The next release of the long-running Football Manager series of games - Football Manager 24 or FM24 - will be the last of its kind.
This year's edition, the 20th instalment of Football Manager (where funnily enough, you act as a football manager for one of the world's many football clubs), will bring an end to the current iteration of games - and that's a promise directly from studio manager of Sports Interactive; Miles Jacobsen.
With FM23, it seemed like the games change to digitize the behind-the-scenes of a football club had hit an apex - a rather boring apex for consumers. Instead of the growing addition of features that had underlined each new edition, FM23 simply existed as a slightly better FM22.
And that was echoed by Jacobsen in a blog post for SI, who in response to FM23's reception has agreed that FM24 will simply bookend the series as the pinnacle of Football Manager. A complete edition. One where you can finally transfer a save from the previous game so your 400 hours of work doesn't go to waste.
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"Football Manager 2024 will be the 20th game in Sports Interactive’s Football Manager series, and will be the last of its kind," said Jacobsen in his post.
"It’s a love letter to football and the FM series as we know it. It’s the closing of this chapter of our history. You can expect a host of improvements, big and small, both in new features and revamps to existing areas of the game."
But is Football Manager ending?
No chance.
In fact, it might be better than it has ever been by the time FM25 arrives, which will start a new chapter for the series.
As part of a set of changes made to the technology powering the games, Sports Interactive's desire to revamp the engines behind FM led to the formation of 'Project Dragonfly' which would deliver a new vision for the game. However, the pandemic and multiple issues led to this being pushed back from FM22, released in 2021, to Autumn 2025.
This previously unknown four-year delay will now herald and entirely new Football Manager, in a new Unity-powered engine, promising better graphics across the board and rehauled animations.
"In simple terms, FM25 will have a significantly better-looking matchday experience - both on the pitch and the supporting stadium environments, alongside a vastly improved user interface that will dramatically improve how you navigate through screens and access all the information available to you as manager. We’ll also have new technology for Newgens and manager creation which are already looking really promising at this early stage," added Jacobsen.
Women's football will also be added - and don't worry, your saves will continue to be transferrable.
It's all change for one of the biggest series in the history of gaming.
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