Sierra Sports NFL Football Pro 2000
“On February 22, 1999, Sierra announced a reorganization of its development divisions to more keenly focus on its key products. Four development studios were closed and many development teams will be relocated to Sierra’s headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. The consolidation included Synergistic, the Renton, WA based developer of Football Pro.
Although most of the actions we took were to help us focus our resources on key products, the decision that affected the future of Football Pro was significantly different.
When I authorized the recall of the Football Pro 99 product in January, the information at hand led me to believe that the product had been released too early and that a few more months in development would give us a game we could be proud of.
Based on that, we made some positive changes to the management and composition of the team and set them off on a path to create a series of patches to the ’99 product during development of a plan for a full release of Football Pro 2000 later in the year.
Late last week, I met with the team leader and the general manager of the division to go over the status of the product. They had done a great job of identifying the issues within the game and outlining a strategy to get them fixed. Unfortunately, the schedule they outlined didn’t give us a solid chance to have the right game for the intended Football Pro 2000 release, even with an additional seven to eight months of development.
Simple patching was not going to do it. Many fundamental changes to the underlying engine were needed and there was significant risk associated with each major change. Given the (deserved) drubbing we took when we released Football Pro 99 “too early” I decided that I was not going to repeat that mistake with the release of an incomplete “2000” product.
Although discontinuing the line today is not a popular decision among Football Pro customers, I am not interested in repeating mistakes of the past. It would be a greater disservice to our customers to compromise the development of Football Pro 2000 and release the wrong game twice.
Additional announcements will be made for resolving outstanding return and reparation issues for members of the Football Pro Home Team by Thursday, March 4. Football Pro 99 was recalled on January 21, 1999 and the Home Team was established for customers that chose to keep their version of the product. All Home Team members will be given an opportunity to receive the refunds and reparations offered as a result of the recall.”
David Grenewetzki – President, Sierra”
Front Page Sports Football (or FPS Football), first released in 1992, was the first in a series of American football simulations released by Sierra Online. The Front Page Sports series was notable for being one of the first football simulations to include a career mode where players aged and retired, and for the number of statistics it offered. The first game did not have a license from the NFL or its players association, meaning that all teams and players offered were fictional, but subsequent versions starting with Front Page Sports Football Pro ’95 in 1995 included real NFL players and teams. New versions of the game were introduced each year, with the final one coming out in 1999, however the 1999 version was recalled. A 2000 version was also planned, however it was cancelled shortly after the 1999 version recall.
In October 2009 Cyanide, the French studio behind such games as the sport management sim Pro Cycling Manager and the adaptation of Blood Bowl, announced a closed beta of a new online version of Front Page Sports Football.