wages for the year that where no game was released?

There's no way that they would release a game every 2 years

retired_sejalam

But people aren't happy with the changes made in a single year, that's the point. Plus it's not in a single year because they often will spend up til Feb and beyond working on the previous installment (ie FM08 still being sorted now!)

Plenty of games are not brought out every single year and are still financially viable. The Gears of War trilogy will not be 1 game a year. I could go on forever.

I KNOW Football Manager by its' nature needs to be more frequent, but I genuinely think if they were allowed by SEGA to produce a game, then update it every year, then every 2 years lets say, bring out a new one, we would have much less complaints.

I am not personally one of the complainers, as sad as I was today to see my board disappointed with me despite smashing their long term expectations.

I just want to hear the thoughts of the guys from SI, find out whether it is SEGA tying their hands on this one or what.

jtballer

Due to obvious financial reasons I dont see SI skipping a year.

I think the problem is not like they dont have enough development time. Most of the problems what makes people worry are small bugs(small in terms of project but may cause major issues for some players). If you look at various topics here which are complaining about different problems in the game, almost none of them actually complains about the real features but it is just the unexpected outcome of some incidents. In terms of development these are indeed easy and fast to fix but the problem is to know what is broken in first place before the release.

No need to mention FM is a massive game and testing it is a pain. I'm sure if SI could know the issus prior to their release day they could pretty much everything but it does not help much once they are told what does not work after release. I see two ways to improve it, one is to expand Beta testing and put at least couple weeks buffer between the latest beta report and final releas. Assuming that SI can get very cheap if not free Beta testers externaly this should not be a big deal. My second suggestion would be to increase the amount of patches they do. Why not make another patch every month, so at least who finds some issues very critical can wait for a month at most and then they can start again. For instance now SI knows what are the major issues in 802, they can gather them together and give us 803 after 2,3 weeks. will 803 be perfect? no, it wont. But at least it can answer the current concern and in general it will go to better direction and this process can go on at least until summer. I'm sure people will appreciate it.

deantibbetts

Why not just have 3 sets of workers, one for the patch, one for creation of the next release and one for creation of the next next game lol. That way the work on FM09 would have begun 2 years ago and time would have been spent on it as requested.

TBH I would suggest this is probably the case.

retired_samiam

I think a lot of people share my feelings on the matter.

I think a game should work straight out of the box, with no patches, no nothing. None of the FM games have ever done that. People say that all PC games have bugs, but thats simply not true. I've bought many PC games over the last 2 years and all of them worked fine straight out the box. There was definitely nothing approaching anything of "showstopper" value.

I think SI have got into the habit of releasing for a certain time in the year to maximize their revenues, and then they have a feeling of "ah well, we'll fix the problems in a few months".

I'd much prefer them to fix everything* (I'll explain what I mean by everything in a minute) and then release it. I'd love, for once, to install FM and play it with no problems and no patches.


*When I say everything, I actually don't really mind the little niggly problems that take a while to spot and are obvious that it's quite a complex thing. For example, my assistant manager at Man United saying the team needs serious strengthening if we're going to challenge for the title when we've won it by 15 points for the last 5 years running. That's a niggly problem, but I can ignore it and no harm done. I don't really care about those problems. It's just the blatantly obvious, standout problems that causes a ridiculous amount of frustration with people. If we can spot them in 5 minutes, they shouldn't exist.


I will come onto these forums on FM 2009 release day and keep browsing it every now and then for 1-2 months after. I'll guage the general consensus, see what problems emerge, and if I'm satisfied that the game is good, I'll buy it. But I like to be aware of problems first, so I can choose to stay with a previous version.


It's a big version coming up for SI.

FM 2007 was good and got better with patches so people were hoping for a terrific game in FM 2008. I think the overall feeling with 08 is one of disappointment. It's been very buggy and I've never seen the forum get so frustrated.

(By the way, for those people that started "These forums" thread, the mood and aggressiveness on these forums is directly linked to the levels of frustration people feel with your product, so you hold the answers to calming people down.)

FM 2009 has got to make an immediate good impact on release day. People will come on here in the first few weeks, and they will get a general feeling from reading a few posts. If it's positive, they will buy it. If it's not, they won't, and even for the #1 football management game in the world, the reduction in sales will be noticable.

FM 2009 has got to make a fantastic impression on everyone who plays it. It can only do that if bugs are non-existent and people feel they have been listened to and the obvious problems have been solved. It's a big year for SI - the pressure is on, and it'll be interesting to see how they react.

Their usual excuses of "It's hard to make such a complex game", or "every PC game is bugged", or "don't worry, a patch will be out in January" may not be enough next time.

They've had feedback in the bucketful on these forums over the last 6 months or so. They have the opportunity to listen and react well. Or they could just churn out another slightly improved data update with a FM 2009 badge on it. It's up to them.

retired_vkya215

well for me and for the first time ever that I wont buy 2009 until the second patch is released in around Feb/Mar 09. I'll just keep playing 2008 until that day comes

And i've never dont that before, in previous years i've even seen myself take the week of work in order to play the newest version

retired_samiam

I guess you summed up what I said in 2 lines lol. Ah well, you know when you just need to rant. I feel better now :-)