12 Dead Online Video Games That Should Never Have Ended
8. Football Manager Live
Since 2005 the Football Manager series has been a huge success story, with each installment becoming one of the best-selling games on PC and often number among the most played products on Steam. People spend days of game time developing their teams, scouting players and perfecting their tactics in the hope of becoming the greatest manager possible. While it has always been a predominantly single-player experience, although there are some multiplayer elements in more recent games, fantasy football competitions in particular have shown how people love being able to compete with one another rather than just the computer. Therefore, an online version of the franchise would seem like a win-win, and for the most part, it was. Released in 2009 the game allowed users to create their own team and compete in leagues against other real players, but only managed to last two years before closing down for good. It was odd because Football Manager Live brought everything that was good about the series in general and added new RPG elements to aid progression, so that your stats would increase the more you played and developed your skills. Even though it played very much like you would expect it to and offered gamers the chance to pit their tactics and teams against others in the ultimate test of their managerial ability, the number of subscribers was always far lower than expected. Sega closed the servers in 2011 and left players wanting to go online having to use the clunky and unrefined multiplayer modes in the main titles. It seems very much like a wasted opportunity and will surely put other companies off making similar games in the future, because if Sports Interactive couldnt get it right, then how will anyone else?
