FM 25 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

[davehanson]

19 minutes ago, jenvaskes said:

I'd be surprised if they were not invited. The whole playing community got invited to declare availability to test at S.I. Setp/Oct. If we got that invite, then no doubt content creators also have been over there.

It's not if/whether they were allowed to go- but more if they are allowed to share footage. For the last couple of years I have seen various creators make content from SI headquarters - with obviously things that SI have allowed them to share.

What I am saying is no creator has so far said they are doing this again this year - and I grant you it is still 6 and a bit weeks from release - IF they are not allowed to do it again this year in my mind I would have to quesiton why they have not been allowed.

The community being invited is one thing - they will have to sign NDA's you would imagine - inviting creators is different. 

[forameuss]

17 minutes ago, jenvaskes said:

I'd like to ask the community here for their take on my "unpopular opinion", here is: I think the beta might still come a week before, BUT if not, we might be entering a phase of FM where the beta is replaced by a release model all about small iterative updates, regular weekly patching and new features, that sort of thing, continuously through the whole cycle, which will mean for us, even more engagement with the devs, reporting bug, not just in a big cram during a beta period, and continual feature requests that might get delivered whenever, not just at every yearly release. The dev community would call it Agile sprints, and it may cycle through right up to next summer, and then fed into FM26. What would people say of something like that?

As someone bound by agile in the workplace, that sounds awful...

But seriously, I'm not sure this would really work.  If you can rely on solid, regular engagement from the community in essentially testing the product for them, then it might work, but not only does this seem unlikely, it would also be a bit of a liberty from SI.  You can't expect someone to pay for a product on the proviso that they're going to be expected to studiously report bugs with all supporting evidence.  There's a reason they have a closed, invite-only beta, so they can pick the people they think will actually contribute.  The "beta" offered as a pre-order bonus was more early access than anything, with a request that people report bugs but probably expecting a small minority to actually do it.

Given that, I don't think you can move as quickly as you're suggesting on a live product.  With the promise of rapidly delivered features and bug fixes comes heightened expectation, and I can only see them tripping over themselves as they try desperately to develop, test and deliver things.

Of course, I've no window into SI and their processes.  Maybe it's a lot more possible than I'm saying.

[ds_61_1]

28 minutes ago, jenvaskes said:

I wouldn't call myself a content creator, but I play FM and I put it on YouTube, and I have 1 patreon sub, haha. Feel free to look me up, VanillaFM. Been playing for years, since the very first incarnation of it back in the CM times. I had a couple of other female mates at school who also played, but we didn't really talk about it as much as the guys. I think the female community is larger than people realise.

That's great thank you. I've subbed will have a look through thank you. My fear was that instead of women who had a love for FM and have played it for years we would get shallow views from "influencers" who are not doing it because they love the game but because they've been invited to a freebie.

Edited October 9 by ds_61_1

[jenvaskes]

https://www.footballmanager.com/roadmap I might be reading too much into it, but has anyone else noticed the images of each Roadmap date seem to be a gameplay view of a stadium, especially focused on the top of the stadium? Could we perhaps get a manager dugout camera this year, where we get to see the stadium from a real manager perspective? That would be cool

Also, thanks @forameuss for your take on the agile stuff. I also agree with you, its a fear of mine about this year though.

[Boycott]

3 hours ago, davehanson said:

I would be quite interested to know if some of the content creators are getting invited down to SI to play FM25 before release this year and allowed to make content based on that. They have been able to for the last couple of years - would be quite telling IMO if they were not allowed to, or not invited to, this year.

The big ones were all gathered together at the FM Esports competition just five weeks ago. A few were competing in the competition but several others were invited to be part of the broadcast. Miles was there too. So the fact they're all talking like they know no more than the rest of us makes me doubt they will get a behind the curtains look for this year. Zealand came straight over from America and he's the biggest of the lot so I can't imagine they would be a few weeks later inviting him to fly over again for a few hours in their office when he was doing a job for them broadcasting and told nothing new about FM25. 

[armbi]

Finally we got this!!!! First screenshot from the brand new match engine!!! Notice the photorealism! 😲

 

 

Edited October 9 by armbi

[XV20]

15 minutes ago, armbi said:

Finally we got this!!!! First screenshot from the brand new match engine!!! Notice the photorealism! 😲

 

 

Amazing 

[XV20]

 FM now has an Arabian account, set in the middle East. Pretty nice!

Edited October 9 by XV20

[SPE3D]

1 hour ago, andu1 said:

I think you're overanalyzing.. It's out on Nov 26, why would they give a date then if it was not 26th?

 

Look at the banner at the top of this page. It says From November 26th. If they were sure it was coming out on that day the word from wouldn't be there. 

[XaW]

7 minutes ago, SPE3D said:

Look at the banner at the top of this page. It says From November 26th. If they were sure it was coming out on that day the word from wouldn't be there. 

Or....and hear me out since it was the same last few years, it means the full game for PC comes out on that date, but other versions like console could come some days later.

Edit: Look for yourself. This is from the announcement videoes back then...

Edited October 9 by XaW

[ForTheLoveOfTheGame]

10 minutes ago, XV20 said:

 FM now has an Arabian account, set in the middle East. Pretty nice!

About time the leagues of Qatar, Saudi, UAE etc were introduced without the need of waiting for external data files. 

[_Rob]

35 minutes ago, armbi said:

Finally we got this!!!! First screenshot from the brand new match engine!!! Notice the photorealism! 😲

 

 

About time I saw some sh*tposting here

[jcw163]

36 minutes ago, SPE3D said:

Look at the banner at the top of this page. It says From November 26th. If they were sure it was coming out on that day the word from wouldn't be there. 

Incredible post, every day this board finds new ways to surprise and delight me

[baggi0]

About the removal of national team management: Is it just not possible to manage a national team, or are the national matches (+ european & world cups) removed as well?

 

I assume it's only the first one, but just to be sure. 

Edited October 9 by baggi0

[jenvaskes]

2 minutes ago, baggi0 said:

About the removal of national team management: Is it just not possible to manage a national team, or is the national matches (+ european & world cups) removed as well?

 

I assume it's only the first one, but just to be sure. 

You won't be able to manage a nation, say for example Portugal, you will only be able to manage clubs.

[sthptngomad76]

6 minutes ago, baggi0 said:

About the removal of national team management: Is it just not possible to manage a national team, or are the national matches (+ european & world cups) removed as well?

 

I assume it's only the first one, but just to be sure. 

National fixtures will still be played, you just can’t manage the national sides 

[spursfan]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

Or....and hear me out since it was the same last few years, it means the full game for PC comes out on that date, but other versions like console could come some days later.

Edit: Look for yourself. This is from the announcement videoes back then...

Yes it's to be read as 'from November 26th and henceforth' 

[baggi0]

56 minutes ago, sthptngomad76 said:

National fixtures will still be played, you just can’t manage the national sides 

Thanks, that's fine for me 

[DavutOzkan]

4 hours ago, _Rob said:

"from" meaning "on" OR "after" that date. 

If they had removed the word "from" it would have to be released on the 26th. If they changed "from" to "on", it would have to be released on the 26th.

Adding the word "from" means they can cover themselves

It's because mobile/touch arent being released on the same date as PC. I understand everyone is getting worked up, but this was not only mentioned multiple times in this thread over the last week, but on Steam itself, it literally has Nov 26 as the release date.

You see that big banner on the top of the screen with "FM25 Out From Nov 26"? You can click it and see this for yourself. 

Edited October 9 by DavutOzkan

[HighFlyingDwarf]

I don't think the game is coming out on November 26th.

[janrzm]

Not sure if this has been posted. Just started watching it.

 

 

[h3nrique_SEP]

Is this real?

 

[IrrelevantLion]

4 minutes ago, janrzm said:

Not sure if this has been posted. Just started watching it.

 

 

 

[ohnonottheshouts]

4 minutes ago, h3nrique_SEP said:

Is this real?

 

It's a design prototype made by a couple of Unity developers using a toolset thats similar to the one being used by SI. It doesn't have anything to do with FM, it's just a mockup for a theoretical sports game, presented after SI had presented how they use Unity's UI Toolkit.

[Robbles Quin ®™]

2 minutes ago, ohnonottheshouts said:

It's a design prototype made by a couple of Unity developers using a toolset thats similar to the one being used by SI. It doesn't have anything to do with FM, it's just a mockup for a theoretical sports game, presented after SI had presented how they use Unity's UI Toolkit.

this is correct. it was just a presentation of how it could be used, and the way they had moved to the Unity UI and the technicality of doing so.  

[tiago_wakabayashi]

Em 01/10/2024 em 21:12, anagain disse:

They removed the ability to see your former conversations a few years ago and never replaced it.

But we really don't know the full feature set yet. I'd suggest waiting. 😁

I dunno why they did it. When I wanna see something again or unintentionally I skip the player chat and I wanna back I can't access it anymore, at least when you don't have any button to take you back to the chat.

Em 02/10/2024 em 04:27, angelo994 disse:

I’m interested in what the actual reveal will be on the 7th. I’m assuming it’ll be the leagues and licenses playable for the woman’s leagues. Or the differences between men and woman’s football in the match engine? I wonder if we will see any glimpse of a screen shot or gameplay at all. 

Me too. And see the database size.

Em 02/10/2024 em 09:06, Novem9 disse:

It seems like the only chance to get rid of boring press conferences and broken interactions with players is to convince Elon to buy FM franchise 

Don't play with that. I am having problems with twitter since he bought it lol 

Em 02/10/2024 em 15:34, Druid DR disse:

I can only assume they're holding back as they want to amaze us with the new engine and what it can do (graphically).  Surely after 8 years we're finally getting a match day experience that is as visually pleasing as what FM17 gave us before the downgrade of FM18 to FM24.

 

A reminder of FM17 in all its glory...

 

 

OMG I wasn't remember that. It was beautiful really. And there was semi-Olympic stadiums (half of the sides of the stadium in curves)

Em 03/10/2024 em 08:30, renato. disse:

Miles and SI, you should hire this guy to your marketing team.

Really. Any FM feature should be revealed on oficial FM channels and not in a personal account. 

Em 04/10/2024 em 08:31, endtime disse:

That only works with newgens through, right? SI don't have rights to the likenesses of real players so they gave them all the same generic appearance. This is probably also the reason why they blocked the ability to modify the game files to unlock zoomed-in camera modes.

Hmmm this makes sense. A pity.

Em 04/10/2024 em 09:26, busngabb disse:

Stadiums are also a big thing for me. No bigger immersion killer than playing at a world class stadium and you've got brick walls and wheely bins and gaps in the stands. I take it the stadiums licences are a problem the developers haven't even started to get their heads around, but just release a stadium editor and let the mod community do the work.

+1

Em 04/10/2024 em 10:56, ak71 disse:

Not sure if this has been asked.

It was stated in Football Manager 25 Launching From November 26 news that we can carry on from our FM24 saved game.

In my FM24 saved game, I am managing both club and nation.

If i carry on the FM24 saved game in FM25, what will happen to my nation team management..? Will it be automatically become invalid or I can't use this saved game..?

Thanks.

My main question too. A negative reply would ruin my current save (that has a problem with the German leagues don't create any fixtures since 2024-25 by being a custom DB lol)

 

 

Em 06/10/2024 em 09:12, Kevinho7 disse:

Maybe SI needs to take a step back and watch their documentary about the game again they’ve released in 2014. Brilliant piece of work which perfectly described the history and delivered the core feeling of what the game has always been about to every passionate player of the game. 

That feeling slowly disappeared over the years sadly. Bring that back…

For those who’ve never watched it, do it. Magical. 
 

Release was 2014, but it became available on their yt channel 4 years ago

This doc is amazaing. Rewatching.

8 horas atrás, ds_61_1 disse:

Further to that. I'd be interested in hearing from women Football Manager creators and hearing what their experiences have been over the years of playing FM/CM and how FM25 will impact that.

 

edit: A cursory glance on YouTube I couldn't actually find any female content creators for FM.

I know only a FM blog written by a woman, she created that women DB for FM. 
theffm.co.uk/

A brazilian football site named Trivela used to special articles about FM and once readers sent messages telling their career and someones were published being one was from women.  She playing with Liverpool on FM 15.
My friend also used to play FM she used to buzz with me with the FM launching each year. 

8 horas atrás, Carambau disse:

I was watching a female streamer playing FM on Twitch at times some years ago, she was quite good and entertaining too

Do you have any link or her name?

6 horas atrás, jenvaskes disse:

I wouldn't call myself a content creator, but I play FM and I put it on YouTube, and I have 1 patreon sub, haha. Feel free to look me up, VanillaFM. Been playing for years, since the very first incarnation of it back in the CM times. I had a couple of other female mates at school who also played, but we didn't really talk about it as much as the guys. I think the female community is larger than people realise.

 

Do you have any contact with them? It's a good time to talk about FM more than before

[GIMN]

3 minutes ago, tiago_wakabayashi said:

Do you have any link or her name?

There's a few:

https://www.twitch.tv/mooonostreams
https://www.twitch.tv/fm_girl
https://www.twitch.tv/lefootencuisine (French)

A couple who used to, but I don't believe they do anymore.  Holly, I believe, used to work for SI up until recently:

https://www.twitch.tv/hollyyplayys
https://www.twitch.tv/kimmyminx

[LucasBR]

10 minutes ago, h3nrique_SEP said:

Is this real?

 

Fingers crossed this atrocity won’t be at the final game

”

[ohnonottheshouts]

2 minutes ago, LucasBR said:

Fingers crossed this atrocity won’t be at the final game

”

Like I've already stated, this has nothing to do with FM25 or Sports Interactive.

[XaW]

Oh do please watch the video before posting about it.... Otherwise you'd seem really ignorant. Fair warning!

[janrzm]

31 minutes ago, IrrelevantLion said:

 

For clarity, they state they aren’t showing anything from the game. This is a mock-up to show software functionality in the presentation.

[Robbles Quin ®™]

4 minutes ago, XaW said:

Oh do please watch the video before posting about it.... Otherwise you'd seem really ignorant. Fair warning!

its a good video, not news perse but a good snippet of the process, which is always nice. I also think that means it should be fairly simple to modify the UI aka skins on the way they have described that they have done it, but I am not 100% sure

[ForTheLoveOfTheGame]

52 minutes ago, janrzm said:

Not sure if this has been posted. Just started watching it.

 

 

Thanks for this. Great find!

Also, pretty much confirms this edition of the game isn’t going to be anywhere near what they actually want it to be. From the sounds of it, it could still a few versions away. 
 

This video is quite open and transparent, compared to what they have officially released so far. For expectation management they should be running with more things like this…

[DavutOzkan]

It's pretty irresponsible that it was posted to Reddit with that headline, and that it is still there hours later. 

Edited October 9 by DavutOzkan

[kevkel]

I have a different take to most in this thread, the screenshots have left me intrigued and excited as to what happens or where it takes me when I click on each area with the new tile card system. I can't wait to test out the women's side of the game, not because I watch women's football but as a pathway into gaining more knowledge on the players, teams etc, even if I only ever play it once (also I have always wanted to introduce my children into FM, the game I have played since the first CM. I have a 11 year old autistic son who has absolutely no interest in football whatsoever and I have 9 year old daughter who does like football so if the women's introduction appeals to my daughter as she gets older then I think it's amazing).

With all the negativity around the game at the moment, I am more excited than ever for something new. As for the delay I don't think there's anything to worry about and I think its intentional and falls under the "WOULD WE DO IT LIKE THAT AGAIN" that Miles was talking about. Every year as far back as I can remember there has always been frustration from Miles on Social Media about a sacking a day or two after data lock. With November being the month that see's the most manager sackings, delaying it a couple weeks until after the November International break which is likely to see a few sackings takes that away and I think going forward the slightly later release may become the new normal,

I think/hope we are in line to be pleasantly shocked.

[janrzm]

21 minutes ago, ForTheLoveOfTheGame said:

Thanks for this. Great find!

Also, pretty much confirms this edition of the game isn’t going to be anywhere near what they actually want it to be. From the sounds of it, it could still a few versions away. 
 

This video is quite open and transparent, compared to what they have officially released so far. For expectation management they should be running with more things like this…

Agree. Having the challenges laid out clearly along with some pretty honest comments about how restrictive the old tech is was refreshing. I’m paraphrasing but I found the comment about how the design team would visualise something in the UI but the programmers wouldn’t be able to deliver it because of software limitations particularly interesting. And having to write code for every change must have been soul destroying and explains why old bugs would reappear after updates.

Edited October 9 by janrzm

[JAwtunes]

14 minutes ago, janrzm said:

Agree. Having the challenges laid out clearly along with some pretty honest comments about how restrictive the old tech is was refreshing. I’m paraphrasing but I found the comment about how the design team would visualise something in the UI but the programmers wouldn’t be able to deliver it because of software limitations particularly interesting. And having to write code for every change must have been soul destroying and explains why old bugs would reappear after updates.

Agreed. It must look like a massive ball of code spaghetti after all these years. Seems like a long overdue overhaul.

[XV20]

1 hour ago, janrzm said:

Not sure if this has been posted. Just started watching it.

 

 

still watching it but so far, it's informative and really explains how deep they've gone into design, data and implementation. Great vid

[jimbo22]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

Oh do please watch the video before posting about it.... Otherwise you'd seem really ignorant. Fair warning!

Ill give SI this, in terms of a roll out of information and being in control of the narrative They've done a horrible job. You just know that that player profile picture will be everywhere by tomorrow. Its a cool video on how they work with the engine but boy after the rough start this really is the last thing they needed. 

[talhak]

It seems that the PC/Mac platform remains the most dominant market for the fanbase, maintaining its strong appeal despite the growing presence of other platforms. Happy to still be part of this fanbase after 25 years. 🙂

[janrzm]

2 minutes ago, jimbo22 said:

Ill give SI this, in terms of a roll out of information and being in control of the narrative They've done a horrible job. You just know that that player profile picture will be everywhere by tomorrow. Its a cool video on how they work with the engine but boy after the rough start this really is the last thing they needed. 

That’s already happened on Reddit unfortunately. The video is clear about what this is but as you say, that screenshot is what people are honed in on.

[jimbo22]

2 minutes ago, janrzm said:

That’s already happened on Reddit unfortunately. The video is clear about what this is but as you say, that screenshot is what people are honed in on.

Doesn't come as a surprise. When you fail to control the narrative like SI have with this release, so far, this is exactly what happens. SI knew this video existed, they done the presentation.

[thomas_e]

3 minutes ago, talhak said:

It seems that the PC/Mac platform remains the most dominant market for the fanbase, maintaining its strong appeal despite the growing presence of other platforms. Happy to still be part of this fanbase after 25 years. 🙂

I dont know if pre-orders are down from last year, i would assume so, but I think that is down to the lack of information about a beta being released, more than the roadmap. If news of a beta comes out I am per-ordering, no doubt. 

[jimbo22]

2 minutes ago, thomas_e said:

I dont know if pre-orders are down from last year, i would assume so, but I think that is down to the lack of information about a beta being released, more than the roadmap. If news of a beta comes out I am per-ordering, no doubt. 

Seen this spoken about a lot.... What does it really matter if there's a beta or not? Genuine question. You wont pre order because there isnt one? but you'll buy it on release day?

[XaW]

11 minutes ago, jimbo22 said:

Ill give SI this, in terms of a roll out of information and being in control of the narrative They've done a horrible job. You just know that that player profile picture will be everywhere by tomorrow. Its a cool video on how they work with the engine but boy after the rough start this really is the last thing they needed. 

I don't disagree the lack of info isn't helping, but at the same time, I can't say I really don't hate the rage baiting that is going on too. The screenshot in question there isn't from anyone at SI, it's a Unity developer effectively showcasing how Unity can be built to create a player card for a random sport game. If you go a bit further you will see it:

The only thing the SI guy did was show how easy it was for them to remove the UI from the data:

And making it much easier for them to see the result of the changes "on the fly".

Nothing in there seems to be anything remotely like what we've seen in the mockups SI have released either.

I mean, sure you can criticise SI for the lack of info, but I'll also criticise anyone sharing those screens as "something from the game", because frankly the reason is either stupidity, malice, or rage baiting for upvotes.

[thomas_e]

16 minutes ago, jimbo22 said:

Seen this spoken about a lot.... What does it really matter if there's a beta or not? Genuine question. You wont pre order because there isnt one? but you'll buy it on release day?

The reason I pre-order (every year I think since the game came to steam) is that pre-ordering gives you access to the beta. 

With no beta i am not incentivised to purchase ahead of release day and will probably check the forums to see if the game is in good shape before I buy it

[stevemc]

3 hours ago, janrzm said:

Not sure if this has been posted. Just started watching it.

 

 

Such an interesting watch.

I've got first-hand experience in this as my day job, I'm a Lead Delivery Manager (been doing this for a while + change management) but my current project is for a very large migration of three functions out of a very old coded platform into a new responsive auto-coded platform, we had a session exactly like this about 4 years ago which was brilliant, started the project officially about 3 years ago and will be fully complete by June next year. We switched design tools into Figma too (like SI) which directly mirrors (plugs-in) the new systems pre-designed reusable components (cards) for mockups, idea generation or trying complicated designs, but in reality post-migration a lot of changes are done directly in the new system in real time, without the need for Figma which also speeds up the design process. We also moved our data too into a new application too, so 3 major changes to systems and tools.

If you don't work in this type of area, you won't be able to comprehend the level of detail and the amount of pre-thinking/planning that goes onto a task of this size, so I can totally sympathise with SI going through this change, on top of that you have all the up-skilling/retraining that goes into this too, so short-term pain will provide a real platform for progress. But I can tell you the benefits once over the other side are MASSIVE, non-technical designers/people can now use a system which is much simpler to use requiring no engineering support, to make changes, the changes are almost instant and automatically pull through into any variant of device (desktop > tablet > mobile > app) without the need for individual or manual code changes and peer-checks/testing, time saving is huge and so much quicker to implement, reducing lead times - so imagine the benefits in this for "patches", SI could be way more agile in the future with patches, releasing much quicker and frequently. Another benefit is the visual quality of the UI and accessibility options, it's pin-sharp, responsive and caters for a variety of impairments.

Tying this back into the well scrutinised Roadmap... I can see why they've been "vague" with the dates too and the launch is delayed, throughout my experience of the project above, many of our key dates were initially missed or pushed back at the start of this journey purely because of the size of the task and amount of new people/systems involved, but now we are years into this project and the people are more comfortable with the new systems we are hitting the key milestones each week/month, we've not missed a deadline in 6 months now and we've even had early releases too.

FM25 might not be smooth, and that'll be frustrating for us players, but this is 100% the right direction for a game of this detail, especially in order to grow and improve the game experience - I think 2-3 iterations of FM's down the line will prove this was at the correct decision. 

Edited October 9 by stevemc

[janrzm]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

I don't disagree the lack of info isn't helping, but at the same time, I can't say I really don't hate the rage baiting that is going on too. The screenshot in question there isn't from anyone at SI, it's a Unity developer effectively showcasing how Unity can be built to create a player card for a random sport game. If you go a bit further you will see it:

The only thing the SI guy did was show how easy it was for them to remove the UI from the data:

And making it much easier for them to see the result of the changes "on the fly".

Nothing in there seems to be anything remotely like what we've seen in the mockups SI have released either.

I mean, sure you can criticise SI for the lack of info, but I'll also criticise anyone sharing those screens as "something from the game", because frankly the reason is either stupidity, malice, or rage baiting for upvotes.

It’s really, really clear watching the video that it’s a Unity guy mocking up a player profile to show software functionality, anyone that watches and pays attention will see that. The problem is too many people don’t read and this mock-up profile is already doing the rounds online. Yes, more fool them for getting the wrong end of the stick but regardless, it makes for a regrettable situation.
 

What I do feel was a little naive was allowing a mock-up player profile to be made in the first place. A situation made exponentially worse by the fact that very little is out there in the public domain from SI. 
 

 

[janrzm]

11 minutes ago, stevemc said:

Such an interesting watch.

I've got first-hand experience in this as my day job, I'm a Lead Delivery Manager (been doing this for a while + change management) but my current project is for a very large migration of three functions out of a very old coded platform into a new responsive auto-coded platform, we had a session exactly like this about 4 years ago which was brilliant, started the project officially about 3 years ago and will be fully complete by June next year. We switched design tools into Figma too (like SI) which directly mirrors (plugs-in) the new systems pre-designed reusable components (cards) for mockups, idea generation or trying complicated designs, but in reality post-migration a lot of changes are done directly in the new system in real time, without the need for Figma which also speeds up the design process. We also moved our data too into a new application too, so 3 major changes to systems and tools.

If you don't work in this type of area, you won't be able to comprehend the level of detail and the amount of pre-thinking/planning that goes onto a task of this size, so I can totally sympathise with SI going through this change, on top of that you have all the up-skilling/retraining that goes into this too, so short-term pain will provide a real platform for progress. But I can tell you the benefits once over the other side are MASSIVE, non-technical designers/people can now use a system which is much simpler to use requiring no engineering support, to make changes, the changes are almost instant and automatically pull through into any variant of device (desktop > tablet > mobile > app) without the need for individual or manual code changes and peer-checks/testing, time saving is huge and so much quicker to implement, reducing lead times - so imagine the benefits in this for "patches", SI could be way more agile in the future with patches, releasing much quicker and frequently. Another benefit is the visual quality of the UI and accessibility options, it's pin-sharp, responsive and caters for a variety of impairments.

Tying this back into the well scrutinised Roadmap... I can see why they've been "vague" with the dates too and the launch is delayed, throughout my experience of the project above, many of our key dates were initially missed or pushed back at the start of this journey purely because of the size of the task and amount of new people/systems involved, but now we are years into this project and the people are more comfortable with the new systems we are hitting the key milestones each week/month, we've not missed a deadline in 6 months now and we've even had early releases too.

FM25 might not be smooth, and that'll be frustrating for us players, but this is 100% the right direction for a game of this detail, especially in order to grow and improve the game experience - I think 2-3 iterations of FM's down the line will prove this was at the correct decision. 

Thanks for this additional insight. While watching I was thinking about the mention of C++ code and it sounded like that was existing code being migrated? Would that potentially carry over issues/bugs? So for instance “Interactions” could be exactly like FM24?

 

DM me if you don’t want to get into that on here, just interested in understanding. 

Edited October 9 by janrzm

[stevemc]

11 minutes ago, janrzm said:

Thanks for this additional insight. While watching I was thinking about the mention of C++ code and it sounded like that was existing code being migrated? Would that potentially carry over issues/bugs? So for instance “Interactions” could be exactly like FM24?

 

DM me if you don’t want to get into that on here, just interested in understanding. 

Yeah I got the same impression, but yes and no.

Re-writing the C++ code would essentially be rewriting the way the game plays and functions from scratch, that's 20 years worth layered on top, probably all done slightly differently depending on the initial creator - possibly close to an impossible task, I'd imagine it'll have been reviewed internally and de-prioritised ahead of getting the UI and engine over the line first - they could take that task on further down the line once Unity is fully embedded, but it could well have been rejected completely as the task is too big - either way I'd imagine it will change further down the line or "audited" and cleaned up via a priority status.

We decided to re-write because we had the time and the resource available.

Whilst working on the new UI, and working the new way there's potential that some of the existing issues/bugs will have been spotted when the data has been pulled in and possibly addressed at the same time as part of the learning process, a lot depends on people, time and resource available.

Edited October 9 by stevemc