CM Revolution: When you were creating CM1 did you have the feeling that you were creating the best football manager ever?

Paul Collyer: Well by the time it became clear that the game was commercially releasable we did want to make it the best. If I recall correctly we were the first game to have a huge database of players for each club and also to play out all matches using the same engine as the one the human used.

When working on another parts of the series were you sure for 100% that the game was going to be a success?

I think once we released CM 2 we became more confident. Then CM 97/98 was a bigger success than we expected and the company (SI) began to expand in preparation for CM 3. Since then every release has been high profile and highly anticipated by the public.

CM has become some kind of a religion through all those years, and you are it's symbol. What was the influence that the game had on You?

That is very flattering although it has of course always been a team effort. I would say the success has given me confidence and changed my life in many ways. But my wife Camilla has been a bigger influence – and it was her that helped me appreciate the importance of continuing with and building up SI as a career.

From what you are saying we see that your wife Camilla (greetings from the Polish fans ;) ) rather has a good opinion about CM. Unfortunately, some wifes of the husbands working on our site are quite uneasy about the time their husbands spend working on our CM site. How does it look like in your case? Maybe it's on the contrary in your case - your wife likes CM as much as you do?

I think the simple difference is that it is my career ;-) She is wonderfully understanding about the long hours, that is for sure!

Ten years have gone, ten years ahead of you - is this a possible vision for CM?

Well it won't be called "CM" of course, but as long as we continue to be creative and enjoy it why not another 10 years?

Why did you decide to release CM 4 while knowing the game was full of bugs?

When we did the deal to make CM 4, it is my belief that we gave ourselves too much to do in too short a time, considering it was a total rewrite. Looking back, the way to have made CM 4 live up to its expectations would have been to make a CM 02/03 with the CM 3 engine and follow that up with CM 4 late in 2003. But we didn’t plan things that way, so the whole of late 2002 and early 2003 was spent finishing CM4 knowing the latest possible release was March 2003. At the end of 2002, we had some doubts about the game but then we put an incredible amount of work in over the last 2-3 months and genuinely felt we had a decent game on our hands. In retrospect it would appear we were over optimistic and probably kidding ourselves. One thing I would say is that CM 4’s problems refocused us for CM 03/04 - a game of which I am very proud. I can tell you with 100% certainty that CM 4 would not have been nearly as good as 03/04 had we delayed it to late 2003.

Maybe you are right but it depends on many things. Look at this problem as if you were an ordinary CM fan - you get a game full of bugs and mistakes, it was simply difficult to play it. Wouldn't you had been mad if you bought an unfinished game for quite a lot of money? Of course, we know that there are patches, but what should players without an access to internet do (unfortunately, in Poland there are many such players). In Poland the publisher doesn't attach patches to the game.

Yes, it was a bad release by our standards and we regret it. What more can I say?

What was the reason for the break up between EIDOS and SI GAMES? Don't you think that the end of cooperation will have a bad influence on the game? We know that EIDOS will create a new game having the legendary name of "Championship Manager".

Eidos have a vision for their developers that we don’t share, but it’s a friendly parting of the ways. Put simply, Sports Interactive is not ready to become an internal dev team for a major publisher, and may well never be. We value our independence and we thrive on it. We are extremely ambitious for the future and wanted to be in a position to see new ideas (eg. Eastside) come to life and also to own what we produce in its entirety including the trademarks. From day 1, Domark and hence Eidos owned the name Championship Manager which was always a potential problem for an independent thinking dev team like SI.

So everything happened because of money. You realise that the fact that SI Games is working on a new version of their game with a different name might not get to all the fans. In that case some fans may go to shops and buy another "Championship Manager", but they will get something different from their expectations, a game created by EIDOS. Aren't you afraid that 10 years of your hard work will be lost? We really don't know what EIDOS is going to release. Can it be the end of the magical myth of "CM"?

Not just money no – as staying with Eidos would have been a safe option that would have made us very rich men. If there was a money aspect to the change it was with a long term view and with hard work the only way to make it work. As for the Championship Manager name – its up to ourselves and our publisher to make sure the message gets out.

How do you see the competition against the new manager that will be created by EIDOS?

I really have no idea what they will do, how they will do it or how good it will be. SI owns all previous code and the database so their future CM’s will either need to be started from scratch or use another existing engine. All I know is that to create CM4 took 3 years and that was a real struggle despite us having the benefits of over 10 years experience and the best database in football. I wish them luck as they will need it!

We know that you have taken a big part in the works on CM 4 and CM 03/04. Are you going to continue with your work on the next managers with SI? How do you see the company's future and your future in the the company?

I have absolutely no plans to do anything else than work on football management games with SI. I would say the next 5 years is about establishing our (non CM) game as the world’s leading management game and likewise with Eastside etc. All we want to do is make the best games.

"The new game" ... maybe some more words about this "new project"? Don't tell us about basic and elementary stuff like the name (although it's all interesting for us as well) but let's focus on some specific things - for example, if the engine of the new game will be written from a scratch or will it be made on the engine from CM 03/04? Fans from all over the world are also interested how the layout of the game is going to look like - will it change a lot or will it be rather the same? Please give us some details, at least the smallest ones!

It will be based on the CM 03/04 engine. I can't tell you any more, but you won't have to wait too many days to find out!

When are we going to get SI's new child?

We plan to release it during the 2004/5 season.

New game, new name, new ideas - vision of creating a new big game is interesting for sure. Aren't you afraid that you can run out of new interesting features? It seems that after CM 03/04 it's going to be difficult to create something better.

There is a wonderful engine to base it on from CM 4 and then 03/04 and we honestly have more ideas than we have time to implement, so it shouldn’t be a problem to keep improving it!

As I am questioning you so much about the "new game", therefore I will ask you about one more thing what will interest our readers for sure. Will the new manager be produced in the same way as CM? I mean one one version every year – exactly how it's been with CM 3, CM 00-01 or CM 01-02.

That is the way that works best for us right now, yes.

SI Games manager on consoles? Unrealistic vision or quite possible?

Possible in the future... With the current engine I suggest we are looking at the next generation of consoles.

Is there any possibility that SI might release the new manager on their own?

Not at present, but never say never! For the foreseeable future we shall be working in partnership with a new publisher (TBA Feb).

I hope that in the new deal there is a point about the name copyrights... ;)

What do you think? ;-)

What's in your opinion the biggest success of CM 4 and CM 03/04 and what's the biggest failure of those games?

I would say the biggest risk we took was the 2D engine, but that it has been a success overall, especially in 03/04. In CM 4 there were numerous problems, but if there was one thing I could change about the current version it would be to make it run faster. I guess in a couple of years speed will be less of an issue.

The engine 2D for many fans is the number one. Are you ever planning to implement a 3D view? There were rumours connecting CM with Pro Evolution Soccer 3, but they were all denied by your company. In my opinion that kind of connection would be an excellent decision. #1 manager + #1 soccer simulation = phenomenal fun! I think the effect would be excellent.

To be honest a 3D engine is a fair while away for now. But who knows what the long term future holds?

We know that in February SI Games are going to release their official plans for the next year and some news about the new manager. Are these plans already made, if yes, could you at least give us a small informations about them?

Yes, the plans are already made, and no you can’t have an exclusive ;-) We at SI are extremely excited about this announcement, that is for sure.

Paul, really nothing, nothing at all? Here, in Poland, we are excited even more ! :)

Not too long now...

Many people say that publishing games year by year, not only CM, is for you only a way to earn more money. Do you agree?

It all depends on your business model and the type of game. For football management it makes total sense.

Do You play CM?

Yes – I have a good game of 03/04 under way and I am in season 3 with Everton. For me it's vital that the people making the game play it as only then can we put the vast amount of feedback in the SI forums in perspective!

Any major successes with Everton?

I just won the league in season 3 (4.1.4) and lost to Bayern Munich in the CL final. I’m pretty proud of that, to be honest.

What's your opinion on the unofficial updates?

I think they are great for the community.

Is there going to be the third Polish league in the next version of CM?

At present I doubt it as we are focusing more on gameplay features rather than adding competitions.

I understand it but new leagues are important. How long does it take to add a new league to the game code?

Well say it takes a week of research time a week of coding and two weeks testing... you can see how it adds up!

Maybe a good idea would be to implement an option allowing fans to add new leagues through the editor? I think in such case many fans would create leagues on their own.

It's something we have talked about in the past but we aren't ready to go that way yet. I hope we can in the future.

Is CM only for fun or also a good paid job?

Its both ;)

Having fun and making money out of it - you're lucky!

I agree ;)

In your opinion how is Miles Jacobson doing as a managing director of the SI?

Miles is a wonderful MD. Bringing him onboard has taken the company to a new level in business terms and his enthusiasm and inventiveness knows no bounds. With Marc Vaughan handling the dev side in similar fashion the structure of SI is now extremely strong as we grow. Remember back in 1997 there were only about 5 of us! Now we are around 25 full time plus the head researchers all of whom I am extremely proud of. Our staff turnover is unbelievably low which says it all.

Why is Everton doing so poorly this season?

I believe there are too many overpaid players at the club and that the manager needs to shift some of them and bring in his own which is almost impossible right now. David Moyes is the best young manager in the Premier League and over time he will make Everton a promising, exciting young team who can expect a top 6 position and win some cups.

Is Tomasz Radzinski good enough for Everton?

Yes. He is excellent. Its just a shame he is approaching 30 and as such I suspect Everton may consider cashing in on him before his contract expires, because its always risky to expect "pace players" to sustain themselves much beyond 30.

Do you often meet with your friends and play football?

I'm too old and unfit to play football these days. Actually I have always been a bad player and far more of a fan. My sport of choice to play is squash.

So, when shall we expect Squash Manager ? :)

Maybe not squash manager, but we have a couple of things up our sleeve for the long term!

What's your favourite tactics in CM?

4-4-2 is always the one I come back to. In 03/04 ( 4.1.4 ) I find that a very attacking 4-4-2 with no arrows and switching the team bias between attacking and defensive according to the opposition is effective.

Thank you for the time you spent answering these questions. Good luck to you and the whole team.

It's a pleasure and thanks for the interest and support!