View Single Post
Old 01-25-2017, 04:52 PM   #1
sfnate
Minors (Triple A)
 
sfnate's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Corner of 16th and Bryant Streets
Posts: 296
Markus AMA on Reddit, Jan. 25 2017

Markus held an AMA on Reddit today, Wed Jan 25 2017, which you can read in full here.

While most of the questions and discussion were related to the upcoming release of OOTP 2018, Markus did field a few MLB Manager questions. Below are the questions with Markus's replies.

Question: Are there going to be any new features for MLB Manager this year?
Markus: We're still in planning stages, but we definitely plan to add owner goals this year.

Question: Markus, side question. Will we see a new Mobile version this year?
Markus: Yes. MLB Manager 2017 will be released a few days after OOTP 18.

Question: A developer said there would be a complete overhaul for MLB Manager. Is that true?
Markus: We wanted to do it this year, however we had to push it back to next year. So MLB Manager 2017 will be a gradual improvement and not a complete recode like we initially planned, sorry.

Question: The mobile version of Football Manager has shown that a mobile game of this sort doesn't have to go the kid-friendly route with enormous buttons and cartoon characters. Have you considered changing the UI and visual design of MLB Manager to move away from the current "casual" style?
Markus: Well, I think the mobile game should be a bit more casual, we are targeting a totally different user base with this. So I think we'll remain on that path...

Question: Any update on the upcoming version of MLB Manager? That's the one I play the most. I also have a few ideas for the game of you'd be interested in hearing.
Markus: Yes, MLB Manager 2017 will be released shortly after OOTP 18.

And that was it for the MLB Manager-related questions. So to summarize the good news vs. the bad news:
  • Good: There will be a new version and it will be out shortly after the release of OOTP 2018. Yay!
  • Bad: Not a complete overhaul as was suggested by Markus a few months ago. New features will be limited; only one mentioned was "owner goals". Big button, cartoony style will remain in place; MLB Manager will remain the "toy" offering that (according to Markus) is designed for a "totally different user base".
I don't think any of this will generate much excitement in the community of gamers who play this game. I understand that the AMA was focused on OOTP 2018, but I think enough was revealed here to suggest that if you had any expectations that MLB Manager would move closer to the sophistication and features of its parent, OOTP, you'll probably be very disappointed. Personally, IMHO, I don't think it's a good move to keep the game dumbed-down and limited to a tiny subset of features from the PC/Mac version. I suspect the core audience for MLB Manager is probably much, much closer to the core audience for OOTP than Markus suggests it is--"Football Manager Touch" is having great success on the tablet platform and I don't see why an "OOTP Touch" couldn't have similar success. Perhaps it's time to look at a strategy similar to what SI does for Football Manager on tablets: one version (FM Touch) that is full-featured and nearly identical to the PC/Mac version; and one version that is much more stripped down and limited (FM Mobile). If I had to bet, I think the more feature-rich version would do very well, and encourage the players who have only used the full version of OOTP to try the tablet version as well, particularly if you could access your saves from the cloud (thereby allowing you to play the same save on your PC or tablet--FM Touch allows this).

Any thoughts about Markus's AMA?

Last edited by sfnate; 01-25-2017 at 05:03 PM.
sfnate is offline   Reply With Quote