Football Manager developers adding women’s pro soccer to the game

Future versions of Sega and Sports Interactive are welcome Team manager The simulation franchise will include professional women’s soccer, the publisher and developer announced Friday. The studio said it has begun a multi-year project that is expected to cost “millions”.

Sports Interactive has not set a completion date or launch date for women’s soccer. “The intention is to incorporate games for girls as soon as possible,” the company said in a press release.

“The Sports Interactive development team is committed to ensuring that women’s football is represented as authentically as possible and with the level of realism and attention to detail for which the series is famous,” the statement added, “and will not announce a launch date until the standards have been met. “

Sports Interactive has been developing Football Manager since 2004, with Sega as publisher since. Unlike EA Sports’ FIFA series or by Konami eFootball (née Pro Evolution Soccer) In the franchise, Football Manager’s gameplay is primarily about evaluating and acquiring talented players, developing and building a competitive team, and observing the results of those efforts in the form of simulations.

The series has won rave reviews for its depth of simulation and rich experience in running a professional football club. Sega says it has sold more than 33 million copies in Football Manager’s 17-year lifespan.

Previously, women’s football appeared in Football Manager thanks to the efforts of the modders. In Friday’s announcement, Sports Interactive made it clear that they are giving women’s football the prestige and exposure of the Football Manager nameplate overall, and are not treating it as an indie game to be ignored.

Miles Jacobson, studio director at Sports Interactive, said: “We are NOT interested in creating a standalone women’s version of women’s football FM. He went on to say, “We knew that adding women’s football to FM would cost millions and the short-term profits it would bring would be minimal. But that’s not the problem. It is no secret that there is currently a glass ceiling for women’s football and we want to do what we can to help break it down.”

EA Sports’ FIFA Series has, since 2015, which includes women’s national teams in the roster of teams competing now and in standalone tournament mode. EA also added a Women’s World Cup-branded mode as post-launch DLC for FIFA 19. Women’s football featured prominently in second and third chapters of “Journey”, narrative mode of the series, in 2017 and 2018, and the new Volta Soccer mode based on a mixed gender roster.

Although better known through the FIFA Women’s World Cup and other national team tournaments, professional women’s leagues can be found in every elite soccer nation and the United States. England has the Super League Women’s Football League, founded in 2011, recently agree to a television broadcasting agreement with Sky Sports and BBC.

Germany, France, Spain and Italy all have professional women’s leagues, as do Mexico, USA, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia. In other words, there are many teams and players to support the simulation of Football Manager.