Sports Interactive Studio Director Miles Jacobson gives ISN an exclusive look into the Football Manager series.
1. What do you think the biggest improvement is for FM 2013 over last year’s version?
I don’t actually think it’s an individual feature – there are so many things that have been added this year, from transfer deadline day, through staff roles, directors of football, classic mode, challenge mode, the new network game and hundreds more.
For me, it’s the way the new features, and improvements to other features, all work together that is the biggest improvement. The universe in the simulation, for me, is more immersive than ever in the simulation mode. And in Classic, it’s still immersive, but attached enough to be more “fun” than the simulation mode.
2. Can you talk about the passion for football that your SI staff obviously has?
Not a lot else gets discussed at the studio apart from football! We have TV screens throughout the studio that has football on constantly, with a few different feeds, so everywhere you look there will be football or football news on at any time.
Obviously some are more passionate than others. Our IT team are more interested in, umm, IT than football. But for the gameplay teams, QA, match team, communications team and most of the others in the studio, we might not be the best players of the sport in the world, but we’re scholars of it. And our research team, with more than 1,000 scouts around the world, help fuel our passions alongside their own.
3. How does “real life” football affect life around the office? Are there any rivalries created by real teams and players?
Of course! Although we tend to be friends as well as colleagues, so it’s all pretty friendly, and has only caused problems a couple of times.
Most of the team can take banter as well as they give it although some are a bit more sensitive to it…
4. What do you hope Football Manager’s legacy will be? What has made it so successful over such a long period of time?
I think it’s been successful because it’s made by football fans for football fans – we are fans of our own work, so want to keep improving it for ourselves. And thankfully our audience seem to appreciate that.
As for our legacy, that’s something that we’re only just starting to see now. There are many footballers who have grown up with the game, and have gotten an extra insight into football through it. That’s started happening with people inside the game away from the playing staff now – coaches, managers, scouts and even directors of football & club owners who grew up playing the game.
We’re also becoming a lot more involved in the real football world. Whether that be teams using our database as part of their scouting network, clubs looking at the way we’ve built a community, or brand partners who see the game as a way to help increase their brands awareness amongst football fans, it’s become a lot easier to “open doors” over the last few years.
So despite having been making games as a studio for 20 years, we feel we’re only just beginning to touch the surface in the real football world. It’s probably going to be another 10 years ‘til I can answer the question with any kind of idea of what the legacy will be – unless, of course, Andre Villas Boas or Ole Gunnar Solksjaer win the Champions League sometimes soon, as they are 2 who have spoken to the press about playing our games in the past.
5. What do you think of the recent book that written about the obsession surrounding Football Manager?
I actually got pretty emotional whilst reading it. We’re just a bunch of kids (albeit old kids nowadays!) who make football management simulations, and to see how much it’s affected other peoples’ lives was pretty overwhelming.
It’s also odd in many ways – we don’t feel like we’ve achieved much really, but then you see many of the achievements written down it made me feel like we had achieved quite a lot. But also showed some big holes where we need to work harder to achieve more.
6. Can you talk a little bit about SI’s support/sponsorship of football teams in England? How important is it to be involved with these great clubs?
We have a couple of major sponsorships here with AFC Wimbledon & Watford.
The reasons why are very different.
With Wimbledon we’ve been involved since the second day of their formation, getting involved in the first place because no football supporter would want what happened to the old Wimbledon happen to them or their club. 10 years down the line, we’re still on the front of their shirts and have seen many ups – and not many downs! We love being part of the club – and whilst our title is “sponsor” it’s more like a partnership.
With Watford, there was a last minute opportunity this season for a deal that made a lot of commercial sense. It was quite odd for me having grown up supporting the club, although that helped in that they made me aware of the possibility before anyone else had spoken to them! It’s certainly got us a lot of coverage this year in the run up to the release of FM13 and beyond – with Gianfranco Zola being their manager there has also been lots of interest from Italy because of this deal.
7. What are some future plans/goals that you have for the series?
The goals are to keep challenging ourselves and ensure that we have the best football management series on the market, but also to try and widen our reach with the continued success of Football Manager Handheld, the introduction this year of challenge mode and Classic mode, and the forthcoming release in Asia of Football Manager Online. All of the games are Football Manager, but with their own quirks and differences to appeal to different audiences.
