Years after its announcement, what’s happening with the new PC Fútbol?

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The beautiful sport has an infinite number of games dedicated to it. Since the dawn of the industry, different developers have tried with more or less success to bring this passion of the greatest number to consoles, computers and arcades of different sizes. The truth is that among this infinite number of games, there are few franchises that have lasted over time or, quite simply, that have managed to carve out a place in the hearts of players, but certainly one of them was PC Fútbol.

The story of a significant event from another era

No matter where you are reading these lines from and if you grew up in the 90s loving football, it is more than likely that you have enjoyed a version of the game that, in case you did not know, is Spanish and holds the record for being the best-selling national game in the Iberian country. The idea came from Gabriel Ruiz whose passion for football had led him to invest many hours of his childhood in Football Manager, an English game released on ZX Spectrum and that could be considered the seed of what would become PC Fútbol

The Spanish development, offered by Dinamic Multimedia, the Ruiz family business, began to be sold in kiosks at a very affordable price (in pesetas, at the time) and was an absolute success. Many others followed this first version, even with their equivalents in other countries; the Italians had their PC Calcio, the English their Premier Manager and the Argentines the PC Fútbol 5.0 and 6.0 with the unforgettable stories of Marcelo Araujo and Victor Hugo Morales, respectively.

The edition that sold the most units reached the incredible sum of 400,000 units, which, at a time when digital platforms did not exist, is an absolute record and a testament to the incredible product that the company had in its hands. After the success, the end of the 2000s surprised the developer with a economic failurewhich seemed to wipe out any modern version of the game, and it was until recently that a company rekindled fans’ desire for a new installment, but little is known about it.

A new opportunity for the saga

On February 7, 2023, a Twitter account with the name “PCFútbolManía” changed its name to PC Fútbol Official with a publication which promised that if the account reached 150,000 subscribers, there would be a PC Football 2023 for Windows, Mac and Linux.

With 65,000 followers, the account joins a recently created company called Una Partida Más SRLde. Hector Prats. The promise of joint development with the players themselves became more palpable with a contest for the community to take charge of creating the game’s logo itself with a prize of 200 dollars for the selected design, which in turn had to give up the design rights. The game’s release date was scheduled for December 23, 2023, just in time to enjoy some post-holiday gaming, but that would not happen.

A bet on the future

To finance the development, the strategy was to put 5,000 units on sale at a price of 25.94 dollars. Those who obtained these copies would see their name in the credits of the game, as in any type of advertising campaign. crowdfundingThe pre-sale was made through the website PC Componentes, one of the largest IT companies in Europe and where Héctor Prats also had contacts due to his past as a worker in the company.

Due to a cost issue, development was carried out in Europe and Argentina, but as of late 2023, no specific announcements have been made regarding the game’s progress and the developers have announced that the title has been delayed indefinitely, the first of five delays to date.

A tsunami of delays

History seemed to reverse in March of this year when The game was renamed PC Football 8 and hopes were rekindled with a new release date: April 30. There, it was also known that the game was 85% complete and some peculiarities of the title were even revealed, such as the fact that one could enjoy the old seasons of world football from 1993 with various modifications depending on the chosen year and with absolute control over what would be the design and management of the stadium.

Needless to say, April 30 passed without the game being received and the same would happen with the following announced dates: May 17, June 7 and June 25, 2024. Voices claiming to be former employees of the development studios contracted by Prats claim that the game is still far from being released in the state it is in, something that the executive has taken it upon himself to deny on several occasions.

And now?

The distinct disadvantages that the game will bring will be that many of the players who have made the pre-purchase will take their money back, so that it seems not to be among the possibilities of the company given the flood of requests with this reason that they will receive in a very short time period of time. Although the future of PC Fútbol 8 is shrouded in mystery, on July 8 there will be a press conference where Prats will show the progress of the game, whether it will be seen live for the first time or not is something that we We will only find out in a few more days.