“FM25 is the starting point for the studio’s next 20 years.” That’s what Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson says in a new development blog for the 2025 iteration of the most famous management simulator of all time.
It’s been known for a few years now that Football Manager 25 would be a major departure from what came before it. While it’s not exactly obsolete, the annual iterations, which from the outside can sometimes seem quite minor to all but the most avid virtual managers, have been a staple of the franchise for over a decade.
Football Manager 25 is set to change a lot of that, and may well break a few things along the way. But I don’t think Jacobson and SI are necessarily afraid of that. This is a project that’s been planned for many years in advance. The developer’s blog talks as much about what items will be cut from the existing series as it does about new features.
Using analytics data from those who chose to share it, the team took a good look at Football Manager and nailed down a lot of features that most people didn’t use. That’s not to say no one used them, and that could well be a source of irritation for some long-time fans of the game, but they’re gone anyway. Either they’re gone because they’re rarely used, or they’re gone because FM25 can’t improve them enough to warrant their inclusion. The cutting room floor is a serious tripping hazard.
Some of the cut features are coming back – Challenge Mode will return in Football Manager 26 or 27, says Jacobson.
Fantasy Draft will be missing at the launch of FM25, but will be fixed at some point during the year as it will not be ready in time.
Do not scream
Other features like Touchline Shouts, where managers could give immediate instructions to staff, are gone forever. Possibly. “The most used feature that will not be included in FM25 is Touchline Shouts and it will not be returning in the near future,” he says.
I was surprised by this. I used them all the time, but Jacobson’s explanation makes sense: “Screams have been in the show for many years, and to be frank, I’ve never been happy with them. A “shout” should happen instantly, but it only took effect after the ball went out of play. It was also unclear to players how long the scream lasted. So for now, the shouting from the sideline has disappeared from the game.”
Fair enough, the problem is that not every player will see this explanation and may wonder why something they’ve always used has now been cut and will do the standard Internet slur of “dumbing down the game.”
With the cuts come news. A switch to the Unity engine allows for a major overhaul of the graphics, not just the gameplay stuff, but also the UI. Football Manager’s abundance of screens can be seen by many as overwhelming, and how many of them have not even been seen.
A new system based on panels and blocks aims to improve this. My natural Microsoft/Windows 8 induced fear of blocks kicked in when I read this, but it’s clear that SI has invested years of work, along with Unity engineers, into this and I’m hoping for a less clicks = more streamlined approach to the data I want to use.
As for the release time, the date will be announced in early September with pre-orders opening at the same time. In recent years, the game has also arrived on Game Pass on day one.
New gameplay elements will be revealed shortly after. Read on for Miles’ full breakdown of what’s happening with FM25, and we can’t wait to see this latest installment in this iconic franchise.
2024-06-27 19:03:36
#Football #Manager #expect #landmark #version
