Originally Posted by JeffR
Hello everyone, there have been a lot of questions about what's going on with FHM9 and how late we're getting in the year without an announcement of the game, its new features, and a release date. We were certainly hoping to let you know that stuff by now, but we've run into a delay.
There are no issues with FHM9 itself - the game is proceeding through testing well, the new systems are mostly functioning as intended apart from some final adjustments, there are just a few things (like the finalized opening night database) left to drop in, and in general everything looks nice and stable in the most recent test builds.
The problem is, our license term with the NHL expired after FHM8 ended, so we needed to negotiate a new contract with them this year. Unfortunately, the process of doing that was delayed this summer, which left things in limbo until September. We had a productive conversation with them a couple of weeks ago, agreed to the basics of a new multi-year deal, and it looked like everything would be ready to go for release and we'd be able to announce the date and details imminently.
However, that agreement has to pass muster with their legal department first. And it seems that they're swamped with work at the moment. We're obviously one of the smallest licensees, so we have to wait in line for them to get to us, and it's taking an unexpectedly long while to get through that line - I thought we'd have the approvals done by early last week, then early this week, but that didn't happen, and we're still waiting right now. Not the fault of anybody at the NHL, I assume they're in the same position most businesses find themselves in at the moment - a tight labour market means nobody is staffed as fully as they'd like, and the people they do have are trying to manage the extra workload as best they can. So, we wait.
Once that's done, we'll announce FHM9 properly shortly afterwards. The marketing stuff is pretty much ready to go and just needs a greenlight. I know that everybody is anxious to hear the details of what's coming, but we still want to be able to present it all in a coherent way, and at a time when we can tell you exactly when you'll be able to buy it (obviously, the gap between the announcement and the release date will be much shorter this year than in the past.) In the meantime, thanks for your patience.
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