New Star Soccer Manager takes the franchise into the boardroom while retaining matchday action. — AFP Relaxnews
The notoriously engaging New Star Soccer franchise is expanding its ambitions with an even more comprehensive sim.
Where mobile and PC hit New Star Soccer let players take a single soccer pro from rookie beginnings to career retirement, New Star Soccer Manager aims for the next level.
Its focus is not just on training and matchday action, but the entire architecture surrounding a successful soccer club.
It's to build on the New Star Soccer foundation, an engaging blend of simple matchday swipes and taps and gradual off-the-field improvement in various areas of a pro footballer's life.
But instead of asking players to accrue agents, fitness trainers, sponsorship deals, media headlines and romances, New Star Soccer Manager has them concerned with training facilities, stadium upgrades, squad composition, and club finances.
New Star Soccer developer Simon Read released the first version of his game in 2003, inspired by management sims of his youth and the pop culture celebrity of superstar footballers like Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder David Beckham.
Read experimented with his formula over the next decade until making a breakthrough with the 2012 debut of New Star Soccer on mobile, finding a dedicated audience with its near-compulsive blend of bite-size action and iterative improvement.
Winning a BAFTA award for his efforts, as well as some 30 million downloads worldwide, a noticeably similar if not intensely polished approach has since been introduced to the enormous FIFA Soccer series, which added its detailed, narrow-focus career mode called The Journey in 2016.
But with FIFA moving in on his franchise's traditional territory, Read's next move could be to position New Star Soccer Manager somewhere between mobile giants FIFA Soccer and Football Manager, thanks to a blend of tactical development, club management, and highlight-oriented match day moments.
An iOS and Android release has been projected for later in northern summer 2018. — AFP Relaxnews
