The recently released FIFA Manager 14 is the last in the series, after founder Gerald Köhler admitted EA and developer Bright Lights weren't prepared to take the series forward. In a frank post published on the FIFA Manager blog, Köhler admitted the 12-year series needed too much investment to be worth continuing.

"The football manager genre at this level of sophistication is highly specialized and primarily played in two countries (England and Germany)," Köhler wrote, "In which - on top of everything - one game has practically dominated the market in recent years. The niche market and general trend toward online and mobile games were also contributing factors. Moreover, FM had reached a crossroads at which a new engine and/or corresponding online technology would be the only way to give the series a boost. When all these factors were evaluated, it led us to the decision to blow the final whistle."

While EA supported the FIFA Manager series across a decade, it never made a significant impact against the genre steamroller that is Sega's Football Manager. Last year's entry, FM 2013, became the series' best-seller after shifting more than 1 million copies, despite being pirated more than 10 million times.