Preventing piracy helped Football Manager studio hire 17 new developers

Preventing the piracy of Football Manager 2012 helped U.K. studio Sports Interactive hire 17 new developers, studio director Miles Jacobson told MCV.

According to Jacobson, the studio took measures to ensure the 2012 release of the long-running franchise was more difficult to crack, which resulted in a two week period in which the game was not pirated. The extra revenue was then invested back into the studio by hiring "17 or 18" more staff members.

"Last year the measures we took meant the game wasn't pirated for two week," said Jacobson. "And the extra sales we got in that two weeks is why we have managed to hire more staff this year.

"The new game has a new system being used, and as of the time of talking the Beta hadn't been cracked. If we can hold a few more weeks, it would be a benefit to retail and ourselves. And ultimately for the consumer, because once again if we do much better this year, we will invest that back into the studio, take on more people and do more features."

Jacobson added he expects this year's Football Manager release to be the biggest selling the studio has seen. The game launched worldwide on Nov. 2 for PC and Mac.