Soon after the game’s launch, Football Manager Live has introduced a monthly subscription due to requests from fans who were not yet convinced to go for the full 3, 6 or 12 month subscription that previously were the only. Still, there is a catch: you’re not subscribing just for one month, you still have to opt for the minimum 3 months, but this time you pay on a monthly basis. Pretty strange, in the end…

“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,” said Miles Jacobson to GamesIndustry.

He admitted that the number of subscribers is not what we would call “big” – about 23,000 players, but the developers do not worry. Actually, things are going as planned since they want to “start small and grow”. And they might have a point: we saw what happened with the latest hyped MMOs that started big and now are smaller than anybody would’ve expected…

“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.”

Let’s hope it all works out in the end. Football Manager Live is, in the end, the dream come true for many fans of the franchise. Maybe they just need a bit more reasons to join the fight which costs GBP 22.99, 43.99, 72.99 and 114.99 for three, six, twelve and 24 month subscriptions respectively.