The FM 25 Rollout
Thoughts on a major problem
The FM 25 Rollout
The big topic in the Football Manager world these days is the Football Manager 25 rollout, which has been an unmitigated disaster.
The release of the new version of Football Manager every year attracts a combination of intense fanboy rooting and aggressive (and sometimes unfair) skepticism. Reading posts on the official Sports Interactive forum will convince you that the new version of the game will either be the greatest we’ve ever seen, or it will be a failure that will bankrupt the company. Some fans are excited for new features, while other jaded fans remind us that no features ever work properly the first time they’re released.
That’s a time-honored tradition that goes back years. But this year things are different.
The problems and red flags this time around are numerous.
We have seen absolutely no gameplay footage, even after preorders have started. I’m not aware of a single version of this game that has not released at least some in-game footage by this point. This is concerning when you consider that this is the first year for the Unity engine, and might indicate severe problems with implementation.
Features have been removed — most notably the ability to manage national teams. This was never a popular feature, mostly because it was poorly implemented and very poorly conceived. However, removing this feature is even worse. Fans have been calmoring for a fix for years now, and it sadly seems that we may have to wait years for the problems to finally be solved.
The few screenshots of the interface that have been released are pretty underwhelming. Again — this is a bad sign for a game company that is trying to attract preorders.
The public beta period, another time honored tradition, has been done away with for no apparent reason. Nobody will see the game until late November.
There are rumors going around that the interface will be “dumbed down” to accomodate those who want to play on mobile devices. There are other rumors about the women’s football feature being underdeveloped and underwhelming — and there are also your standard yearly rumors about the tactical engine and the match engine changing massively.
I’ve thought about commenting on this publicly. All of the major Football Manager creators have done so — most notably Zealand, who has created numerous videos on the subject:
However, I’ve decided to refrain from commenting and just let everybody else do the talking.
We just don’t know enough yet to say anything worthwhile. I prefer to wait for release to discuss and dissect the new game.
However, I strongly advise against preordering. It makes no sense to financially reward Sports Interactive for such a confusing and frustrating rollout. Wait for the game to come out and for the bugs to be ironed out before you buy.