Even those of you who don’t follow football will know EA Sports has abandoned its contract with FIFA, renaming its series EA Sports FC.
While that doesn’t materially change much to its games, it does mean the World Cup rights are up for grabs. And SEGA’s snagged them for Football Manager 26.
Just to be crystal clear for those not in the know: Football Manager is a different kind of franchise to EA Sports FC, favouring tactics and tinkering as opposed to controller skills. Its presentation has evolved far beyond the “spreadsheet simulator” it used to be known as, though.
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This is a multi-year contract which will begin with this year’s World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico being added to the game.
“This coincides with the future inclusion of a revamped International Management module in a Content Update next year for Football Manager 26, Football Manager 26 Console, and Football Manager 26 Touch in advance of FIFA World Cup 26,” the press release reads.
More details will be announced in due course, but it essentially means that all of the international kits from the World Cup teams and television presentation packages will be incorporated into the game.
This is actually a huge deal, because long time fans will know Football Manager also took a year off last year, while it revamped its engine.
The new game is due out on the PS5 from 4th November, so you won’t have to wait too long to see how much the series has improved during its hiatus.
[source footballmanager.com]
Comments 7
I firstly played Football Manger in an old crappy PC back in my student days, just when it changed name from Championship Manager. I then bought all the PS Vita ports (wow it feels like a lifetime ago) and spent countless hours there before going to sleep with the 'just one more match' mentality.
I haven't played a game since but I think this year this will be rectified...
Would be wild if Sega manages to find a way to call the games FIFA going forward and confuse a lot of people.
The World Cup has been in at least the last 29 Sports Interactive games dating back to Championship Manager 2. Given that the game won't have international management on Day 1 (patched in later as per this article) it's actually the first since the CM1-engine games that WON'T have it playable on release
The official licence will make it look fancier, especially for console players who can't mod it day 1 like the core PC userbase, but it's a shame all the gaming press headlines are stuff like "add the World Cup". I first won it in CM 00/01 25 years ago!
So 2K isn't making a FIFA game after all
…but there’s no international management? I assume it’ll be added at some point.
Makes sense, I'll only be interested in playing as a World Cup manager next summer.
Welcome back FIFA Manager
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