ChampMan had "no vision, no direction"

By Games Industry.biz Published 9 October, 2008

Dev studio boss says that will change.

Roy Meredith, general manager at Eidos developer Beautiful Game Studios, has admitted that the Championship Manager franchise has suffered due to poor quality since original team Sports Interactive left the series.

But he's also determined that the franchise can regain its past glories over time, and become a serious threat to Sports Interactive's rival Football Manager.

"In terms of the quality of the franchise, the quality of the products we've put out - yeah, I know, it's pretty poor," conceded Meredith, in an exclusive interview with GamesIndustry.biz.

"So that's why I was brought in last year and told to do this, because on one hand you have a very valuable brand, but at some point it's going to be worth zero because of the quality of the product."

Meredith joined Eidos from Electronic Arts last November, and has been charged with reinvigorating the Championship Manager brand, which according to Meredith has been following its competitor and lost its own direction.

"I think for too long we've been a me-too product," he said. "There's no question that Football Manager is a really strong, very good game, that knows its place in the market.

"For too long we've not had a vision that explains what Championship Manager is. No vision, no direction - where are we within that genre? We want to create a strong alternative, a competitor to Football Manager - irrespective of what they do, we need to be clear on what ChampMan is all about, and identify where we need to be."

For Eidos, the Championship Manager brand is still strong, and Meredith is confident it can pull back consumers who may have been disillusioned with recent releases.

"We did some research this year, and looked at football fans in general, and Championship Manager is probably one of the strongest brand names there in gaming."

"So at the end of 2008 we're in a strong place in terms of name, but people aren't buying into our franchise," he said.

"What we need to do is give consumers a reason to believe the franchise again. They know the fundamentals, the basics of the game, and they need to know the quality of the game is strong, because for too long it hasn't been."

Both franchises can exist in the market, insisted Meredith, each pushing the other to innovate and create a better game.

"With two strong games in the marketplace it's good for the consumer, it's good for the genre and actually it's good for FM as well, because it will keep them pushing forward to iterate as well."

Picture of Games.

About Games Industry.biz

Read more articles from Games by visiting the Games Industry.biz archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (17) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Zomoniac #1 3 years ago

    They're still making ChampMan? How quaint.

  • curtlikesmeat #2 3 years ago

    I've said it before and I'll say it again, first company to combine Fifa (or a decent graphical / gameplay engine) and the old Champ Manager will win the internets / life / a slice of cake.

  • Buenos_Estente #3 3 years ago

    Curt - With FM and possibly CM using a 3d Engine this year (admitidly one that looks rather unimpressive so far) I think your dream may come true in a few years!

  • andywilkie35 #4 3 years ago

    "They're still making ChampMan? How quaint."

    haha too right.

    As soon as Sports Interactive left and did Football Manager I haven't been near ChampMan. In fairness I haven't played Footie Manager in a couple of years either because it takes up too much time

  • kangarootoo #5 3 years ago

    From what I have heard on the dev grape vine, I rather pity the guys still working at BG. Life under RM is not fun in any sense of the word.

  • JammyPez #6 3 years ago

    Cm actually "announced" their 3D engine before FM, and FM's other features seem to be assistant manager feedback - something CM had last year. Oh, don't forget the time bar on match screens that FM are now introducing; that CM had 2 versions ago.

    Who's following who now?

    Amazing that so many of the FM fan boys will hail the 3D engine as something special when the mearest hint of it before, because it was associated with CM, would send them into a frothing rage!
    But, to be fair, some of the post-SI CM games were shocking. CM5 was truly awful, I don't think anyone can deny that. We'll see how they do this year...

  • curtlikesmeat #7 3 years ago

    Hooray! ;)

  • JayArr #8 3 years ago

    To be fair, Jammy, SI have apparently been working on the 3D engine for FM for like three years so it's not like they just reacted to CM implementing it and rushed to throw something together.

    The first year after the SI/Eidos split, I bought both games, just to compare the two. CM was so unbelievably bad that I played it for about ten minutes and have never touched another of their games since.

  • Evolution #9 3 years ago

    I gave the last ChampMan and compared to FM it is a broken and unbalanced mess, but it had some nice ideas which FM doesn't have. If they get their act together and release a solid product then it can only be healthy as FM seems to have fallen into the old FIFA trap.

  • MrChuckles #10 3 years ago

    Champ manager is a lot of the staff from Anco (Player Manager & Kick Off Series Early 80's->Late 90's) and Silicon Dreams (UEFA Champions League Late 90's->Early 00's).

    Although the Player Manager & Kick Off games had their day on the Amiga, none of the base products that the dev's on CM were that good in the last 12 years or so.

  • MGG #11 3 years ago

    Mr Chuckles is correct. Mind, the "no vision, no direction" comment is rather interesting, seeing as the last guy to lead that project has left the company. Now, where is he these days.....


    ....oh yes, hes FIFA09 producer. Now, how did that score again?

  • paulf #12 3 years ago

    @MGG maybe he was better at the live action footy game than the management sim - cause FIFA09 is a goodie

  • green_nifta #13 3 years ago

    It's all your fault Rutter...

  • rhubarbandcustard #14 3 years ago

    FIFA Manager is better than both Championship and Football Manager.

    These games have now become so complicated that the fun factor has slowly but surely slipped away.

    Flame away.

  • riz23 #15 3 years ago

    and of course don't forget that FIFA Manager, or Total Club Manager had a proper 3D match engine (The FIFA one) waay before FM or CM.

  • green_nifta #16 3 years ago

    Pah, LMA Manager beat them all to it!

  • JammyPez #17 3 years ago

    "Mr Chuckles is correct." Well seeing as it's "a lot of staff" from various companies don't work there now, he's obviously completed wrong again...oh wait ISWYDT.