Those of you still boycotting the NHL and/or anticipating the release of the hockey management sim, Franchise Hockey Manager, have a release date and a beta program now on the schedule. Out of the Park Developments, producers of FHM and the legendary Out of the Park Baseball series, made the announcement last week.
The formal release date isn’t until September 3rd of this year — a minor disappointment — but the development staff, now led by Eastside Hockey Manager veteran, Jeff Riddolls, want to get the product right the first time. Imagine that, Columbus Blue Jackets!
Franchise Hockey Manager Beta Program Details
Anyone interested in joining the beta program for FHM simply need to pre-order the title when it becomes available on March 4th. The pre-order price is $29.99, which is a ten dollar savings from the actual cost of the game.
You get access to the current beta version of FHM, as well as all upcoming iterations up to and including the actual release version in September. The folks at OOTP were pretty clear that save games wouldn’t survive the beta process and certain features are yet to be added. Of course, a bug or two may lurk. Frankly, that sounds like the entire existence of the Columbus Blue Jackets!
New Franchise Hockey Manager Screenshots
In addition to the beta and release date announcements, OOTP also treated the world with an array of new Franchise Hockey Manager screenshots.
I’ll include one of the them, even though it is the Blackhawks. The rest are on the OOTP beta announcement page, linked above.
The Lines page in Franchise Hockey Manager. Copyright Out of the Park Developments.
Hopefully, I will be able to post my impressions of the beta when it becomes available next month.