Computer games developer and publisher Eidos have announced another high-profile slippage to their schedule – Championship Manager 5 now looks like it may not appear before Christmas.
The game was due for release in October and industry analysts, shareholders and fans of the series expected great things from it in run up to Christmas. The long running delays behind Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, developed by Core Design and eventually released last year after months of rewrites, damaged the company considerably with many reviewers complaining that the game still has an unfinished feel to it.
The company have released a statement on their corporate site: “Eidos is continuing to work towards release of the PC version of the game shortly before Christmas, although this may extend into the New Year. As previously stated, the much anticipated XBox and PS2 versions of Championship Manager 5 remain firmly on track for release in Spring 2005 and the online version will be available through subscription shortly after the PC game’s release.”
Eidos are also looking for a buyer for the company, with EA, Microsoft and Sony amongst those who have expressed an interest. The company made a UK£2 million (€2.89 million) loss in the year to June 2004, compared to a UK£17 million (€24.56 million) profit during the previous year.
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Fraser Lovatt
Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people.
Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon.
At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC.
After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video.
These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?
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