Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Arnold
I wouldn't remove historical play or fictional play, since to me whatever game that was wouldn't be OOTP anymore. We may as well see how much you can mash the spacebar to see how far your guys hit the ball while we're at it.
I think the big point is that Football Manager essentially defined the genre. And I think the fact that they came along and made the type of game popular also had a huge impact in setting the market. The only reason OOTP exists is because Football Manager exists and Markus was a fan of it. I mean, why else would a baseball video game be made in Germany?
Speaking personally, when people ask who I work for and I say OOTP, nobody has heard of it. To describe it to anyone from Europe, I just say "it's Football Manager for Baseball" and like 90% of people know what I mean right away without me saying anything else. When I say that to an American, most of them stare at me with a blank face, and now I have to describe what the entire strategy/management genre of games is about.
I would love it if we could get the reach of Football Manager. But the fact that they basically set the stage, and set the stage with a sport that only really has had a marginal following in North America up until the last few years, means the NA market never truly caught on. Like take all the top sports in North America and look at what management games are out there for them. There aren't any super crazy selling management games for Football or Basketball out there, and those sports are just as popular in NA as baseball is. That's one thing that all the other top sim/strategy games have in common - Football (Soccer), Tennis, F1 Racing, even Cycling all are basically the top sports in Europe. That's not to say it will always be the case - the genre clearly has a lot of space to grow, which is why we are growing our team and continuing to push.
We're proud of what we're building. And we are always listening to the feedback on what can be improved. Nobody on the team thinks our game is perfect. But unfortunately we are still a small team, and there's only so many hours in the day. If we could get through everything I have on my task list for OOTP24, it would be a game that would blow the current one out of the water. But we'd also need a team the size of FM to pull that off, so we'll just do the best that we can to make the game better every year.
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Well said. To do what the OP is saying would ultimately change OOTP into a different game, and would be like starting over. Could it be successful, perhaps, but it would be a risky move, and would probably alienate a lot of the people who have supported the game for years. Myself included. I have been playing for years. Ever since version 3.
I do think the OP under estimates the way FM has pretty much defined the sports management genre, and how well known and popular it really is. As Matt said FM has a huge wide popularity and is well known in the Sports Management genre, outside the US. Soccer is also extremely popular. Just look at how many new Soccer Management games come out on Steam as opposed to baseball.
When I was in India doing training, people would notice I had Steam on my laptop, and ask me what I was playing. I would tell them mostly OOTP and FM. Almost none of them new what OOTP was, but they all knew FM, and most had played FM before.