The team behind the endlessly popular Football Manager series has announced some exciting plans for the 2024 and 2025 versions of the game, with the 2024 version already confirmed to be coming to Xbox Game Pass at launch.
Firstly, Football Manager 2024 will mark "the last of its kind", described as the "closing of this chapter of our history". The big new feature will be the ability to carry over your save game for the first time ever, meaning your current Football Manager 2023 save file should also work in the new version later this year.
Football Manager 2025 will then be a huge departure for the series, migrating over to the Unity engine and featuring a brand-new user interface, a "significantly better looking matchday experience" and the long-awaited addition of women's teams. FM 25 is being described as a "true sequel" for the first time in "decades".
Football Manager boss Miles Jacobson has also been talking a bit more about his love for Xbox Game Pass this week - after being asked by Eurogamer about his thoughts on Jim Ryan's recent "value destructive" comments.
Here's what he had to say about his experience with subscription services so far:
"Every studio has to make decisions themselves, but I don't recognise some of the quotes that I see from other studios, and depositions. I don't recognise that in our business. It's all very sunny for us."
Jacobson mentioned that he feels bringing Football Manager to Xbox Game Pass (as well as Apple Arcade) makes sense "fiscally" and "creatively", pointing out that there's "no way we would have reached five million players on FM23 without the audiences on those platforms".
It's good news all around, then! Football Manager is getting ready for one of the biggest periods in its history, and Xbox Game Pass members are being brought along for the ride - at least for the next year! There's no official date for Football Manager 2024 on Xbox and PC Game Pass yet, but we should find out more in the near future.