A LIVERPOOL FC computer game has been shelved, it emerged last night.

The game, which features realistic likenesses of the players and the stadium, was released last October.

But after competing for attention of the public from other football games, creator Codemasters has decided to suspend development of the series.

The announcement means that the company will not release any more of the games until further notice.

It is customary for Playstation 2 football games to be released once a year in time for Christmas.

Liverpool Club Football 2005 was the second release in the computer game series which initially found popularity but wained last year.

The series was launched with a fanfare at Anfield in 2003 with midfielders Harry Kewell and John Arne Riise.

The Club Football series is a selection of games which are endorsed by various clubs. Along with Liverpool, Manchester United, Celtic and Chelsea all have their own game.

A spokesman for Lemington Spa-based computer game development company Codemasters, said: "Following a review of its portfolio of football games, Codemasters has suspended production of the next version in the Club Football series.

"While this decision does affect development personnel working in the company's football studio, Codemasters has strived to keep redundancies to a minimum.

"Eighteen people are affected from the company's 412 total but the majority of the development team are being reallocated across other current projects.

"The football studio will continue to focus on further developing the LMA series of football management games, a market leading franchise on console platforms."

Gary Dunn, Codemasters development director, said that the move to supend development was to work out a new strategy.

He said: "We are taking time out to reassess our strategy in the football action genre.

"It is an extremely competitive market sector and we will take what we have learnt and build on that for future development."

The game, launched on both XBox and Playstation 2, featured close likenesses of the players and chants from the Kop.

Players sat for hours so digital cameras could capture their features from every angle to ensure realistic effects.

chrisbrown@dailypost.co.uk