The FM25 comes with some big changes. Last year, in an exclusive interview with Eurogamer about the future of Football Manager, sports interactive player Miles Jacobson described these big changes, especially those coming to the game’s user interface, as “the most dangerous changes you can make – because people who have the muscle memory to know exactly where go, he won’t have it anymore”
With a game like FM, where the UI is effectively the game, it doesn’t overdo it. Now we’ve got our first look at what some of those changes are, and it seems clear that the studio is getting the negatives out of the way first. The first FM blog on FM25 lists a number of features that will be omitted from the next game.
The biggest one is the removal of the Inbox folder itself – which is basically the main means of interaction. Until now, Football Manager has been about receiving tasks or information through this inbox and then dealing with it, whether through conversations with players, board meetings or forays into tactics, training and analytics. Below you can see a first look at the ongoing replacement of the Inbox folder.
Beyond that, the main take away from sideline yelling is the ability to quickly implement a motivational boost (or in many of my cases, a demotivational boost) to your players when the match is in motion. That means no more pounding to “Demand more” every time you’re a goal behind, and no more polite requests for your currently Aggressive holding midfielder to “Calm down”.
“Shouts have been in the show for many years, and to be honest, I’ve never been happy with them,” Jacobson said on the blog. The “shout” should have taken place immediately, but it did not take effect until after the ball was out of play. It was also unclear to the players how long the scream lasted. So the sideline yelling is gone for now. out of the game.”
“I really want them to come back, but they’ll only come back if we get them right.
In addition to screams, there are a number of other lesser-used features out this year. The much-forgotten social media screen is gone, though social media and fans will of course still be “an integral part of the game”, while the data board – the data sub-menu that was largely rendered useless by the addition of the Data Hub. gone, thanks to its used drop “from 10 percent to less than 1 percent.”
The Create-a-Club mode is also out, with five percent player usage on platforms whose availability has “steadily declined” over the years, though it’s slated to return in a more detailed form next year on FM26. Versus Mode, where you can play against other human managers, is also set for a revamp, but in the meantime it won’t be in FM25, as will the mobile-focused Challenge mode or the iconic Fantasy Draft.
However, it receives a kind of compensation in a different form. “When we first envisioned the Fantasy Draft mode, we saw its potential as an esport,” said Jacobson. “Over the years, we know that many of you have used this mode in this way – and there have been several tournaments here and there in various forms.”
FIFA, world football’s governing body, spurned partner of EA Sports and lover of caps lock messages, has partnered with Sports Interactive for the “FIFAe World Cup of Football Manager”. It will be an invitational tournament that will be held in Liverpool this year from August 29 to September 1, with a prize pool of $100,000.
More importantly, its trailer features legendary manager Arsene Wenger pretending to play Football Manager and waxing lyrical about the importance of knowing your Trequartists from your trivelas. “I look forward to being a part of this exciting new journey,” he wrote decisively on FIFA’s website. “This competition requires participants to demonstrate a deep understanding of football strategy and tactics. Success in this format requires not only mastery of game mechanics but also deep football knowledge, making for a fascinating mix.”
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All that said, Fantasy Draft will return later, along with the mid-season FM25 update. These usually come around the end of February each year, shortly after the winter transfer window closes around the world.
Jacobson promised more news – and more depth to what’s already been revealed – in an update alongside the Unite event in mid-September, but he seems to remain optimistic as he spoke to Eurogamer last year.
“It’s going to be more modern, it’s going to be sleeker,” he said, “and — that’s a big statement, okay — my dream is that once we release our new user interface, the productivity tools world will look at our user interface and ‘Why didn’t we think of that? ?” Because FM is a huge productivity tool, you spend a lot of time there.”
The approach, he said, was to ask, “If we had our time again, would we do it the same way?” It looks like there are at least a few notable cases where the answer is: not really. If you’re curious, it’s worth checking out our big Football Manager interview for more nuggets of what to expect from FM25.