EIDOS: their side of the story
Following on from news that the brains behind the amazingly succesful Championship Manager series are not developing the latest version, I spoke to EIDOS to found out what they have to say.According to Mark Allen, PR Manager at EIDOS, Sports Interactive and EDIOS parted company at the end of a ten year contract. The Collyer brothers, producers of the latest CM games and coders of the very first versions, left EIDOS with SI.
SI and the Collyer's departure have left EIDOS with the license to the name but nothing else, meaning EIDOS have had to code the latest version of CM from scratch. Mark says that this has given them more freedom to produce a more polished version of CM than the last, which was released to a critical panning due to the horrendous amount of bugs in the game.
Having seen the game running, I'm pleased to say that its looking every bit the CM we know and love and bang up to date too. Mark assures me that even Rooney's shock move to Man U will be included in time for the October release.
Sega, on the other hand, are remaining tight lipped on the whole SI/Collyers/EIDOS situation, having picked up SI's next football management effort which is to be published as under the name of Football Manager.
Will the die hard CM fans follow the Collyer's to Football Manager, or will EIDOS' gamble of brand loyalty see them through to lift the trophy? Who knows, but even Rooney switched his colours....
