Boss Roy Meredith says the ”decline in boxed copies” for PC is too dangerous, so they’re looking to iPhone and MMO. Unsure when it will be back.
”We were fixated on one format; a format that was in decline in boxed copies. It didn’t allow us any flexibility or agility: we weren’t able to look in other directions because we had this behemoth of a PC game,” said Beautiful Game Studios’ Meredith.
”With the market shrinking it was quite a risky or dangerous situation to be in. So we took the decision to put the PC game on hold and build up our business in other areas.” How long will Championship Manager fans have to wait until the developer returns to it?
”I don’t know yet,” he shrugged. ”I want to get stuff like Shanda up and running, the iPhone property established. I really, really couldn’t say.” Shanda is their new partner, a Chinese online games giant, so they hope to tap the online/social scene.
Publisher Square Enix cut Beautiful Game Studios down in size last year. The studio’s embrace of iPhone and online portals may be the only way to save the football series IP. ”Square Enix, as much as they love us, are not going to pay us for no returns,” said Meredith. ”It’s a new approach - maybe I ought to go to them and ask!”
Football Manager, the rival franchise, has been booming by comparison to Championship Manager but that has not played a part in this, ”none whatsoever”.
”It’s purely market conditions,” he added, ”…sales are shrinking in that marketplace and we wanted to get a number of formats out. I don’t think boxed copy on PC is going to last much longer. It just feels like the boxed PC game is on its way out.”
Retailers have lost faith in the boxed PC title laments Meredith.
”You go to any GAME store, you go to HMV and you’ll be lucky to find… I was in GAME at the weekend and I couldn’t believe it, how little there was. I saw a game, Bus Magnate I think it was, and I thought, ‘Wow, is that what the PC market has come down to.’”
Beautiful Game Studios needs to get themselves some more of that digital platform gold that’s going around and helping PC evolve into the happening place it is today. Is it right to blame the ‘ailing PC market’ or is Championship Manager just too stale?
