“Things- things are good,” Miles Jacobson tells me, before a pause. “We’ve taken on a lot, with FM25.”
It’s early August, late in the afternoon on a Friday, and it’s clearly been a long week for Jacobson, head of Football Manager developer Sports Interactive. The studio celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, the same year it aims to reinvent the series with the most significant changes for two decades, but it’s noticeable that Jacobson is seeking to ease some expectations for FM25 as we begin to talk.
“What I don’t want to do is be sitting here and be overhyping things,” he says, “because I don’t think it helps anyone.”
In fact, keeping the hype in check is a recurring theme throughout our conversation. “This is something that’s really important for us to try and get people to understand,” he says, “and I’m talking journalists as well as consumers, because maybe we weren’t as-” he catches himself and self-corrects, “I think we were clear, but I’m not sure that the message is getting out there fully: FM25 is not a continuation of FM24. FM 25 is: ‘This is the next generation of Football Manager’ – and this is the first chapter in the new book of Football Manager, and will get expanded on.
“If people are expecting FM24 plus, plus, plus, plus, plus, they’re not going to be getting that with FM25.”
If regular players have been following the news closely, some of that may well have filtered through. Earlier in the summer, Sports Interactive’s first blog on FM25 revealed as much about what wouldn’t be making it to the new entry as what would. The social media screen is out; the data chalkboard is out; modes such as Create-a-Club, Challenge Mode, Versus Mode, Fantasy Draft are out too, with returns lined up for some of those over time. One of the biggest, announced at the start of September after we spoke – alongside a slight delay, from its usual early November release to later that month – is the removal of international management this year.