Square Enix invites Championship Manager into the MMO club

Heh, soccer

Oh Square, how the mighty have fallen.

Didn't Football Manager Live not do so well a couple of years ago?

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out...but f2p makes me edgy:

"Pre-Season Sale! Get the Manchester United First XI for only 299 diamonds!"

Championship manager is not the game that many fell in love with, only the name. A couple of years ago the people who designed the code (SIGames) decided not to sign on the dotted line with eidos interactive again and took there ball as it where to sega. Now the championship manager brand is not what it used to be because many true fans know exactley what occured.

SIGames developed FM live! which actually closed as of may this year, it did not do to well and it charged a monthly sub.

Actually I'm all for this given the popularity of the beautiful game internationally.

I'm surprised not many games on the mmo market are like this. There's only so many Orcs slain or fried or slapped off a cliff on the battlegrounds before you wonder if there are other things you could be doing.

Championship manager is not "popular" by any stretch of the imagination. The original series was made by sports interactive (who continue to make Football Manager, which is year on year the best selling PC game in Europe).

BGS made Championship Manager from 2005 onwards and every release was an unmitigated disaster.

So much so, that the last version they released was released in a "pay what you want deal" with the minimum amount people had to pay set at £2 - and it still flopped thanks to the endless amounts of bugs and just generally flawed design.

It flopped so badly that BGS decided they would not follow up the game in the following year, which is obviously bad for a yearly franchise.

So yea - BGS & Championship Manager are garbage.

SI Games & Football Manager are the real thing.