How Much For Championship Manager 2010? Just Pay What You Want!

The Championship Manager football-based series have been going for a while now (in fact since 1993 with the original Championship Manager) but since the Eidos/Sports Interactive split before Championship Manager 5, many have felt that it has lost some of the spark that it previously had and the new ‘Football Manager’ made quite an impact.

So, in an attempt to re-secure their place at the top of the football-management genre they have come up with a new idea to boost sales, and it is one that copies the strategy used by Radiohead a few years back: letting you pay what you like for the game.

Now looking at this you may, like me, think of two things first. The most prominent will be “Well if it’s free I’m going to get that!” whilst at the back of your mind you’ll also be thinking that this is merely financial suicide on the part of Eidos especially considering the current economic climate – but your second thought would be definitely wrong.

Let’s consider Radiohead as a case study – despite the fact that they let people pay whatever they wanted they received on average about £2.50 for each album, and sold roughly three times as many as normal. For those that can’t be bothered to add that up (although it’s really not hard!) that’s the same as selling the normal amount at £7.50 which isn’t that much less than normal price.

When you also consider how much more popular it made Radiohead, the fact that they were hailed as innovators and the additional sales as more people bought merchandise (and ten older albums) then you can see why this can definitely work, and Eidos will be hoping that it does.

However you’ll have to be ‘on the ball’ (excuse the poor pun) as the website implies this offer won’t be around for long. It appears Eidos don’t have the guts (or rather don’t think it would be financially viable) to do this across the board, rather you can only ‘pay what you want’ if you pre-order it to download off their website before the release date (11th September 2009) after which it will go back to the standard price of £29.99 for everyone.

Another interesting thing to note is that it is still not possible to get it for free even through the ‘pay-what-you-like’ method. On top of the minimum £0.01 you have to pay (which I imagine has to be there for some legal or financial reason) there is a £2.50 transaction fee, which means you will be paying at least £2.51 – not really whatever you want. You then get the choice to pay whatever you like (I imagine given the presence of a ‘transaction fee’ for the most part this will be £0) and add CM Season Live for £5.

CM season live essentially gives you live updates as the season goes on, and the £5 covers you for a whole year, which is a nice idea for the diehard football fans out there that want more of a real experience.

So, head over to the Championship Manager website (at the bottom) if you want to pre-order (which I thoroughly recommend as despite the varied reviews of the demo it will be good value for £2.51). Personally I think this is a great idea and hope that more game manufacturers cotton onto this idea – it not only benefits the general population but there are also many benefits for the companies in the long run. So… now we just wait till it’s released and you can look forward to our Championship Manager 2010 review!

Via – T3

Related Pages:

1. Championship Manager 2010 Review (PC)
2. Football Manager Live Voucher Code (20% Off)
3. Football Manager Live Voucher Code (5% off)
4. Football Manager Live – 21 Day Free Trial
5. Football Manager Live Pre-Order

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