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Having landed full licensing for its baseball management simulation, Out of the Park Developments has secured an NHL license for its Franchise Hockey Manager series, beginning with the newest edition of the game launching in two weeks.
With an NHL license, Franchise Hockey Manager 3 will feature the real clubs, logos, uniforms, team nicknames, Stanley Cup playoffs and imagery, and all of the league's postseason awards. Previously, Franchise Hockey Manager had no licensing and such features were generically described.
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Franchise Hockey Manager 3 does not, however, have NHL Players Association licensing, which is what grants permission to use real-life players' likenesses in the game. OOTP Developments added a Major League Baseball Players Association group license earlier this year (after getting an MLB license in 2015), meaning real-life players could be represented by their images in the simulation.
Franchise Hockey Manager 3 will offer other new features as well, including a mode called Path To Glory. OOTP promises that mode is "a more streamlined and more approachable way" to handle personnel management and player development. A "role-based tactical system" introduces pre-set tactics to build up a franchise's development philosophy and slot players into the roles that best support it.
Franchise Hockey Manager 3 will launch Oct. 17 for Windows PC and Mac.
Disclosure: Polygon writers Owen Good and Samit Sarkar are frequent panelists on the Press Row Podcast, whose founder, Rich Grisham, and another panelist, T.J. Lauerman, are OOTP Developments employees.
