Football Manager Live adds monthly subs

By Oli Welsh Published 1 April, 2009

Has around 23,000 players in UK.

Football Manager Live has added monthly payment plans to the minimum three-month subscription the game launched with, Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson has told GamesIndustry.biz.

"When we initially launched the subscriber periods were 3-, 6- and 12-month subscriptions having to pay upfront," Jacobson explained.

"We've looked at that, at the comments coming back from people who said they're interested but maybe haven't subscribed, and we've now added another business model which is more like a mobile phone contract - the longer you agree to subscribe for, the cheaper it is, and you pay per month."

The new system now brings the massively multiplayer management game closer in line with other MMO subscription offerings - although you still have to sign up for a minimum of three months.

As you can see at the Football Manager Live site, the game can be subscribed to for GBP 7.99 a month for three months, GBP 7.79 a month for six months, GBP 6.99 a month for a year and GBP 4.99 a month for two years.

The original upfront packages offer better value, at GBP 22.99, 43.99, 72.99 and 114.99 for three, six, twelve and 24 month subscriptions respectively.

In the full GI interview, Jacobson revealed that the game had around 23,000 players - the game has "22 or 23 game worlds live now, which shows the amount of subscribers with 1000 people in each game world".

"So it's kind of going to plan - obviously if it was going perfectly we'd have 1 billion subscribers playing, and eventually 6 billion, but realistically with the economy the way it is we're doing pretty well," he said.

'Start small and grow' is Sports Interactive's goal with Football Manager Live, Jacobson said. "We've still only officially launched in the UK, we haven't done any PR or marketing outside of the UK at all. The process is very different to a boxed game, and the process we've decided to use is pretty different to a lot of the routes that the higher profile MMOs have used.

"We're using elements of the approach that maybe EVE Online, RuneScape and those kinds of games - which have grown virally over long periods of time to get their subscriber bases. We just believe that's a better model than the huge hype, massive launch MMOs that all seem to be opening with a lot of fanfare and not necessarily being there a year or two down the line."

For more, including our review, check out the Football Manager Live gamepage.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (13) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • FWB #1 3 years ago

    Really need a trial. I'd probably give it a go then.

  • iokthemonkey #2 3 years ago

    World of Spreadsheets.

  • Grump #3 3 years ago

    I really like this game but I don't think I'm going to continue beyond my free trial. Main reason - player inactivity.

    I'm currently into my 3rd season and have been promoted up each time. Season 1 was great fun with maybe about 75% of the players in my league who were active - and by active I mean players that play at least 1 game during the whole season. In my 2nd season this dropped to about 50%. For my 3rd season I thought that this would improve since the more active players have a better chance of being promoted into the higher leagues right? wrong. out of 20 players only 6 have actually bothered to come online to play. I'll spend most of the season playing against AI which is what FM09 is for.





  • Eraysor #4 3 years ago

    Alternatively, buy the game from a shop as the boxed copies come with 4 months access and are usually a lot cheaper than buying direct.

  • TheMoonRat #5 3 years ago

    The problem is, the game lets you change worlds too easily. In a game thats billed as long term build your skills and team vs other live humans; the ones not doing well often up sticks and move elsewhere and try again. In other MMO (1) server transfers come at a cost and (2) they're not so delicately balanced and dependent on the # of managers all playing like FML requires. And with 3 months minimum, if someone joins and only plays for a season, then thats 2 seasons of inactivity in a spot in the gameworld.

  • neilqpr #6 3 years ago

    I'm enjoyig it so far, but yeah there is a problem with people leaving, then you end having to play half your league games against the AI. I'm hoping things will get better in my GW (Le Tissier) as time goes on.

  • byron_hinson #7 3 years ago

    Played it for four months (forgot about the auto renewal) and have just quit it - too repetative, not much to do, beta testers seemed to have a massive advantage, hardly anyone ever online wanting to play games either. Waste of money in my view - went back to offline Football Manager

  • clean515 #8 3 years ago

    Not very good game... If you thought it couldnt get worse with fm09 try fmlive.

  • stueyg87 #9 3 years ago

    So far i've paid 32 pound for 8 months, buying the boxed versions from the shops are the way forward to save money

  • HermitArcader #10 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • mr_chiquita #11 3 years ago

    I've been playing FML pretty much non stop for 13 months now... that's a pretty strong testament to the game I think.

    One thing that you have to do is to try and get involved in your chosen FA community.

    I'm in the Clough GW in the XEFA federation and we currently have a pretty much fully active four divisions of managers. The main reason for this is that there are a lot of managers who actually interact with each other in the XEFA lobby.

    There is banter, trading, community and things like the Lobby Cup. Not to mention the friendly rivalry to the death with the XFA.

    It's very easy to ignore this community and get caught in your own little bubble. Where you do play endless AI matches, or against people who may as well be AI with their cursory gg wp m8 ul etc etc.

    It took me months to realise this, but when you do get it, it makes a good game great.
    Edited by 1 at 02/04/09 @ 09:25

  • levitate #12 3 years ago

    I'm in the beta for the new patch and the improvements that are on their way are massive. My subscription will end in a month but I'm definitely holding on to this.

  • gm_al #13 3 years ago

    Ive been playing since start but wont re-sub.

    Simple reason is there is WAY too much cheating going on.

    If say 5 buddies try out the game and only 2 leave early again then their teams will be used as farm teams to gather good players, sell them cheap to friends and go bankrupt to do it over all again etc. (many more ways to cheat)

    After 2 months of serious playing I see myself confronted to teams that have players worth more then my whole team... I also have no way to reach the Top 50 or even Top 100 rankings (you can argue Im not capable ofc)

    Cup finals got sold and when it came out the punishment was a 1 day ban for the cheater (in the off-season). Yeah right...

    This is a micro-cosmos of 1k players per server. EVERY cheating has effects. A WOW server might be able to live with people botting to some better gear but this is direct competition with just a handful of people. Im used to be a quite hardcore MMO player but all my efforts here are in vain against the cheaters.

    My personal experience for what its worth so dont flame me.