Sports Interactive and Eidos to go their separate ways

Xbox News | The next Championship Manager will be the last collaberation between the two companies.

There was little controversy as Eidos and Sports Interactive (SI) today mutually agreed to end their partnership after releasing the next installation in the best-selling Championship Manager franchise. Due out in the fourth quarter of this year, Season 03/04 will be the last game developed by SI and published by Eidos.

Miles Jacobson, Managing Director of SI comments: "If this were the music industry, we would be talking about a classic case of 'musical differences.'"

Their respective intellectual properties will remain as has been the past years; Eidos owning the name Championship Manager and SI remaining owners of the player database and source code.

Further Championship Manager releases (after 03/04) will be developed and published by Eidos alone, whilst SI will announce their plans for future projects early next year.

Miles Jacobsen continues, "We've enjoyed an excellent relationship with Eidos for many years now and will work closely with them to make sure that our final collaboration is the best version of CM ever. After that, I expect that we will become the friendliest of rivals."

Championship Manager 4, the latest game in the series, became the fastest-selling PC game in the UK, and has along with previous releases sold more than four million copies worldwide, making it one of the most popular games-series' ever. Both 01/02 and 0203 seasons were released on the Xbox last year, in March and December respectively.