Football Manager 2018 | Release date, beta, new features and everything you need to know

It’s almost time to dust off the sheepskin and polish off your referee-baiting monologues. Football Manager 2018’s release date is closing in and the management sim’s developer Sports Interactive (SI) is starting to reveal its new features in earnest.

Football Manager is always a time-stealing wonder, as dugout dreamers take control of teams from every corner of the footballing world in an attempt to lead them to glory. It is a cornucopia of data, detail and drama, with each entry looking to improve its already comprehensive simulation. As such, SI take great care in detailing new features, even going so far as to simulate Brexit last year, and FM18 is no different. Even though release is just weeks away, only now are we starting to get a picture of what is new in the latest game. Here is everything we know so far.

When is Football Manager 2018 released?

FM18’s release date is 10 November, 2017 (that means it's out now).

Is there a Football Manager 2018 beta?

Yes there is! If you pre-order Football Manager 2018 through the official site, you'll get access to a public beta "around two weeks" before the game launches on 10 November. It will be essentially the full game, although tweaks, improvements, and bugfixes will be constantly released as we rapidly approach Football Manager 2018's release day. No final release date for the beta has been confirmed.

What devices is it on?

The full-fat version of Football Manager 2018 will be released on PC, Mac and Linux. The streamlined Football Manager Touch 2018 will also release on PC, Mac and Linux as well as on high-end iPads and Android tablets. The even more streamlined Football Manager Mobile 2018 will release on iOS and Android. All versions will be released on the same day for the first time.

How much will Football Manager 2018 cost?

FM18 will cost ￡37.99 while Football Manager Touch 2018 will cost ￡21.99. A price for Football Manager Movile 2018 is yet to be set.

FM18 new features

Sports Interactive are just starting to reveal the changes to Football Manager 2018. In a tongue-in-cheek video released last week, the developer answered some of the ‘rumoured’ features as Sky Sports would cover wanton transfer speculation. Goofy as the video was, there was some juicy info tucked into the gags.

The match engine is getting a significant overhaul, aided by the artists at SI’s Sega stablemate Creative Assembly. The Total War developer has vast experience in creating gorgeous strategic battlefields and there’s no reason that won’t transfer to the football pitch. This will be of particular interest to series veterans, who have been hankering after a proper revamp of the aging match engine. New motion capture and improved AI will form the bedrock of these changes.

There will be significant improvements in feedback from backroom staff, particularly in the area of sports scientists, which were featured last year but had little impact. It also looks that FM18 will address the vastly inflated transfer fees that have defined the past summer’s transfer window.

Dynamics

One of the key new features for FM18 will be team ‘dynamics’, a whole new module for your team management. Dynamics essentially refers to the happiness and harmony running through the squad. A new dedicated section will show you how the more intimate structure of your squad is working. It tells you who your most influential players are and if there are any personal concerns from individual players.

Dynamics will affect three major factors in team preparation. Match cohesion displays how in sync your players are on the pitch, with a higher rating improving players performance. Dressing room atmosphere reflects the squad’s overall mood, with the general contentment around the camp affecting players individual morale. A happy squad will also integrate new signings better… as long as they are the right character to fit in with the current group.

Managerial support, meanwhile, tells you how happy the playing staff are with you. Things like how long you have been at the club, your reputation and how you interact with your players all affect this rating.

Squad hierarchy is displayed in a type of pyramid, with ‘team leaders’ (captains and players that have been at the club a long time) at the top. Each layer that follows indicates a decreasing level of influence in the dressing room. Keep team leaders on side and they may stop other players turning against you. Upset them and, well, you might be looking at a dressing room revolt and a P45.

Football Manager Cult Players XI

Even more intriguing is the social group segment. This indicates which players get on well and which ones are just settling in or not gelling with the rest of the team. You might find a core social group of players that have been there a long time, a secondary group starting to form and other players that are still finding their way.

What is particularly interesting about dynamics is that it is Football Manager once again focussing on the more human side of football. The best leap the series has seen recently was FM14, which started to focus more on treating players like people rather than just stat cards to be shuffled around. It further invested you in your own footballing world. Any significant overhaul that continues this trend is to be greeted with cautious optimism.

Scouting

The entire scouting system has been revamped for Football Manager 2018. Following the video on dynamics, one on scouting showed off quite how it's going to be changing for this year's edition of the game. Players will be recommended to you in the Scouting Hub, which shows off the player, their stats, and what your scouts think of them.

These recommendations will be more frequent during transfer windows, and the style of recommendations you receive can depend on your scouting focus, which gives your scouts a better idea of what sort of players you're looking for. The aim is to make it so that the players recommended to you will, in some way, fit what you're looking for.

The player search screen has also been improved, acting like a database of players for you to scour through in order to find the right one. The content of that database will depend on how much you're putting in to scouting, and thus how many leagues or divisions your scouts will be watching.

Data analysts, introduced in the last Football Manager, are also getting improved, becoming more focused in on showing off individual player skill, giving you a better idea of what they're like. Like scouting: the more you get in, the more you get out of it, so investing in data analysis has become more important.

Tactics

While it's not getting the same number of changes as scouting, the tactics and general systems surrounding them are changing up. 

One of the key changes is that you can now pin a smaller version of the tactics window to the side of your screen, meaning that you won't have to constantly swap between menus to check up on what your players have been doing and changing your tactics accordingly.

This also comes in to play with new pre-match briefings, where you can go through upcoming strategy and tactics with the team. This means you're able to explain changes that can be made to your typical tactics based on recent performing or upcoming opponents. Here, you're also able to get feedback from the players on your tactical choices before the game actually starts. 

To give you more options, there's also a new interface for showing weak points in your formation, enhanced by the new dynamics systems in play for this entry to the series. There's new roles on the field, too, like the Mezzala and the Segundo Volante. 

Finally, the player and team instructions have some new options too, giving you more options when deciding on team tactics, plus more variations available in the set piece creators for practicing and preparing for free kicks. Overall, the goal is to make it easier to get to grips with the tactical interfaces without giving up complexity.

Match day

The series of decisions you'll make and the general interface around match day have all changed. First up is integration with scouting reports, league table, and upcoming games into the match preview. This means you'll be able to use that information to make a choice on how to select your team if you've not checked those before moving on to match day.

Previously mentioned in the tactical overhaul is the tactics meeting, which happens either the evening before, or on the day of a match, where you can decide upon tactics for the team. Past those menus, you'll be getting on to something all new for Football Manager 2018: cutscenes.

These are small 3D videos that start a game off showing off the teams, either leaving the tunnel or training. There's some secrets alongside the cutscenes, apparently, but we don't know what they are - perhaps watching the opposing manager getting sent off for complaining about a foul?

Similarly to how they're presented for TV, team sheets are now animated for each game, with each team's players shown in formation. The team talk is the final bit of preparation before the game, with more contextual options now available when talking to both the team as a whole, or individually.

There's a lot more changes coming in the form of a different interface during games. Coupled with the new graphics engine, the menus for making changes in the middle of a game are cleaner, with some more options regarding watching individual player statistics and how to shout at your players.

In the trailer, there's a good look at the new graphics engine, showing the improved player models, stadiums, and more, with a focus on this update giving capability for further improvements as Football Manager moves on into the future. The full trailer details everything new, from new motion capture to AI changes. 

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