Important News! / Newsletters 1 and 2 (new!)

[statfreak]

will the OOTP 2007 licenses work with OOTP 8?!? I might be interested in eliminating the SI branding from my current game...

[phenom]

Spammer!!!!

[james17]

Steve,

You're official addition to the OOTP team is most welcome. Your support has truly been terrific and the manual you created is not only a 'best' for OOTP, but is one of the best software manuals I've ever used (was in the IT business for 30 years)! Great News!

[battists]

Originally Posted by statfreak

will the OOTP 2007 licenses work with OOTP 8?!? I might be interested in eliminating the SI branding from my current game...

Um, not quite sure about that yet. Will let you know when we know more. I suspect that they will not, due to the fact that they will technically be separate products, from eLicense's perspective.

[BaseballMan]

Maybe its just me but i always assumed battists was part of OOTP.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by statfreak

will the OOTP 2007 licenses work with OOTP 8?!? I might be interested in eliminating the SI branding from my current game...

Could you just change the png files in the Data directory. Warning I haven't done this yet so I don't know what would happen.

[Andy]

Congrats battists!

Oh, and I finally received the first newsletter today.

[Killebrew]

Congrats Steve - that is great news for OOTP fans, you did a great job with v2007.

[robster1225]

yeah, great news Steve! Been a good month, got a Macbook and joined OOTP Dev.

I'm am REALLY excited about OOTP online as well.

[Anisoptera]

To be brutally honest, I'm really quite disappointed to hear about this OOTP online. "OOTP Online would not replace OOTP 9, nor would it eliminate support for online leagues in OOTP 9." Yeah, it might not replace OOTP or eliminate support for online leagues, but as Steve alludes to, you can sure as hell bet it's going to take away from those 2. I'm surprised they haven't done it before as Clay keeps boasting how much money his online version of BM brings in so much money for him, but think about how much BM sucks in comparison to OOTP. I'm not saying OOTP will suck now, just that it won't be as good as it could be and I suspect online league support won't be given near the attention they could get. Frankly, this news sucks.

On a more positive note, my congratulations to you as well Steve! I certainly hope you've been getting something in return for all this work you've done.

[Bonedwarf]

It'll probably be along the lines of Football Manager Live, which isn't very thrilling right now.

Tired of this push for online versions of games, for many reasons, all of which I'm too tired to go into right now. And I can understand why developers love them because the monthly subscriptions are a license to print money (while it's the extreme example, if only half their advertised subscribers are active, Blizzard pull in around 40 million dollars a month from World of Warcraft), for doing a fraction of the work a regular release requires.

Wonder if OOTP 8 will receive a price reduction? (Since I now have a computer which should work right with Facegen.)

[Stu]

While OOTP Online isn't something I'm very interested in, if that's what Markus and company need to do in order to pay the bills now that SI is out of the picture, so be it. Yah it will probably take away from the OOTP 9 some but I can't criticize them without knowing all the details behind the decision.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by Stu

While OOTP Online isn't something I'm very interested in, if that's what Markus and company need to do in order to pay the bills now that SI is out of the picture, so be it. Yah it will probably take away from the OOTP 9 some but I can't criticize them without knowing all the details behind the decision.

Good point. Imagine the whining that would go on if Markus said that he had to raise the price of OOTP to $50 in order to pay Steve his $1.50 a week. Bottom line is that this is a niche market and SI could not justify a continued involvement for the profit they made. Markus and Co. are entitled to focus on areas that may improve profitability however they please.

The online game may affect v9 but if it generates profit, that money can be used to improve the franchise in subsequent versions across the board. I think some people have problems looking at the big picture here.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by RchW

Good point. Imagine the whining that would go on if Markus said that he had to raise the price of OOTP to $50 in order to pay Steve his $1.50 a week. Bottom line is that this is a niche market and SI could not justify a continued involvement for the profit they made. Markus and Co. are entitled to focus on areas that may improve profitability however they please.

The online game may affect v9 but if it generates profit, that money can be used to improve the franchise in subsequent versions across the board. I think some people have problems looking at the big picture here.

I agree with RchW, who agrees with Stu. Not so much about avoiding a price increase, but the part about OOTP making a business decision that will increase profitability. I look at that three ways:

1. bonus for what they have created so far
2. assurance of financial stability and continued existence
3. investment in the future of OOTP from which we will all benefit

Basically, it's their business and they have a right to take it in whatever direction they wish. However, I really doubt that most of us will dislike where it's going, otherwise there would be no business.

[treedom]

I gotta say, other than battists joining the team (Congrats!) this announcement was a big letdown. I have zero interest in this online stuff, and am a little resentful of the development time it will take away from OOTP proper. Nevertheless, I realise that it has the potential to be a nice source of cash for OOTP Dev, and that likely puts OOTP on more stable footing, so I wish only success for this venture.

[Raidergoo]

Originally Posted by treedom

I gotta say, other than battists joining the team (Congrats!) this announcement was a big letdown. I have zero interest in this online stuff, and am a little resentful of the development time it will take away from OOTP proper. Nevertheless, I realise that it has the potential to be a nice source of cash for OOTP Dev, and that likely puts OOTP on more stable footing, so I wish only success for this venture.

There is an unexamined flipside to this, I think. If they can sell the OOTP 09 as a CD in retail stores in the North American market, and tap the fantasy baseball market with the hosted online stuff, that means more profits, battists working full time, and maybe more hires.

[Cork55]

Congrats Steve! Keep up the great work!!!

-Cork55

[ukhotstove]

Originally Posted by treedom

I gotta say, other than battists joining the team (Congrats!) this announcement was a big letdown. I have zero interest in this online stuff, and am a little resentful of the development time it will take away from OOTP proper. Nevertheless, I realise that it has the potential to be a nice source of cash for OOTP Dev, and that likely puts OOTP on more stable footing, so I wish only success for this venture.

" FM Live which as been mentioned seems to be like what OOTP Online will be, spoken to alot of FM players and they feel like FM as taken a bit of a back seat to FM Live hopefully OOTP wont make the same mistake but have to say imo not looking good. Don't run a league but wonder what the majority of online commish think of this as surely it will effect those leagues that are already running, my is that if I were a commish I'd be feeling a little let down.

[Mike D]

Originally Posted by treedom

I gotta say, other than battists joining the team (Congrats!) this announcement was a big letdown. I have zero interest in this online stuff, and am a little resentful of the development time it will take away from OOTP proper. Nevertheless, I realise that it has the potential to be a nice source of cash for OOTP Dev, and that likely puts OOTP on more stable footing, so I wish only success for this venture.

What he said. Congrats to Steve, you earned it. But I have to say that the news of OOTP Online is very discouraging. I don't know what I expected the announcement to be, seeing as they still aren't done getting suggestions for next year's version, however, this to me seems like ITP all over again and anyone who says that ITP didn't take away a huge chunk of development time from the OOTP series is seriously delusional.

[phenom]

It's things like this possibly being pushed aside in favor of OOTP Online development that worries me.