As the November 4 release date of Football Manager 26 draws closer and closer, fans of the series are ramping up their anticipation. The team at Sports Interactive have been rolling out bits and pieces of the new game on the new engine and the response to these releases such as the new UI or the addition of women’s football have been roundly positive.
While the game underwent some extremely bad publicity as Football Manager 25 was delayed, delayed, and finally delisted, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and the combination of two years of waiting and the good signs from the preview videos has anticipation at an all-time high. With players still yet to actually get their hands on the game to play it for themselves, however, it remains to be seen if the execution in game will match that of premade video packages, and in an interview with Esports Insider Twitch and YouTube content creator Zealand Shannon, one of the most popular FM streamers in the world, has some words of caution about the importance of releasing a clean game that works as intended next month.
“[A buggy release is] going to be really, really difficult for the team to survive as it is because you’ve then proven conclusively that for two straight years of trying to put out a game on this new engine, which you’ve decided is the right thing to do, you’re kind of shooting yourself in the foot here,” Zealand said.
“They’re the ones who decided to do this. It was a good idea. I love the idea to switch to Unity, but you decided what year it was going to happen. You decided how you were going to do it. You couldn’t deliver it the first time, so you’ve got to stick the landing the second time or else.”
In the interview, Zealand also touched on the Football Manager World Cup, which featured pairs from around the world competing in groups in a unique format in which each team in a group played the same save over three seasons, earning points for domestic and European accomplishments. The top teams then advanced to the knockout rounds for head-to-head matches in a draft format. With a strong return to the market in Football Manager 26, there could be the potential for it to take off as an eSport:
“I think the future for Football Manager is bright in eSports,” he told Esports Insider. “I think there was a lot of interest. And let’s not kid ourselves. EA FC and FIFA have had a divorce, so Football Manager is now the most popular football game that FIFA can interact with for esports.”
While there may be work yet to do on that front, the first step comes with a seat-cooling release of a new FM game that works as intended in November.
