Football Manager 2006 (PC)

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A great sight for FM fans

Football Manager 2006 is due for release on PC and Mac on October 21st. We spoke to Miles Jacobson from Sports Interactive about their latest game and the future of the series.

Pro-G: So what's in a name? Nearly a year has passed since FM2005 made its competitive debut following the split with Eidos [now SCi Eidos, who retained the Championship Manager name], so how did that change impact on sales?

Miles Jacobson: Our sales of FM2005 were comparable or better than any of our previous titles globally. But it took a lot of hard work from us, Sega & our amazing community. The aim with FM2006 is to grow the market...

Pro-G: How has your change of publisher to Sega worked out for you so far, in what has been a year of diversifying their portfolio? Has Sega taken the hands-on approach, or have you been left to your own devices?

MJ: On a development level, they leave us to get on with it. We are fortunate to have a fantastic producer at Sega, and he and his team trust us to do what we need to do, and only tend to get involved when we ask them to (such as the tutorial) and there's a large test team there too, to compliment our own. With marketing and PR, we work closely together to ensure that everyone is happy. We probably have a lot more creative freedom than most, aswell as lots of input in other areas, so we're pretty happy.

Pro-G: How much tweaking of FM2005 has been undertaken for this year's title?

MJ: We've announced 34 new features. There are dozens of others aswell that we'll let people find for themselves. So a hell of a lot more than tweaking has gone on! There's been a full dev team and a full research team working since the last release to ensure that FM2006 isn't just an 'update'.

Pro-G: It may seem a strange thing to suggest, given the sales records you continually set and such, but do you think that your titles are aimed at a hardcore section of gamers, or do you feel that FM2006 is accessible to all, and will welcome new players into your world?

We're hoping that the 30,000 word tutorial helps the newer or new FM player...

MJ: When we started working on FM2006 we were looking at improving the game for 2 different groups - the hardcore, long term player, and the person who has dipped their feet in the water but was maybe a bit overwhelmed by the level of detail. We're hoping that the 30,000 word tutorial helps the newer or new FM player, along with an easier to use interface, and new training module, whereas the hardcore have got features like the greyed out players, team talks, and a much more solid long term game world.

Pro-G: At E3 we asked how you felt about being the undisputed market leader, and your thoughts on the competition (at the time being Championship Manager). In addition to any further CM games, EA's FIFA Manager (which has received a lick of polish) could now potentially be considered a rival. Are you concerned about a greater number of games vying for the same customers, or do you think that FM attracts a different type of gamer?

MJ: I think our games are pretty different to the others in the marketplace, because we are so anal about detail. We simulate every 1/6th-1/8th of a second of real football in our match engine. If you want to watch in real time, you can. The more arcade based engines simulate 6-8 seconds of real football per minute. That's why the clock goes so fast, and the action is a lot more end to end, rather than our real simulation of football, which involves a lot of passing about.

We concentrate on gameplay, others might concentrate on looking pretty. But there is room for all of us in the market, and the other styles of games can grow the market for all of us. Competition is good - it keeps us on our toes.

Pro-G: Despite having lost countless hours to the CM/FM series (with a lot of time devoted to hot-seat play), I never tended to tinker with training or formations, and this made the game very easy to play in short sessions (play a match or two, then save and do something else), and I never felt I was missing out on anything (except silverware!). Was making the game as deep or shallow as the player wanted a design decision, or do the team believe there is a 'right-way' to play it?

And people say this is boring

MJ: There is no right or wrong way to play our games. There is no right or wrong configuration. For example, I play the game with a small database, and normal detail, whereas Paul Collyer won't play the game without extra detail, and a larger db. I want to get through the season, he's happy to play it slow. So everyone plays it the way they want to, and it's great that we have such a cross section of players of the game in the company as it means that everyone ends up happy with the way it turns out.

Pro-G: Online play has never officially been supported by SI, but generally has been available. Is this an avenue you are going to pursue in future titles?

MJ: We have supported online for years - there is a misnomer that we don't! Both we and Sega currently support up to 32 players for both hotseat and LAN play. It's faster this year too, due to some of the screens having optimised packet sizes.

Pro-G: On the subject of the new training system, what was the thinking behind this approach? [From CM4 onwards the game allowed you to customise the training schedules to an impressive/anal degree, depending on your viewpoint.]

MJ: I was heavily involved with designing those modules and I didn't use them, so we couldn't really expect anyone else to! Whilst amazingly detailed, according to our research, no one was bothering because it was too complicated. Going with the new system - which is a lot more realistic from a manager point of view because of the real life managers' normal workload, making the coaches a more important part of the game, and that we sent Neil from SI on a Coaching course so that we could get it as accurate as possible - has meant that already more people are using it (just from the beta demo) than ever bothered before, which is a very good thing indeed.

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