Why are so many people playing old Football Manager? 

My guy literally didn't consider that the entire globe being stuck at home, with nowhere to go and all sport cancelled, might have been a contributing factor to the spike in playerbase during that period...

FM made the game free on Steam for a couple of months at start of COVID. Issue with newer games is I play on a laptop so older versions run better. I feel what can bring people back into the game is a faster loading times in season.

There was this major world event in march 2020, that might be a reason.

You kind of hit the nail on the head talking about seeing the same old hot dog stands in the same old stadiums. Leaving in little details like that year in year out and not improving anything just seems to be blatantly lazy and beyond recourse. And so much of the game engine itself is so miserly for 2021. It doesn't help the collision physics all feel off, that there's an algorithmic jankiness to every animation. It has it's own charm, but there's been next to no progression despite all the new animations and graphic "updates". As for the spreadsheet simulator part of the game, it's brilliant as a formula and hence why it stands the test of time. But there are so many little flaws that never seem to get addressed. For example it's just comical how underdeveloped the player relationships are. It's so hard to convey simple concepts to these little whiny hobgoblins because they simply haven't been written into the game. There's so many board-manager interactions which could be tweaked. How about a more interactive way to improve player attributes. There are just sooo many ways to improve the game that don't necessarily take a lot of man power and it's nothing to do with reinventing the wheel. And truth be told, Sports Interactive are not a small company either

March and April 2020 was lockdown. 2021 was on Game Pass and 2022 was released on Game pass, so a lot of people got it included in a subscription that is away from Steam, all from day 1. We don't have the numbers for those. Also remember that Game pass is £1 per month for the first 3 months. £3 for FM for 3 months is a steal.

The first FM i bought was FM15, and just instantly got addicted, been playing it almost every day since 2014. Just an amazing game, plus it just runs so smooth due to not taking ages in loading. At this point i´m at 4.300 hours and actually playing it whilst watching this video. Literally dreaming about 5 star potential youth players in my sleep at this point.

Covid and its initial lockdown was the reason I discovered this channel. Very thankful I did, Loki. Many a laugh during dark funks. First version I played was CM2 (96/97), bought on a trip to England. Eventually did database work for champman. Played every subsequent version religiously (to the detriment of studies, work, relationships and family) until '04. Burnt out until 16 years later when the bug bit again, during lockdown. The ME, even with its flaws and antiquated graphics, is probably the main reason I've played FM20, 21, and 22. Moving forward, I think SI need to address the monotony of much of the game (i.e. press conferences, player interactions, etc). If we're not going to whiz through seasons like yesteryear, let it not be because we can't rely on our assman to not bring morale down and piss off our best players. Presentation, especially in-match, needs an overhaul. As does the transfer market. Even if we can negate some of it with self-imposed llama like rules, the ease of building a top squad is only being delayed by tedium and a million clicks.

I usually buy every second version, as I think the year to year upgrade isn’t that large, and I don’t care too much about the newest squad updates, as I usually play some small lower league team I’ve never heard about anyway. I’ll probably buy, when they add the Women’s league or some more leagues in South America, Asia or Africa.

I still play older FM for two reasons: 1. It's basically the same game, changing the wording or the color of some things do not justify the full price. 2. The game is not officially sold in my region so I have to go through a few extra steps to buy it, and it's REALLY expensive (more than 1/4 of the monthly income of most people), I have no justification to spend that kind of money on something like FM when I'm struggling to buy food or gas.

I didn't buy this years game not because I'm waiting for a particular change per say. I just think that there are a lot of aspects to the game that have gone stale over the years. Training, set-pieces, every club bidding the same value for your players, the same repetitive interview questions etc. When you add up all of these it just makes me really loathe spending 40 quid on something that does not feel new. Love your content Loki xx

Being honest until I saw the match engine in FM 2018 ( and I appreciate that this feature may have come in earlier versions, I just wasn't aware of it), I was still playing Championship Manager 2002. It was a game I enjoyed and without looking into any great detail, I didn't see a lot in any of the newer versions, that made me want to go out and buy a new version. Until I think I saw one of your videos with the 3d style match engine, that made me decide it was time for an upgrade. As someone who plays a variety of games there are a lot of features that I never touch because I don't have the time to get to know them, ie training , where as something like tactics and scouting I am more aware of. Therefore given how many of the features I ignore in older versions of the game, it is then hard to justify the cost (at least from my personal perspective) for what is essentially a database update, and my guess that would be how many people will view this. IE you want me to spend £50, each year, so that all the players are at the correct clubs, and we have made some technical or ease of use enhancements, when I could use that money to buy one or two other unrelated games, whilst still having a version of FM that I am more than happy with. I probably spend around 12/15 hours gaming a week, of which maybe 3 is dedicated to FM, and I would probably dedicate more time to a new game or version upon release, but eventually settle back into some sort of regular pattern. Thus it is hard to suggest what changes/additional features to the game would make me get a new version, because as you say this is a real sport they are trying to simulate, and the version I am playing presently does that more than adequately. Obviously the one change that did encourage me to do that was the 3d style match engine. It improved the experience without asking us the players, to go through too much of a learning curve to be able to enjoy the feature., however, as you still state with the new version there are still so many quality of life changes that could be made to improve that so much Looking at the FM page and seeing what they highlight as the new features for the latest version, we have : On Pitch Authenticity - Yes a nice to have, but can I get excited about wide centre backs to justify the cost of a new version of the game Data Hub - more numbers to analyse and learn, hence I would probably ignore it Backroom rewrite - Yes this is something that needs to be improved from the version I have, but does that justify me buying it - This to me is more of a patch update Deadline Day Drama - An improvement to two days of every season. I have no idea how much of an improvement it is or how it enhances the game, but if your fourth feature is something I am going to experience twice a season, then again I would suggest that this is a patch update, rather than a feature that will entice people to change from a perfectly good version of the same game. The biggest issue at the end of the day is a financial one. Being asked to part with the cost of a full price game, for some added features and a database change, when I am still enjoying the version I am playing is a hard sell. Quality of life change are very subjective. Would I like the reproduction of stadiums to be better, then most definitely. Does the fact that trees in the background are taller than they should be, or that the layout of grounds is badly designed spoil the game, then I'd say not really. Sorry for the lengthy reply, and for those of you who love playing the latest version , then I hope you continue to enjoy it for many years. However Mr Doki, given that you asked a question to ourselves, I would like to ask one back. Whilst I understand that as a RU-vidr, having the latest version of the game is somewhat required, what version of the game did you enjoy the most, and if different which version do you think was the best. As an added note, the next version I buy will probably be when all the well known 18-20 year old players at present, are coming towards the end of their careers, so FM35

I purchase every other FM, starting with FM18. My general feeling is there's plenty changed year on year, but I get enough enjoyment out of each copy (fm18-1300hrs, fm20-2500hrs) that I don't need each newest game. Was very excited to jump from 20 to 22 for the drastic difference in the match engine. Thanks! loving the friday chats :)

I’ve actually just started playing fm14 again. Doing a Liverpool save and absoloutly loving it. Gerrard, coutinho, Suarez, young hendo. Having a ball

I play fm14, it was the first one I played and got addicted. I remember starting countless Dorchester saves and trying to win the prem for nostalgia.

I always find myself going back to FM12, it's my favourite. Not only was it my introduction to the series but also a very light version, easy to get through a season quickly and build something unique. I wish it had a more detailed tactic side but it's still tons of fun.

I'm still playing FM21. The main reason is that I play on my tablet. So I would play the Touch version. But now they have discotinued Touch and only available on Switch. One angry player.

As for the stadium and training ground improvements, i liked the old visual representation on the LMA games. As that series is long dead, could SI update the concept and include it in a year or so?

I started playing this franchise ages ago when it was CM, have bought every FM up to last year, but that will be the last one for me (I have a staggering 21 mins played on it...). Earlier the game was so much faster, and you could easily go through a season in an evening, but as more and more stuff is added, the games takes longer and longer (not just to go through all the steps, but to save the game, and to process the day). And with less free time, there are other games that scratched the gaming itch better for those hours per week I have to game. If you want to look at things that annoy me with the FM series nowadays, it is what everyone else is mentioning; transfers where all the AI clubs seems to talk between themselves before making a bid for a player, the interviews, the appearant randomness of team talks, the stadium graphics, you know, the stuff everyone complains about.

I'm still playing FM20 and I feel like you've missed the crucial element of everything outside of the game here - Covid blew out my bank account. While I have(mostly) recovered, it did make me rethink my spending, small and large, and spending 60 euros on a new game that still scratches that same itch as the one I already own isn't appealing. Even if there are improvements made, it's still, you know, football manager and I would still be managing football and those same dopamine receptors would be firing just the same regardless of the UI. There isn't really anything to get me back on the wagon that SI could do, honestly. I'm sure they have some good data on it, but I would assume that once a player falls off the yearly release schedule of a series like FM, it''s a proper challenge for the developers to get them back on it. I've grown older and my time grows more limited every year. FM at it's core isn't a game for me, honestly. You don't put in, like, 7k hours or something worse than that over multiple editions because you enjoy playing the game - it's at the point where it's a developed coping mechanism for the stresses of daily life and there isn't anything SI as developers could do except accidentally timing a steam sale of the latest version on a weekend where I find out that my girlfriend cheated on me. Nothing in game will draw me back to FM, because the in game stuff lost all it's colour six and half thousand hours ago.

FM20 really made the game much more approachable to everyone. The new tactics-screens devided into 3 tabs makes it much more obvious what you are actually changing. The introduction of sport science and the injury risk is a thing i cannot go without on my squad screen anymore. This helps a lot in managing injury prevention, wich was always one of the major complaints with each release (because we couldn't visually see we were overworking the players). FM22 is just minor improvements not really worth buying the new version specificly. The Datahub is a bit meh for me and i usually skip deadline day anyway. One thing i have been hoping and waiting for, is a gamemode of being able to be a chairman. Where you could hire the manager, staff and maybe even players but with simulated matches to speed trough seasons quicker.

Im playing FM22 and i am enjoying myself playing in the Latvian league, but a few years ago, i went back to FM07/08 just because i have the knowledge of todays football and players and i would load up FM07/08 and go buy all the big players like Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar etc and build a team with them and see how they develop etc, just a bit of fun.

March 2020 Was that Not When We Had A Lockdown ? Plus could explain why FM20 Was so successful - It really helped me playing it as I couldn't go out and do my usual things like go to work or watch football or see trains. Happy to be Proved wrong ?

I'm still playing FM21, stuck with the same club 10 years into the game and I'm too emotionally invested in my save to start up FM22 even though I paid for it

I just don't feel the need to buy it every year. In my experience, a year is too short to fully develop a couple of saves in one FM edition. Also im a little picky about the match engine, bought fm 19 and it was great, got the free epic games version of fm20 and i hated it because the wingers were terrible, so i bought FM21 and it is great again. Not planning on buying a new one untill atleast fm23.

I get connected to a save and don't want to restart from scratch. I usually skip a release year and spend 2 years on the same save. I would love the ability to transfer saves.

Still playing FM10 nowadays. Best FM ever.

Why? I guess the more pertinent question is: why should people pay AAA game money every single year for what is essentially an update to the database and a few tweaks here and there? There might be a cool new feature every 4 years or so that makes it worth it overall. But, frankly, sometimes the tweaks are for the worse. For example, this years newgen faces took a step backwards from like 2003 graphics to 2001, and they don't seem to care it's 20 years past its use by date. I guess at some point they made the business decision to accept a bit of mediocrity, and the fact that some people won't buy it every year, and instead diversify, and go after the new platforms.. like FM Touch and Xbox, for the extra money.

I'm doing a building a nation save with Wales on FM 21 and currently in 2046 and the standard of players are still not good enough to win the world cup I have dedicated alot of hours into this and don't want to give up until success comes in - very frustrating that this year they have brought in dynamic country ratings as that would have been handy for my save 😅

I sometimes kick up the old copies to play old saves again. I really wish they had save game carryover for the new games. So that way I can stick with my FM 19 Hertha Berlin save with the shiny new features. I really miss my Hertha save sometimes, one of my favorite clubs I had no connection to beforehand and am now a fan.

You forgot that the entire world went in lockdown 😂

For me, the change to this new edition is not worth not only the money, but also leaving behind the time learning the virtual football world you're currently immersed in in your older edition save. I know that in my save Mexico is the top football country in the world, that certain clubs in certain European countries have now investors and are much more powerful than other traditional clubs, I recognise the names of 5 or 6 newgen tipped for the Ballon d'Or 2047. I don't wanna lose all that now just to start another save in a new edition of the game that is too similar to the one I'm playing as to switch to it. I got to private test FM22 before release while I continued playing my FM21 save. Downloaded the game, tested that certain league rules were right, data from a certain country was right, played for a few seasons to check that nothing went bad with those specific leagues over the course of a few seasons and after the game released I just uninstalled the private beta and continued playing FM21. There was nothing in the new FM22 worth switching versions for me. The only things that would make me come back now, besides the hope that SI stop screwing up the graphics department with each new edition (newgen faces, seriously man), would be that they somehow managed to make the older version save files compatible with the new edition. That and a more engaging player development/training system probably.

I’m still on FM21 simply because I’m not finished with my Building Chippenham Town save. I won’t be moving on to FM22 (or maybe FM23 depending on how long it takes) until they win a European cup. Just managed to survive a relegation scrap in the Premier League. If there was a way to import saves from previous editions into the newest edition I’d probably upgrade.

I think one thing that's important to remember is that there will be a lot of players playing old versions that do have the latest versions. I've got FM22 but I still have saves on FM19 and 20 that I'll regularly go back to. There's nothing quite like the comfort of a old save.

The changes SI made to (approximating) the transfer values this year have put me off getting the latest version. I also think the UI during matchday was better a few iterations ago. The way players are displayed during the team-talks in that horseshoe formation was a ridiculous design decision IMO. Then there's the way the game makes it harder to watch match events (we used to be able to move the slider back and re-watch those 'wtf' moments straight away.) What *has* improved massively is the match engine, so if they could just get rid of some of the recent junk they've introduced the game would be even better.

Side note, I wish you could stream the offseason or just record yourself doing the offseason and upload. I love seeing different strategies for scouting/building teams.

I have passed on FM22 this year at launch - I'll buy the version at a steam event later in the year just to learn the changes, but I have a custom built Lower League team that I have built into a Premier League team in FM21. At this point, I also think the game is a DB editor year on year for the most part. As most people have said, if there was the ability to bring saves through from year to year, there would be more incentive to purchase the new game each year.

The major event i imagine was a global pandemic, however that pandemic found me this channel and many other youtubers for various games. I now find myself watching other peoples saves and being more involved in them. It took me ages to get into a good fm20 save now im into it i dont want to leave it

I’m still playing FM 2017. I can never do more than one save at a time, and I’m on a save there that is the best thing I’ve ever done on FM. Every year I’ve told myself I’ll buy the new one. But I can’t until I bring this save to its best conclusion

I think if SI could figure out a way to convert past version saves to the next year's version, they would get a fair chunk more sales each year. For me, I had taken Duedelange to a Champions League group stage level squad in FM20 and I didn't want to give that up for 21. The new match engine and variable youth rating is what convinced me to take the plunge on FM22.

Various reasons why people play old FM. When I place surveys on SI forum, I get a variety of answers to any question I ask. It can be lack of money, or casual playing, or no perceived value in newer editions (game is basically the same year over year), or a different licensing of the game in different countries, or a one-time piracy copy, or a combination of the above, etc. Each person is different.

March 2020 was when Covid 19 happend and everyone had to sit at home

i bought 22 but i went back to my save on 21. i started a big non-league save and i'm just hitting the national league about 7 seasons in so i'm gonna stick with it a bit longer. i could just start in the new game at that level on 22, but i dont think i'm missing out on much sticking with the old game, and feel like i'm gaining a whole load of story to keep me immersed. i'm not sure you fully understand the point of the game being the same every year; it's not necessarily like "oh yeah look, it's still football", it's more like "oh yeah look, i put my centre-backs up for a long throw and they're running away from the ball before it's even come into the box"-kinda bugs and SI "hotfixes" that have been in the game for years that people are just sick of seeing. can you honestly say the match engine has changed drastically since it was introduced in like 2014? and even that was a negative as we had difinitive proof the ME was a mess, not just our own suspicions whilst watching in 2d. that would absolutely be my goal if i was SI - to get the match engine as close to a proper game of football as humanly possible. and, honestly? then some. i want it to be the best simulation of a game of football, ever. the day-to-day in FM is generally good (obviously lacking in places, definitely streamline-able in others, but it's workable and relatively enjoyable), but the match engine is absolutely awful. show me a flat back four properly dealing with a 3 striker formation. show me an 'overload' button that actually works how everyone else thinks it should. show me a tactic that isnt gegenpress that works just as well. show me peter schmeichael spreading himself like a spider as he springs out to clatter a striker who dared to approach his box. show me prime adel taarabt twinkle-toesing through a defence. show me ben thatcher clearing him into the stands. show me gerrard literally picking up his team and carrying them to victory, covering every blade of grass roy of the rovers style. or, jfc, just show me people have a body and can't be ghosted through? that'll do for FM23 - people having actual bodies that can be interacted with. we'll work on the limbs for FM24.

I played mainly fm19 for years because I like to play long journeyman style saves, but they just take a long time so I don't want to pick up a new game every year and have to start over again.

FM19. Nothing that fm could do differently to buy it every year. Its addiction control for me, if i buy a new version, i know i'm gonna dump hours and hours into it, at a cost to my personal/profesional life. At least with an older version i can keep it under control. As soon as i get a period of time where i have free time, i'll be buying the latest version regardless of new features. Also, as someone else mentioned, when covid started and there was a push to stay home, they Made FM free for a while.

There should be a loyalty discount, so if you own last season's game you can get the new one for say 50% off. Or the discount is on a sliding scale, and increases with the more copies you own

Football manager 2012, 2013, 2014,2015, 2016 these are the ones i still play till this day

I love FM as a game and have bought Fm18-FM20. I stopped buying the new game when I realized I didn't have enough time to put into the games, I was only logging about 30-50 hours a year. I find watching fm RU-vidrs like yourself as a great middle ground!

Just today Zeeland did a video on a FREE AI facepack plugin that is *light years* ahead of the new gen faces in the vanilla game. Including that and a stadium editor in the game would make a massive difference in the overall experience, instead of having to endure a crappy 3D experience that looked dated 10 years ago.

I found you during fm20 bc of lockdowns. Still playing it once in a while :)

You were right about Fm2020 Loki - Free to play from March 18, 2020 to April 1st, 2020. Still playing 2017, I just like how simple it was, I never really got into the whole dynamics thing. The 3D match engine never really did it for me either.

Football Manager is one of my favorite games ever, and also one of my most played games in terms of hours spent playing it. But i've only ever owned and played 2 versions of the game: FM 99/00 and FM13. And i just started to play FM13 again! I consider FM to be an infinite game. The game can pretty much go on forever (allthough i usually retire myself for realisms sake in a veery long save spanning multiple decades in game time). What keeps me from updating my game are mainly 2 things. 1. I get heavily involved with the game. I absolutely love signing promising young players and see how will they do. I also love it when i find a tactic that really works. The challenge of keeping it working, tweaking it to work even better and signing new better players to each position to further bettering it is a challenge i thoroughly love. I can easily play one FM save on and off for 5 years, not get bored of it for one second. I usually stop playing FM when it starts to eat too much of my time and energy :D Or if half of my team are running out of contracts and can't bring myself to renewing them. But this does lead to the next point. 2. I play onw save for so long that the game actually changes a bit too much. As you said in this video the game is very hard to learn. I've been playing the same old for 9 years. Now if i bought a new game, i'd be pretty much completely lost. Let's say that's it's been a while since i've played FM. And i start to think that hey it would be fun to play some FM again. I go to the Steam store and look up the price, it's 55e. OK it's pretty much, but not a deal breaker. Then i check what's going on in my latest FM13 save. The game has gone for 5-10 years from the start. Oh now i remember! There was a tough negotiation going on for this regen wonderkid from Red Star Belgrade called Robert Solomun going on. I have to have Solomun in my team, he's going to be the greatest DLP in the game! And then i go see the tactics. Oh yeah this 4-4-2 diamond i've been using works like a charm, except for a good team playing 4-3-3. But for that i have a new tactic that i'm tweaking. And just like that i'm playing the old FM again! Maybe the new version just needs to be on a discount :D

I still play FM17 because 1) My non-gaming laptop can run it 2) I still haven't won the EPL or UCL in my Non-league to Legend save (finished 3rd last year!)

Still playing FM16. The most important reason for me is that I just don't want to let go of my current save. I've grown attached to players and to the stories of teams that have come up or down the rankings. My pipedream is that one day you'll be able to convert old saves to new games. I just have no motivation to go back to 2021/2022.

I buy a new version every year because you can get it pretty cheap every year, around 30-40 euros. I've given up demanding big changes because to impliment them would mean that SI would have miss a year or two and they're clearly not willing to do that. In my opinion the whole AI would need to be built again from the ground up. And by that I mean the AI that controls what happens in the game outside of the match engine. There is so much immersion breaking crap in the core and has been for years but it wont get fixed because it's the same template every year that has stuff just added on.

A new set piece creator would be a game changer, I agree with you. Imagine if you could drop a player anywhere on the field and give him a specific instruction regarding action or movement. It could be addicting as Hell 🤪

Provide each country with lower leagues, shouldn't have to rely on people doing it for them.

Forgot to add, I’d love to see a fifa manager style stadium editor in FM. Been playing manager games since 96 & that’s a feature that always stood out to me. Loved going bankrupt after building a 100,000 seater stadium in league 2 😂

I'm still playing FM20, and the reason why is because I play a rather long save that I grew really attached with. I downloaded the full German league system and took charge of my local team (I think we started in div 8). We are now in the third division and by this point of the game basically all players are regens. So I feel like my FM20 journey is just not over yet and I would lose more from switching to newer game versions than I would gain from them.

I still play FM20. I usually stick with one FM iteration for 2-3 years. Reason is two fold: 1) I think new game each year is not worth full price. It's should be priced as a DLC, 20-30€. Once they make a complete overhaul or add completely new feature then charge it full price. 2) Each iteration is getting easier and easier and I'm struggling to find challenge while playing FM. Even things like pulling a tier 4 team into top flight is not challenging anymore.

I would love to see an option to start a game mid-season with current real-life standings, player form, injuries, etc. It is not a big deal programming wise jsut needs to be updated each week/month. Also, a new version dedicated to the not-so-playable international tournaments would be nice and next year's winter World Cup is a perfect opportunity to do that.

I started playing FM when a friend introduced me to it back in 2020. Since then I've bought it every year. Also decided to buy FM2018, and I go back to FM2018 just because of nostalgia. Remembering the players back then, the teams back then etc. You can't really expect massive changes and new stuff to a game like this. I've enjoyed every game since I started playing. Wish they started adding actual databases to teams in Africa, such as Nigeria, Senegal, etc. though. But you usually get regens after the first season, so it's not a big problem.

Still on FM18. I HAVE bought newer editions of the game..and gone back to FM18. One big reason is that I have a few long-term save on this game that a lot of my new games branch off from. But the biggest reason I didn't stick with any new editions is that they felt like they had changed things just for the sake of changing them. Changing game features and moving things around the UI, almost to justify releasing a new game at all.

Playing FM17 still and here are the reasons: 1. This was my first FM game, took me quite some time to understand the game, "The wall of knowledge". No need for me to buy next year's version while learning the game for some time. 2. Prefer long term saves. These saves took even longer if I am experimenting with new formations, new leagues, etc. I have one final save finishing in the late 2040s. 3. Read comments talking about how X version is not as good as year Y. It seemed like the community liked FM17 ME, outside of fullbacks too strong (?). 4. Playing FM is cyclical to some extent, will take breaks so less urge to buy a new one.

Every week I have about 1-4 hours of possible FM gaming time. I still play FM2019 because I have a text document of about 40 clubs that's an interesting long term save idea. That combined with the gaming time I have ... well, I might be playing FM2019 for the next five years or so *lol*. I did the same on a smaller scale for FM2018. That's why it took me almost four years (!) to finish up FM2018. So not because of the price, but because I want to try all the interesting scenarios that's unique to that version of FM. My favorites are the following two: FM2010 with a newly established RB Leipzig in the fifth tier of Germany, and FM2013 with Glasgow Rangers in the third division after the economic collapse. Good times!! Edit: I think that it's too hard to use your experience as a football manager veteran when you pick up the most recent version. For me, it's been like having to learn the game almost from scratch all over again since FM 2014 or 15. I cannot be bothered to do that with the little gaming time I have on my hands. I want to enjoy myself. The irony is that although the gameplay doesn't change that much, the way things are implemented change so much that you have to learn it all over again. So if the game was released every three years or so, and between that you had official data updates your could purchase, I think the picture would be different. The Championship Manager franchise tried it, and I think it was a good idea.

I am still playing FM20 for 3 reasons... 1) I have dedicated so much time into my current save and enjoy so much that I still want to play it. 2) It was a free download and I'm a tight arse to buy newer versions. 3) Unless you have an exceptionally good laptop most newer don't run as fast as older versions - which may answer for why most people still play older versions??

What I would like to see is some sort of time managament within the game. Today, when it's Monday morning, 08:00 - I can do pretty much whatever I want. I can sack my entire staff. Look up new ones and offer them contracts. Set up six new tactics. Have a team talk. Set up five friendly matches. Transfer list half my team. Set my scouting priorities. Ask the board for a new stadium. And then setup the training sessions for the entire coming season.... Then I press continue and the next stop is Monday at 12:00. I would love it if the game forced me to spend my time wisely somehow.... or at least, that when I had done x number of things, I'm out of time and the only thing I can do is press continue. This would also make it more important to put certain staff members in charge of stuff.

Money, the game doesn't change much year on year, and you get invested in saves and don't want to start again. That would be my top 3 reasons for people not upgrading.

I played Championship Manager 2001/2002 for over ten years. Put in a few hours in one save just a year ago. It is just an epic game :))

Issues - Region lock for certain regions like Brazil due to licensing (FM stopped being allowed there in FM16 if im not mistaken) New games require better PC components Pricetag is fair but not to all realities, it's 40€ in Portugal in Brasil it will be near 250 reais (minimum wage is 1k reais) Possible fixes - people that have 3/4 year old versions could have a discount on the newer game, say someone only has FM16 and instead of 40€ pays like 20€ for FM22

I’m still playing FM20. Love the game and probably been playing it regularly since the 90s. Usually i buy every other version. For no other reason that i don’t feel finished with the old version when the new one comes.

Spike was FM20 being free on steam due to Covid. Also, people "working from home" for the first time. I am still playing FM20 just because I'm still enjoying it and I still play in 2D so the upgrade in 3D engine in Fm21/22 isn't necessary a pull. I normally get FM every other year and will still probably get FM22 after xmas (depending on when current save ends).

I purchased FM20 in March 2020, much like others, because of the pandemic putting me on furlough and having time to kill. As for sticking with it, that's because of you if I'm honest!! I haven't the time or computer processing speed to get through a journeyman save within 12 months, but seeing how enjoyable these types of saves are, I've just stuck with FM20 and probably will for the foreseeable future too. Tbh once the entire database is made up of regens, it doesn't feel as though I'm missing out on anything

March/April of the FM20 cycle was peak COVID lockdown periods around the world. Probably the reason for that huge spike!

As someone who loves doing Tier 14 Lower league saves the databases take a while to be released and I never in a rush to buy the new ones since I’m most likely still enjoying my current save. Currently playing FM20 now after updating a few months back from FM19.

I owned FM 2012, 2016, 2019 and currently playing 2020 (gifted). There are a couple of reasons: 1-I tend to have very long saves. 2-When there is a big feature or change, I prefer to wait an iteration so it gets polished - as a game developer myself, I know that a lot :P. 3-I'm still waiting for a big international management revamp, I love international management but I can understand why no one likes it and thus why there isn't much return of investment for SI. But I would love to have a bunch of improvements there. You can't even rest your players :(.

Hey Loki, For me I stopped playing because my laptop could no longer handle the game with the level of detail I wanted. FM18 was the last game I played properly. For me one of the things I would love (as a Liverpool fan particularly) is being able to start the game on an older date. So start FM23 back at the start of 2018/19 season when Liverpool were on the rise. As you say it’s a simulation so to me it would be great to play with real players longer. Here are somethings that have bugged me about FM for YEARS and gets ignored year on year (probably because SI think no-one will say wow that’s a good feature but I guarantee people will appreciate it). UPDATE THE SKIN COLOUR PREFERENCE SCREEN! Untouched for what feels like a decade but is so important. FM21 the introduction of the opponent being highlighted in a pinkish/purple that colour bleeds and is not as visible as others, the ability to alter it to suit personal preference is invaluable when SI let things slip into the game that really shouldn’t. SI please stop making changes only so they need to be changed again in future editions. It happens so often it’s starting to feel like an SI strategy. This might sound a bit bitchy but SI please test your devs for colour blindness and contrast issues. (Yes I have been tested myself) Stopping with the bitchiness when you play 3.5k hours of a game which I did consistently with FM each year the number one thing for me is being able to see what is going on. 1. Can you see the ball? 2. Can you tell which team has the ball? (Kit colours). 3. Can you easily read the text in the commentary and in other areas of the screen. I have said this year after year directly to SI going back to being a beta tester for football manager live. It is so frustrating because it is so easy to fix. Seeing the ball: In the match itself in the match control panel add the features, change ball colour, change ball brightness. Also add: change the pitch tone/colour. So that the contrast between the pitch at the ball increases. Easy. When.balls are licensed there is still nothing wrong with changing the brightness. text in the commentary bar. Certain colours don’t work well together. So here is how you solve it. Background colour, foreground colour and hairline (literally barely visible) line around the foreground text. So for those of you watching the AC Milan save by another content creator how easy are you able to read the commentary text? (If you wish to). A bright red background will bleed into text. What if the black text had a thin white line around it? That stops the bleed and punches up the text. Kits being indistinguishable from each other. The simplest thing to do here is to allow you to do a Man Utd sorry Man UFC (so precious) and change the kit mid game. So you can switch to the other kit or the 3rd if you want. If a multiplayer game the away team can change. And the ability to change shorts too. Other aspects of the game need changing but SI are making improvements. The changes I have said here have been issues for years and really consistently spoil my enjoyment of the game. All the best Loki, your pal Sillyfeet 👍🏻

I'm not sure there's a solution to this problem, Football Manager is a game released yearly that as you point out by it's very nature can only improve so much. I think the beginning of an FM save is the most boring part, not for everyone but for me and people like me, because you aren't invested in the 'story' as much. Once you get up and running and play a few seasons you create your own storylines, players you've discovered or who came through your youth system or whatever, you have your tactical setup and you know what you need to do to progress. It's the storylines we create in our heads that make this spreadsheet feel alive. The nature of the game means that every 12 months we're asked to abandon our saves and start afresh, which sometimes is fine if you're bored anyway but other times isn't worth doing for the amount of changes the new game brings. Some years it isn't that I physically can't afford the game but rather it's not worth paying ~£40 to play a new game when I'm having just as much fun playing the old one. A secondary point though is I own fm22 and I'm enjoying it at the moment but in a few months I will likely go back to my old favourites anyway, FM12-15 hold a special place in my heart because they were the games that started my obsession as a teenager, much like how there's a community of players older than me still playing cm01/02 or whatever, nostalgia makes the game more fun, I love going back to an old save and playing another season with players I'd forgotten and stuff, or even starting a new save in that old nostalgic football world, it's fun. The problem with football manager is the game in the box is just a bunch of numbers, an incredibly well designed bunch of numbers that I'm eternally grateful for, but still. It's only once you suspend your disbelief, immerse yourself in the game, truly imagine that you are a football manager, stuff like doing pretend press conferences, wearing a suit for the cup final or looking at the ground and finding your managers new home on streetview like you do, that it becomes more than that. I don't need a data hub in order to enjoy pretending to win the champions league, it might be nice (if it was actually good) but I don't need it.

I still play FM 2014. I never saw enough change in the game that made me want to spend money on it. There's features i would love to see implemented to enhance the immersion in the game. I have enough mods to keep coming back to 14 and i play at least 3 saves per year on average. 5000 hours in the game lol. I like to set out a story and set rules foe a certain save. Something i'd love to see is have upgrades you could d to your character that would give you certain abbilities. Like in a rpg, if you skill up a certain tree all you defenders get plus 1 in tackling because you are a god tier defending coach. Another thing i would love to see is a feature where you manage just a player, like a career mode in fifa.

I always wait for the full release to be out for a while so I can form some impressions based on content creators such as yourself. FM is the kind of game you buy once every 2-3 years if there’s enough that’s new and interesting. Recent changes like body language seem nice but they’re shallow. The main thing I think the franchise is missing is an update in UI and a few graphical additions to make it seem like more of a complex AAA game as opposed to a jock version of EVE online. While tactically and footballing-wise a lesser game, the old Fifa Manager series had a few cool features such as a “map” of the club with stadium and facilities indicated as individual buildings that would grow as you upgrade them. This made a 4-5 year career at a club have a visual representation of any improvements you brought. There was also a very fun feature where you could make yourself a player/manager, a stock market where you could use your income to buy shares in publicly traded clubs, and a few splash screens with newspaper articles when you sign someone, win or achieve something (they look a bit dated but were nice additions). While FM is clearly the better football simulation, some more visual elements and a few optional distractions would help the game feel more like a more complete managerial experience and less of a finely curated collection of stats represented in fifa 04 graphics.

I'm a strange creature in that I don't specifically like Football, I don't follow a team, I don't really sit and watch more than 15-20 minutes of a game when big events like a world cup are on. Unless I'm having a kick about with friends I honestly have no interest, but I LOVE management games and FM is without a doubt the best, most consistent and most complete management sim there is on the market to the point I've happily learned enough variety of football styles that I can enjoy each new version for 500 hours or more and have a blast. I have some positives that I view from the game and one major negative that always ends my save files after some time. The positives first are, I love that the game allows you to use an in game editing tool, some people will call it cheating or w/e, but as someone who only ever plays offline saves, and who doesn't have an attachment to the game of football itself, the editor has allowed me to learn and understand some things and drive my own interest in such a natural way, rather than me needing to spend years googling why things work the way they do and get the equivalent of a masters degree in understanding how this complex behemoth interprets, orders and runs the game of football. Any and all improvements to systems like the editor are massive helps for me to learn and stick with each iteration. The UI can get quite a bit of flak when it runs into a problem or a bad design choice (looking at you player values) but on the whole, for how much information is present in the game, the UX team in general do an amazing job, and I hope they keep the improvements coming (more freedom in choosing what things you want to see without asinine steps are a must, just let me see my under 20s team with one button click, PLEASE!). Now onto the major problem I have, the rigidity of rules in the game, specifically when it comes to reactivity over the coarse of a longer save. Building a smaller nation through a save is so fun, but can be a hassle because beyond a very limited increase in growth of the league due mostly to ranking, the leagues will never evolve or change in any meaningful way. Imagine growing a country like Wales and the Welsh leagues, and having half your 12 team league get European football and having the coffers flow, but the league never registers that MAYBE for the stature of the league and the overall health and prestige of Welsh football it maybe a good idea to expand the league to 16 teams. It doesn't have to be anything crazy like getting a league to 40 teams, have a min and max set for each league, English premier could reduce to 18 teams as minimum and 24 teams at max for instance, and that could be hard set limits. It doesn't even have to be common or easy to do, but for an achievement of taking a 100th ranked league or so and building it to a top 10 there has to be some reactivity from the game beyond a very poor financial boost overall to prize pool and sponsor funds. Game reactivity may not be considered an essential part of football, but I'd always argue that, no matter how small, the game should reflect the steps that real football has taken, that goes with the rise and fall of clubs, leagues and rules. I may not care about football, but I care enough about Football Manager to type this wall of text, thanks for reading.

Honestly, and this is going to be a controversial opinion, though FM 21 is essentially no different to FM 22. Of course the game's been updated - new squads, minor feature changes. I feel as though Sports Interactive are more-or-less in danger of making the same mistake Electronic Arts have made with FIFA, because the latest couple of editions of Football Manager have felt like updates to the game as opposed to a step up from the previous year's edition. I'm loving FM 22. Though if I had known what the game would have been like before I purchased it, then I would've stuck to the previous year's edition.

I used to buy them every other year. First game was FM08. Reason was that the games did not see huge changes from year to year. So every other year was good for an upgrade. I stopped playing with FM18, and just watched manager series like your Journeyman save. But this year I bought the new FM22 and so far im loving it. Although i had kept up with different manager series it was still quite scary to come back to the game because of all the thing you need to learn and get a grip of.

For me, FM does what I want it to do so I don't need to buy the latest version - I normally buy it again every other year. I'm playing FM20 right now and leave most stuff to the Assistant, download tactics and just deal with transfers and picking an 11 - it's what I've done since CM9798 effectively and what I will continue to do. It works for me. I get my enjoyment that way.

1. I still have a really good save going on in FM14. Don't play it all the time, but I like coming back every so often. 2. I have my main save still going on in fm20, and don't want to start from scratch until that one is done. 3. I don't enjoy finding my own tactics/formations that work well for a team, so I try to build a team around a tactic that others have tested thoroughly and see how far I can get with that. And that data often isn't "good enough for me" until a few months before the new game is out, which means I'll be spending at least quarter of a year after release on the older version before I even start considering moving to the newest version. 4. Common root cause: Savegames can't be converted over to a newer game. It's probably extremely complex to make that work, and highly unlikely that it will ever be implemented. I'm a slow player. I can't jump too much between versions and lose all my progress too often. My brain is just a bit too uncooperative there.

Things I would change regarding set pieces, rather than set up a routine, there should be options to just give players whenever during a game. Like go through entire squad and pick "you go up if your playing", "you stay back if your playing" "you stay outside box" "you on near post" etc. Rather than moving players on a routine map, you should just give them an instruction, like you do for "dribble less/more" etc Find it very frustrating if make a sub or player sent off and I find my target man gone short for a corner or long throw and my little winger who can cross attacking near post

I play fm20 still, and didn't buy 21 because I felt that there was no major changes and there are custom databases in fm20 so I was able to keep my game sort of modern day. Right now I am considering getting fm22, because nobody has made good enough databases of this football season, they are all outdated and I understand why, its extremely difficult and takes so much time and effort, would be lot easier to just buy the new version. I am kind of getting bored of starting a new save and its always june 2019 and everyone is 2 years younger than irl, and the current- and potential abilities are not up to date.

I think that some preffer certain older FM's due to the state of the teams/players. Maybe they like what wonderkids were in that year or their favourite team was stacked. Also maybe some do very long saves that started in that FM and just continue playing them from time to time due to nostalgia

Like a lot of people have said, I don’t mind playing a version that’s a year or two out of date. If it wasn’t for RU-vidrs like yourself I would be in ignorant bliss playing fm14 or something… every couple of years I feel the need to upgrade to the latest version when enough innovation has happened and I feel like I’m missing out substantially. It could be anything: more realism, better graphics, better game engine, better tactics system… but I wouldn’t expect SI to do a massive overhaul every 12 months. So 🤷‍♂️

The reason I haven't bought the latest version is simply because the cost of buying a new computer that could play it is around £1000. Thats before I even buy the game

Ive been playing since the original championship manager. But I usually only buy the new game every third year or so. Mostly because I have enjoyed the game and (often a longterm save) so much that I never felt the urgense to upgrade. However since I discovered the youtubers who play it, like you, work the space and bust the net i have been buying it every year except this year. Mostly because im having an amazing time 13 years in St Pauli only using homegrown players, when im finished with it I probably will buy the new one.

I played fm14 until fm16 and played that until the release of fm20, I stayed playing fm16 for basically all the reasons, I was broke at uni and there wasn’t enough changes for me to warrant spending money on it. Plus I wasn’t playing it religiously and also I had a terrific long save with 3 managers all with completely different challenges in the same save. Coincidentally once I left uni fm20 had awesome changes to skins, gameplay, contracts etc that I thought was definitely worth buying. I’m still playing fm20 but I might get fm22 with the changes to nation attributes. I look at getting a new one every 2-4 years because I think that’s when there’s significant change to justify spending my money

FM 2020 hit its massive peak when lockdown first happened, makes sense

Apparently the idea of taking youth team and reserve team jobs has been kicking around SI for a few years but they - in their own words - "Feel there wouldn't be enough to do". Far be it for me to disagree, but here's my thoughts anyway: A new game mode to sit alongside the existing classic modes that leans more heavily into the RPG aspects of building your manager, to whit you begin as a youth team manager for any of the top tier sides or whoever you choose and are introduced to the basic aspects of the game - tactics, training, scouting, etc. You spend a single season in the role, points are awarded to your character - based on your performance in games and your ability to increase your players' statistics. These points can then be spent as you wish on your manager for attributes or badges (eg. you can spend them on defensive or attacking knowledge, motivation or discipline, stats like Communication affect your ability to negotiate transfers or contracts, give team talks or even to win over journalists in press conferences). At the end of the season you are released by your club and now have to make it as a professional manager. You can continue to earn points to spend on your personality attributes but success as a manager doesn't depend on them to reach the top. You can continue to play this mode if you wish or export your manager to other modes (where reputation is gained as it is currently), even to new game iterations so that the mode doesn't have to be replayed every year. I just think this would be a great way to introduce new players to the game as well as offering a new challenge to existing players. Any thoughts?

The valuation system on the new game needs to be reverted back to how it was on previous FM games, plus it would be good to have a feature of the manager spending your income on a house/family/holidays and other luxury items

And here’s me deleting the previous version of FM as soon as the beta drops 😂 I feel slightly privileged after seeing those numbers. Great video

I have bought the last few versions including FM22, tried that for a little while, but I have recently returned to my old FM21 saves. I just find playing FM22 to be a curiously joyless experience. Maybe that is just because of the teams I choose to manage (I prefer to pick a smaller team and try to build them up) or maybe I just suck at the game, but I simply wasn't enjoying FM22, and at the end of the day we play a game to enjoy it

March and April 2020 was Covid. Lots of people furloughed, hence the rise in peak. Still playing FM20. The reasons about not being able to change much because it's modelled on a real life sport are exactly the reasons I buy the new version every 2-3 years. Apart from updated squads, which really doesn't bother me, gameplay is more or less the same so I may as well keep playing 20 rather than 21 with its 3 changes then 22 with another 3 changes. Next year I'll probably get Fm23 with its extra 3 changes meaning that that version will have 9 changes from my version and feel exciting and new again with new challenges.

Lot's of players are casuals, don't need to change the gameplay so much, but for a professional company the 3d stills are shocking and trash, I'm talking about the still during press conferences let's say. I have one year experience in 3d rendering/modeling and can definitely do better than the trash they offer, if they do good looking designs it will definitely attract more players. It's not always about gameplays changes, but visual refresh also, and there is a real lack of efforts on this side.

I'm still on last year's version as my girlfriend always buys me the newest one for Xmas, it started when i was a skint student and it's become a tradition. I think the big peak was due to it being free during the first wave of covid.

As someone who has only bought and played FM20, I don't feel pressured or have an urge to buy FM22 since I don't really feel I would be missing out on anything significant, with maybe the exception of the updated database and teams. I love FM20 and thats coming from someone who hates sports games like Fifa, NBA, NFL etc. due to the shitty business practices in the gaming industry. Those games are implemented with gamemodes that are massive paywalls *cough* ultimate team and the fanbase is so delusional that they are pretty much playing a slot machine sim each year (if you enjoy those games, good for you and your allowed to. I have many issues with that practice). In FM's case, I feel I can have the same experience, play in many of the same leagues (moded or not) and the overall gameplay would be similar in FM22, which is why I don't really want to buy FM22. And I do see your point they can't make drastic changes each game or overhaul the formula, but I probably could go at least 5 years before buying another FM game. The FM community and content is great though and really enjoy watching it for FM22 like yours Loki, but I will probably remain an FM20 player haha