Game Groups > On the Ball / ANSTOSS series

Designed by Gerald Köhler at Ascaron, the ANSTOSS (literally, "Kick Off") series are the best known football management games developed in Germany, mostly thanks to the English version of the first game (titled On the Ball) and after Köhler's defection to EA (where he would take much of the style to develop the Total Club Manager series). The series are known for a peculiar kind of humour and a much broader business sense than most UK developed games in the genre.

In 2001, the match engine of ANSTOSS 3 was re-issued as a standalone game, but kept a bond between both games, allowing to intervene in 3D matches instead of just watching the computer play.

After Ascaron went bankrupt in 2009, the license was bought by Kalypso Media. In November 2011, they announced to evaluate if they would continue the series and publicly searched for a new development company. The series was digitally unavailable until 9 July 2021.