Those of us who are as close to the game and who clock up several times more than the average couple of hundred hours each year have at times found it hard to place a huge amount of excitement and hype in recent new releases of Football Manager, mainly due to the somewhat simplistic (but very arguable) fact that the game doesn’t feel like it has changed a whole lot over the past 2-3 renditions and therefore has began to feel slightly stale or monotonous due to a lack of substantial variety or evolution year-on-year. Of course this opinion likely sits with the minority rather than the majority (especially considering the highly impressive growth the game has had over the past couple of years), and though it may sound like incessant moaning to some, it’s important to remember that as content creators/consumers, we look at and feel the game a lot differently to most, particularly due to the amount of time we spend navigating the mechanics of the game combined with the level of detail and meticulousness with which we play, watch, stream, blog, read, make videos or discuss on podcasts, streams, forums and social media each and every week throughout every game’s life cycle annually.
Personally I am probably easier to please than most, using blogs and save narratives to drive variation/entertainment and requiring less when it comes to graphics and visual representation to narrate and storytell accordingly; however having now blogged 6 or 7 long-term save adventures over the past 5 versions of FM - I too was beginning to have a slight feeling of repetitiveness and monotony when it comes to starting a new save and particularly committing to a new long-term adventure in-game. As we all know, once you complete a few seasons, attend several hundred press conferences, chair a multitude of staff/recruitment meetings, despair at several annual youth intakes and go through the motions each season in terms of climbing the leagues and/or competing in Europe - it can become difficult to approach a new save with the same level of enthusiasm simply due to that feeling of “more of the same” or “same but different”, hence why there has been increased online discussion and widespread commentary of late which echoes a similar sentiment in terms of stagnation and a lack of change in Football Manager overall.
The good news is, they are listening. While Football Manager is in itself a global phenomenon and effectively the sole market leader when it comes to Football Management gaming simulation, the people at Sports Interactive clearly make a concentrated effort to hear their community and be more involved and aware of the sentiment of their customers across all of the various platforms and forums on which their game is discussed vividly. Though not much of a “gamer” myself (the last FIFA game I was actually decent at was FIFA 2002 and we won’t talk about who was on the cover), I can say with certainty that no other gaming studio is as accessible and communicative as the folks at Sports Interactive, and regardless of how you feel about the game’s quality or progress in recent years, their commitment to understanding and liaising with their community has been unwavering, from Miles himself all the way down to the various Sports Interactive forums.
That brings us up to this week, when on Wednesday 28th June 2023 Miles released a blog entitled “The Future of Football Manager”. As one of the lucky content creators who were invited to attend a special event the weekend prior to this and have the opportunity to speak with some of the studio’s key individuals, I entered the event with a similar sense of intrigue, anticipation and apprehension as many of the other creators present who were all of a fairly similar mindset based on our discussions the night and morning prior to the event. What is this about? Is something big coming? Will we be disappointed? After hearing all the team had to say and getting a sense of the excitement and genuine optimism from the staff we met (as well as knowing that there is still a lot to come and a lot of time to pass), I left with one overall concrete thought which still holds strong since the official release went out:
“This Feels Different”
What do I mean by this? Anything can sound different of course. What I mean is - the mentality, honesty, authenticity, passion and integrity that I observed both in Miles’ written words as well as on the day made it clear to me that something is certainly different. For what feels like the first time, we have seen SI come forward and say that although one of their games has been a huge commercial success (and the most played in the series’ history), there is a clear admission it did not transpire to be the game or gaming experience they wanted to deliver. They have put their cards on the table to acknowledge that they know it did not live up to many users’ expectations, and also held their hands up to say that they know that FM23 did not evolve the way many would have liked. Without going into reasons (which are included in the official blog), this is the first time I have really seen this level of openness and admission with regard to the quality of an FM release, and a clear signal of acknowledgement from the game's producers which we have not really seen in years gone by.
What also feels different is that strategically, the studio is making a clear and transparent decision to implement a brand new strategy in terms of how the game is produced and in particular, the engine and platform upon which the game is built (i.e. the switch to Unity). Realistically they didn’t have to do this, or at least not yet anyway. While of course those of us avid players are the ones who demand change the loudest, it’s important to note that the game has basically more than doubled in size in terms of number of players since FM22 and while a core group of us are crying out for change, commercially it’s clear that the average player appears quite happy with the game in its current state and is less demanding of change and revolution in-game. The clear intent from the studio in terms of acknowledging it’s limitations and in particular the opportunities that a platform like Unity presents tell us that the studio are not content to remain as they are and that they are making a conscious (and no doubt difficult & expensive) change to better the game for the future.
Other things that are different - as mentioned above and in Miles’ blog, the game has more than doubled in users (from 2 million in FM22 to 5 million in FM23), and whatever way you look at it, this means that the level of investment and resources has naturally increased simultaneously which Miles himself mentions when referencing the increased growth of the studio over the past few years. Quite simply - the associated commercial income has and will open the gates for more investment into making the game better, be that through the hiring of expertise (you need only check the SI Careers page to see the continued hiring over the past few months and years), through the likely expansion of specific teams and functions, through new initiatives (e.g. Project Dragonfly mentioned by Miles on the blog) and of course through investment in technology and the planned transition to Unity, which no doubt comes at a huge cost but equally is clearly what is needed in order for the game to evolve and improve for future versions to come. The reality is that Sports Interactive are no longer a small gaming studio, and this level of investment and ability to spend more on the game is most certainly a positive change for all of us.
The Unity announcement also brings other aspects that instil that sense of “different”; for starters, it’s a clear sign that despite being the market leader in Football Management simulation, there is a clear vision which focuses on the future of the game and it continuing to hold a competitive edge beyond it’s database and simulation engine. When you are the monopoly in a particular area it would be easy to settle and stay in your comfort zone - the announced changes are the exact opposite of this. Similarly - there is a clear acknowledgement that the game has room for improvement in terms of graphics and user interface, especially when compared to the quality of other video games out there currently both football and non-football related. I used to think that I was someone who didn’t really need good graphics in order to enjoy Football Manager (especially as someone who doesn’t really play any other video games), and it’s only when I see things like this that I realise I care a whole lot more than I thought I did and start to imagine how much more this could bring to the beautiful game:
Football Manager willingly focusing more on graphics and interface in addition to features and functionality (and the move to an engine which actively empowers the same) definitely feels different, and unknowingly, I like it a lot.
Still with me? I only have two other takeaways when it comes to what I feel is different about the planned changes to the future of Football Manager. Firstly - the confirmed features of (1) Transferring saves between games and (2) Women’s Football clearly highlight that the studio is actively listening to its customer base, with both of these being highly (and vocally) desired by many users over the past few years. Though they sound simple, the level of technical changes and research/data needed for these are no doubt highly extensive and it’s a clear sign that the studio values the needs of what may not necessarily be the majority of their customer base but clearly important to many. Secondly - a really positive sign which definitely feels different to previous editions is that the FM24 feature set was confirmed and fully designed much earlier than previous releases, and everything seems very much ahead of schedule this year; prior to this it often felt like certain elements were rushed, that beta releases etc were unpredictable, that certain features were guaranteed to have bugs and that as time progressed, some new features had to be dropped in favour of releasing the game on time as per the usual SI schedule. Knowing that the FM24 feature set has already been locked in not only feels different but gives me confidence that we will see new things which perhaps didn’t make it into FM23, and that FM24 will indeed be “the most complete version of Football Manager to date”.
So to summarise:
✔️ Admission re: FM23 features not being good enough
✔️ Long-Term Strategy Change
✔️ Investment & Resources (Technology and People)
✔️ Future & Competitive thinking in terms of raising standards
✔️ Graphics & User Interface focus rather than database and simulation
✔️ Listening to what users are asking for
✔️ FM24 early feature confirmation
I think that’s a fair amount of different to be intrigued about, right? Of course, a lot of what we have learned are just words, plans, intent, excitement - we still know very little and there is still a whole lot of time to pass before we will see any of the announced changes become a reality on our screens, so naturally there will still be that air of apprehension and relative cynicism of the level of change we will see in both FM24 and FM25 (and beyond). That said, things certainly do feel different and props to SI for their approach and hopefully their success in executing on this strategic change and overhaul. What we know for now will have to do as we wait for more information to follow..good things come to those who wait right? (ugh, he’s doing clichés now).
Thanks for reading - if you haven’t already, be sure to catch the full blog from Miles over on the Football Manager website here.