SEGA "happy" with FM 2011 sales

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 21 February, 2011

Series an "all-time seller".

SEGA is "happy" with sales of Football Manager 2011 – despite describing them as "slow".

Earlier this month SEGA said Football Manager 2011 was its third best-selling game of this financial year, with 690,000 global sales for the PC and PSP version combined.

In its financial note to investors SEGA described sales of all its games in Europe and North America as "slow". Indeed sales of the boxed version of Football Manager are flat, but its European boss has defended Sports Interactive's football management simulation series, pointing to digital sales as evidence of growth.

"Football Manager 2011 is in line with previous releases in the series," Jurgen Post told MCV. "But if you include download numbers then it's slightly going up. We're really happy with that. This is one of those titles that is an all-time seller."

Football Manager 2011 went straight in at the top of the UK all-formats chart last November. SI boss Miles Jacobson said first weekend sales of the PC version beat those of Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 on multiple formats.

Martin Korda reviewed Football Manager 2011 for Eurogamer, emerging from the dugout with a 9/10.

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About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • IronCladChicken #1 1 year ago

    'Series an "all-time seller".'

    eh?

  • Lateralus2001 #2 1 year ago

    I used to love the FM series, but no longer. The fact there is a new version every year is killing the series. The last two versions of FM I bought (09 + 10) were bug riddled at release, making a long term career game virtually unplayable. They still were not 100% bug free after the last patches either.

    And most of the new features in the last few versions are buggy and/or add nothing to the game

    I haven't bought FM2011 yet and will onlyl consider doing so when the last patch is out. Probably won't though.

    It's a shame. If SI released in 'new' version every two years and a data update in between the series would be much better as they would have more time to iron out bugs and get the new features working properly. But money talks, I guess.

  • Shikasama #3 1 year ago

    Bugs aren't really the issue for me.

    With each passing edition of FM I feel less and less like a football manager but more and more like I'm just maipulating some clandestine spreadsheet. Theres nothing that really injects any excitment, roleplay or spontaneity in the game and you don't get enough feedback on why you have actually lost a match.

    Even the complete sterility of the UI contributes to this feeling of playing on a calculator. There may be other games out there that are less realistic or 'in depth' (and I would argue that FM is too much in the other direction) but at least you can get a bit excited about playing them.

  • frycrayola #4 1 year ago

    On the other hand, I've been playing FM 2010 (yup, the previous one) since release and my career is now in 2040, I've been unaffected by bugs and am still enjoying it immensely, considering it the best one since the old days of the CM3 series. The series still has legs, although I'd fully agree with Shikasama's view that the game is very drab on the excitement stakes. It leaves you to make your own thrills, which isn't always going to be possible during a dry spell of your own.

  • Shakey_Jake33 #5 1 year ago

    Are digital sales included in the numbers in Europe? I think I read that they don't count towards the NPD figures.

    It would be reasonable to assume that the majority of PC sales are digital these days. Hell, the Football Manager series has used Steamworks for a few years now.

  • fizzyfish #6 1 year ago

    Sports Interactive "happy" that it is owned by SEGA and not Activision.

  • Aretak #7 1 year ago

    It was released in a pretty appalling state this time around, with a fundamentally broken transfer market that didn't get fixed until the second patch in December. I pre-ordered it on Steam, yet found it pretty much unplayable up until then thanks to the way players moved around (for example Cristiano Ronaldo being sold to Barcelona for £35m after one season). Next year I'll be waiting to see whether it's in a fit state at release or not, and hold off buying until after a couple of patches if it isn't.

  • LetsGo #8 1 year ago

    I agree with most of the comments here. IMO FM needs a bit of a reboot.

  • Turrican #9 1 year ago

    I agree too, bought 2010 version once it was cheap and patched up, if their sales are dropping off they need to look at their yearly release schedule and the lack of polish in each new version. Its just not different enough to the last version for me, and adding a load of fancy stuff to it wouldn't really fix that.

    2 year release cycle would be best but that will surely never happen.

  • Miles_SI #10 1 year ago

    Right to reply is a wonderful thing.

    Sales aren't dropping off at all - far from it. The game is no.1 in the UK PC chart yet again this week, for either the 12th or 13th week since release (out of 16 weeks).

    Customers who have an issue with the game should be reporting it on the bugs forum at community.sigames.com - we do look at everything, reply, and try to fix things if they are in fact wrong. People do have the right to disagree with you when you post on there if something is subjective, rather than absolute, but to describe those people as "fanboys" is somewhat unfair on that basis, in my opinion.

    I agree that our games need more polish out of the box, and that is something that we continue to make progress with. The biggest issue to progress there is the size of the game, and the non-linearity of it, which means that every persons game is different. That makes it somewhat harder to test, but I believe we've made great strides over the last few versions with our quality control, and have had less customer service issues with FM11 then any previous version of the FM series, as well as less reported bugs both small and large.

    We also provide a free, half season, demo of Football Manager well ahead of release so that people can make their purchasing decision, so that should help you make your decision next year Aretak.

  • Carbon_Altered #11 1 year ago

    FM2011 has been my favourite version since 2005/2006ish (the last of the "blobs" football matches). Still think the 3d engine could do with a bit of polish, but it is getting steadily better.

    The press conferences are a chore, but I like the rest of it a lot.

  • i5killz #12 1 year ago

    Whoever expects ANY game to be 100% bug-free are living on another planet. I have never experienced a game which has never had 0 bugs.

  • Huddy #13 1 year ago

    I wonder if the increasing complexity and micro management in FM is beginning to burden the game. I was a great fan of the CM series, but FM has failed to deliver for me.

    Part of what made the CM series so good was it focused on the main areas of football management, squad, transfers, tactics and training and then left you to use your imagination whilst reading the commentary.

    The FM series has grown in complexity and it's had a real impact on game speed and for me has become more of a chore, Press conferences, player discussions, match day, deeper tactics. I don't dislike any of these areas specifically, but they really impact on my immersion in the game as they take me away from what I enjoy most in these types of titles. As for 3D match day, I am not a massive fan.

    This is just my opinion and others may disagree, but I yearn for the good old CM days.


    Edited by Huddy at 21/02/11 @ 14:59

  • MrAtheist #14 1 year ago

    @Huddy - you are not the only one, I agree with a lot of that.

    Like a few of the other posters, Im a lapsed CM/FM nut. Bought nearly every single one 92-07 (have all the typical CM war stories, 18hour play sessions, arguments with the other half, read War & Peace while it was updating the pre season fixture results etc. :-) but the feature bloat killed it for me too in the end.

  • Miles_SI #15 1 year ago

    Huddy - have you tried our PSP/iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad version, Football Manager Handheld? Sounds like your gaming tastes are more suited to that version.

  • Shikasama #16 1 year ago

    I wondered how long it would be before one of you SI guys came along :p I actually think it's great that someone 'official' responds to feedback on a third party site and you lot have done it on other articles EG have published.

    I stand by my comments though. Obviously it is a subjective issue but I think I was 'priced out' of the FM series mathematically. Often when I lose I have no idea why and the AM's feedback just doesn't really help any. I can change all sorts of settings but never really see any actual results (not in terms of winning, in terms of behaviour on the pitch) so it all feels rather vague unless you either a) get into a level of complexity that I simply have no interest in (which is surprising considering I was a considerable contributor to WoW theorycrafting) or b) Be one of the big boys and overpower everyone with my l33t squad.

    I think the tactical depth and lack of feedback is compounded by the sheer passiveness of the game off the pitch. Talking to players is boring and more often than nought leads to a negative effect, as are the press conferences. There is such little dynamism to anything you do, it makes those losing patches very difficult to stomach as everything feels the same and nothing seems to change from the day to day management.

    As daft as it sounds, I think I would really love a 'hand holding' mode that started in the lower reaches of the leagues. Pick a team, pick an AM and grow with them over your career with the Am providing deep tactical analysis and useful feedback that was gradually phased out over the course of a season.

    Rambling over. I think the ultimate conclusion is that FM changed into a tpye of game I don't want to play, arguably because it got better at doing its job. I think some features went too far ahead and left other features having to play catch up with them.

    With 690,000 sales though I am probably in a vocal minority.

  • Miles_SI #17 1 year ago

    Shikasama - I think you've missed the point I made about how the game is completely non-linear. So the mode that you describe is not possible, as handholding only works on linear experiences.

    As for "why a team lost", or feedback for that, we're trying to make a football management simulation. There is plenty of feedback from your coaches and assistant manager throughout the game. But there is no one answer to that question in any situation, same way as Arsene Wenger needs to analyse why Arsenal drew with Orient yesterday. FM is not a "game" designed for someone to "win" at, as no simulation should be.

  • Shikasama #18 1 year ago

    I get it, but those are the reasons you don't get to have my £29.99 anymore :)

    I simply don't agree that there is enough useful feedback presented in a constructive way to help you with your decisions. Maybe I'm just not good at the game which is a criticism I'll take but each step closer to 'simulation' seems to make the game that bit duller for me.

    I'm not trying to say your game sux and you should cancel development and build what I want. I got some good times out of the CM games and FM06, certainly more out of them than what they cost me in money. I don't see me buying another FM game in the near future but I'm not your target anymore (well, aside from being someone who spends a large amount of their income on games I guess) so I don't expect you to beg me to come back!

    I do get the feeling that FM has been hiding under the 'simulation' umbrella for a little bit now though and that is maybe coming at the expense of the actual gameplay but 690 thousand people seem to disgaree with me so it's obviously working :p

    Good luck with FM12 though, it'll be interesting to see what changes are made and I'll probably try the demo....before I get frustrated and ragequit ;)

  • LetsGo #19 1 year ago

    Well done to Miles for coming on, he doesn't need to so thumbs up to him.

    I know software can never be 100% bug free but the trouble is with a game like FM is that a big bug can break the immersion and totally ruin your game.

    I do disagree with you that FM11 was the least buggy ever, I've found quite a few issues with it unfortunately and your forum is very, very scary. Mention a bug and your either a) lying b) using an editor or c) a bad manager!

  • T-Bag #20 1 year ago

    I used to love the whole FM community thing but i'm refusing to buy FM11 since they completely ruined the forums and turned them into an unsightly slow unusable mess then refused to even try and sort them out because they were busy with FM11. 6 months on they are exactly the same...

  • suicidal_penguins #21 1 year ago

    Think SI lost its way with this game a good while ago, perhaps stuck believing their own hype or listening too closely to the over the top lauding from fans on the forum. It's a game that's hard to criticise not because it's so good but because you get jumped all over by rabid fanbois going on about the depth, the depth, the depth,.. ignoring the fact that it may be too deep to see what's going on down there any more. I played one game on the demo. Losing 3-0 at half time my assistant commented how "up for it" my defence was. That's all I had to work with. All this press conference and agent fees blah is totally pointless when the match itself is down to random guessing what might work and what might not. It's actually very superficial that way in the end and not enjoyable. I'm not surprised people are finally drifting away from it.

  • Miles_SI #22 1 year ago

    Shikasama - over the last few versions we've added assistant manager feedback, teamtalk feedback, staff meetings (where they give you all kinds of advice in the same way that any manager would get from a line manager, such as which tactics are working for you, coaching advice, scouting advice, even tactical suggestions), press conference feedback, match analysis, a help system with an explanation of every screen and every option on every screen, and in game manual. Do you use any/all of those options?

    With each iteration, we add more ways to help the person playing the game - and will no doubt continue to do so in the future. And you'll be able to try that with the FM12 demo, as you rightly say.

    SirFuzzy - we really do try and get everything fixed before release, and are always looking at ways to improve our testing and fixing. But we really have made massive strides over the last few years in this area.

    Letsgo - if you find a bug, you should be posting on the bugs forums, rather than the general questions one. You'll hopefully find them a lot more friendly.

    Suicidal_penguins - you miss one very important part of the article there. People aren't finally drifting away from it at all.

    But if you aren't enjoying the game anymore, you are, of course, welcome to that opinion, and I hope you're getting your gaming enjoyment elsewhere. For the record though, we take any constructive criticism seriously - and you couldn't be further from the truth with the "believing their own hype" comment, or that we listen to the lauding. Over the topness, whether praise or sniping, is all pretty useless to us when we're looking for ways to improve.

  • MrChuckles #23 1 year ago

    I'm with Shikasama on this one... I actually worked on a footie management game in the past, before CM even existed!.. I loved your versions on the Amiga, played them for months, but with each successive release i felt as though i understood less and less, and as Shikasama says, i have no idea why i lost a game.

    For example, say my tactics are set up to utilise the wingers a lot, crossing the ball into a Peter Crouch like forward who either knocks it to a team mate or sticks out his lanky leg to score. I'd lose a match 1-0, see some ratings, but not know 'why' i had actually lost. Were the other team bossing the midfield, was my service to the wingers poor, were my wingers unable to get past their fullbacks, were the crosses into the box rubbish, or was Crouchie-a-like having a bad day at the office.

    I know that information is probably in there somewhere, but i know i don't have the time to dig it out. I'd want my Am saying useful stuff like:

    'Smith, the RW couldn't get past their LB Jones'
    'Rogers, the LW often got past their RB Neville but his crosses were poor.'

    From that info, as a football manager i can do the following:

    A) Replace Smith, a winger who can't get past a fullback is pretty useless.
    B) Tell Rogers to come inside and get to the goaline and cut back crosses rather than float them in
    C) Change my tactics as obviously my wingers aren't up to the task.

    That's the role i want to play, i want the relevant info, and then make the high level decisions based on that info, not wade through hundreds of stats to try and find the blooming info in the first place...

  • iggypopbarker #24 1 year ago

    I found FM10 to be the most bug-free version since CM01/02, after the patches at least. While FM11 is a very fun game - better than 10 in many respects - in terms of polish it's taken some steps back. Not just in terms of daft bugs, but there are loads more typos and syntax errors (i.e your team wins a penalty, the text on screen describes you conceding one) than in any other SI Games release even after 2 patches - surely asking one of their testers to focus on the accuracy of the text for one day isn't rocket science? What is particularly annoying is how many bugs and imbalances persist for years without being addressed, or get fixed and return the next year somehow. They focus so much on the top couple of English divisions that loads of the minor leagues they love to boast about in press releases simply don't work correctly - some like the US Major League never have, but even the Spanish leagues - one of the best and most popular in the world - have had hundreds of bugs with registration and b-teams. Their public attitude towards fixing these seems to range from complacent to downright shocking - head honcho Miles Jacobsen once played down the need to patch a bug that messed up the finances of Turkish teams with 'hardly anyone in Turkey buys the game legally anyway' - when half the fun of the game is managing all over the world, and when the bug in question affected teams that were Champions League regulars, so it affected everyone's save games and not just a few alleged pirates in Turkey.
    Edited by iggypopbarker at 22/02/11 @ 02:26

  • iggypopbarker #25 1 year ago

    also just today Miles announced the third and final FM11 patch was to be delayed by a day because some idiots had been mean to him on facebook. I'm sure whatever they said was false and nasty to have to deal with, but I don't see the link at all between his personal web presence and the release of a much-awaited patch (people are always hyped for the post-transfer deadline data update as much as the bug fixes)

  • AgentBalti #26 1 year ago

    I too am with Shikasama here. I always start with a lower league club (currently with Torquay) and have a proper career, where I either stay where I am for a few seasons and then progress 'my career', not the team. At the moment, I'm 23rd in League Two. I had not won a game for 8 matches. I had no idea why, well, I do...I changed formation too much. The answer? Go 4-4-2 and change nothing. Ignore sliders, ignore 'Macclesfield don't play well against teams that play high up the pitch', ignore all the advice.

    Now, I'm unbeaten in 6, 3rd or 4th in the form table and should get out of trouble. It's all a bit too 'random'. OK, I understand that it's a simulation and you have to find the answer to your form, but there's no obvious rhyme or reason at times. Players rarely do what you want them to do and only at the higher level will players do what you think they'll do on the pitch; the lower league players often play like zombies, ignoring the ball to let the oppo score a crappy tap in!

    It's not the first time this method of 'doing nothing' has reaped rewards, but it's annoying. As Shik says, you don't know where you're going wrong. It's easy to be Barca and wipe the floor with everyone and it's a chore to set up a team for a game and effectively play one or two actual games an hour!

    And is it me or does the game just 'cheat' at times? If I manage to buy a striker who is, statistically, a killer player in his division, he'll be injured suddenly for 8 months! How come players at League Two can consistently 'bend it like Beckham' whilst my players will more likely hit the corner flag than score a worldy?! How come I concede twice as many penalties as the opposition?! All of the above paragraph is pure sour grapes, btw. Tongue in cheek, OK?

    But I agree with the sentiment of doing everything that the 'feedback' suggests often gets you into more trouble than not and trusting any feedback starts to wane after a while when 'nothing works'. Oh, and finally, I hate 3D...I still play 2D.