Codemasters benches Club Football series

Codemasters has announced that development on further editions of its Club Football series has been temporarily halted. With established soccer franchises such as Konami's Winning Eleven and Electronic Arts' FIFA series dominating the genre, establishing a new soccer franchise has proven difficult to kick off.

"We are taking time out to reassess our strategy in the football action genre," said Gary Dunn, Codemasters' development director. "It is an extremely competitive market sector and we will take what we have learnt and build on that for future development."

Codemasters has resolved the decision to suspend Club Football with minimal cuts internally. Most of those working on the series have been moved to other projects from Codemasters' library, and Codemasters reports that only 18 employees have been effected as a result of Club Football's postponing.

The series, individually branded soccer titles featuring specific Premiere league teams such as Manchester United and Newcastle, had its last edition, Club Football 2005, shipped in Europe in October for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC. Club Football 2005 was released in North America for the PC under the Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Real Madrid brands last month.