FMM now stuck behind a Netflix subscription!?

[DoneHisCruciate]

Anyone calling for 3D isn’t speaking for me. I love the 2D - not looking for that to change. I watch real football for the 3D experience.

[Remicchi]

Posting my initial thoughts on the features here

Those above were my first reactions to the things right at the top of the article, and I'll leave them as such even after some clarification by Marc

13 hours ago, Marc Vaughan said:

There are also a number of things not mentioned in the feature announcement as per usual, for instance some more 'hardcore' players will be happy to hear that the number of players in the active game database has been increased by a fair amount specifically aimed at making more national teams available to be managed

It also seems that there is awareness of what demographics of players might respond positively to how announcements are worded. I'm not sure where along the spectrum of casual-hardcore I fall into, but neither do challenges like many on Vibe nor do I just play with 1 big club. I usually have 1 long-term save, either from the lower leagues or in a smaller top league I play over one whole FMM

And those are my initial reactions to those first few sub-headers on the announcement and how they were worded, at least for a player like me,,, whatever demographic I happen to fall in

 

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PRE-MATCH HUB: Whether it's a title decider or a cup final, the new Pre-Match Hub will give you key insights before big games to help outsmart your rivals.

We already get it in the inbox, so I guess they moved it? Hopefully they meant improved it and moved it to a Hub

 

 

 

Quote

ENHANCED MATCH EXPERIENCE: New in-match notifications will make it easier than ever to change your setup when your team needs it most.

Maybe some people might need it? I do recall it being an absolute joke in the PC version, Captain Obvious tier advice. Hopefully they implement it well

 

 

Quote

POST-MATCH HUB: Get an overview of how the game went, with key information available to digest straight after full-time.

Errr we already do have it in the post-match report? 🤔

 

 

Quote

EFFORTLESS ONBOARDING: From tactics to transfers, get to grips with the world of football management with refreshed in-game guidance.

Oh a better tutorial? Possibly good, I wouldn't call it a feature but this remains to see

 

Quote

NEW REPUTATION TITLES: Earn reputation titles as you progress through your career based on your tactical approach, personality and transfer decisions.

I don't think this should even be classed as a feature, this is probably closer to an achievement screen with additional flavour text

 

Now I'll talk about on-the-fence changes for me

Reading the rest of the article, I see 1 implied change

Previously players who got knocks with the green plus sign used to just be forced to be taken off, and we get the relief of finding out the injury was a minor one post-match. Unless this replaces those instances where it says the players got a knock, and their condition just goes down? That happens as well

 

Quote

If your team are desperate for a goal in the dying embers of the game and you get a late corner, the option to send your keeper forward will appear – will you take the risk or play it safe?

Decent change, but it remains to see how that plays out in the match engine. Happens often when something new is added to the match engine, the last few changes like this have left much to be desired. Set-piece changes and team talks come to mind. I do hope there's no "You can tell if VAR will give the goal or not" debacle related to this as well

 

Quote

You’ll also be given the chance to change your penalty taker if their body language is poor, if they haven’t scored in a while or if a non-designated taker is on a hat-trick – after all, who would want to deny them that glory?

This one is appreciated, I'd personally prefer if they left the body language out and just allowed us to change set-piece instructions midmatch though. If I recall composure isn't even an attribute they port over from the PC version, so what will the game use to calculate the penalties?

 

Now for the negatives

I've been clear I think the purple has been something I personally find awful, and I get SI has branded its image around it. The existing tactics screen was the nicest screen for me, and any "reworked design for the Squad and Tactics screen" that adds even more of that purple to it will be a negative to me

 

 

Finally I thought I might as well shoot my own thoughts on things that have been a constant in FMM that bugs me, and yes

13 hours ago, metal_guitarist said:

Appreciate some of you may be frustrated by the direction the game is taking but keep it civil please. Constructive feedback is fine, useless comments like the one above that Marc responded to or abuse of developers is not and neither will be tolerated. 

Just keep in mind that no one working on the game is maliciously evil out to destroy the game, they are probably doing their best within the structure. It's not that I don't have scathing criticisms of the suggested improvements, the 3D match engine in particular is one I don't like. Even on FM a lot of the 3D needs to be ironed out, so pushing that onto mobile is insanity

 

1. Given that some thought seems to be placed on various stats mentioned by Marc like goal droughts, I feel that a lot of the statistics and records in the game need to be recorded and displayed better:

• I swear there were 1 a couple of FMM where league stats displayed GK clean sheets instead of conceded, can we have that back?
• It seems that there were a bunch of statistics that used to exist in previous FMM up till FMM22 on the manager profile page, such as cumulative sales numbers which were fun to look at. They've disappeared in the FMM23 version, I do wonder if we can have those back at some point as well
• I'm sure data storage is a key issue in the saves, which is why a lot of the history is cleared between seasons. But I do believe club history are entries that take up less space, so I believe players who play longer term saves would appreciate that
• It seems very common that player histories don't display well, for instance I would really love for empty entries to be deleted if I move them on at the start of the season. It's a really minor detail, but it really makes for viewing pleasure when looking through the saves
   

2. Player Ratings

• They really should be more reflective of performance regardless of position. We all know the types of players, multiple trophy-winning CMs or GKs who have 6.8 ratings. And no they weren't constantly being subbed on and off, for 6 pointers
• Although that does remind me, can we have it so that the late sub doesn't have an automatic 6 rating?
• The last one is more of a hopeful suggestion, but can be have decimal ratings? Yes I recognise it definitely takes additional data on this one, so that's just a hopeful
   

3. I'll be the first to admit I get annoyed at press conferences and multiple-choice options presented, but if it were to be implemented can there be much more variety with some acknowledgement of edge cases

• Every time it's usually either a crisis or "can the team maintain its form?" There is so much more that is asked at press conferences that is circumstance specific, such as injuries or various rumours
• Every 2 games I get the same handful of styled messages that this player's career is over at the club. Yes I rotate my squad, but it's just a labourious task to click the same thing again and again
• Speaking of edge cases, my favourite one is when it's like "Oh he needs to play to get called up for his nation". Mate, I'm the National Team Manager

4. Regens

• I know a lot has been done and it is called evogens now; All I can say is whatever the percentages are on the occurrences, at least an order of magnitude more frequency. And no "just don't sign them" isn't quite it, a lot of joy comes out for example 1 really good Andorran and a handful of good evogens
• More 2nd nationalities please, this also indirectly tied to more national teams eventually as they will eventually get called up to those nations

 

Anyway I hope this was constructive, at least from a player plays long term saves and just likes a good story with interesting player histories

[Marc Vaughan]

9 hours ago, João14 said:

Are you able to tell us how much is the player count atm?

It varies depending on the leagues selected which is why I've tried to explain what we've done rather than given a fixed figure, for instance Wales is a very 'light' nation to load because its a small league with few levels ... England on the other hand

PS - I replied to your message earlier.

[Marc Vaughan]

10 hours ago, Remicchi said:

PRE-MATCH HUB: Whether it's a title decider or a cup final, the new Pre-Match Hub will give you key insights before big games to help outsmart your rivals.

We already get it in the inbox, so I guess they moved it? Hopefully they meant improved it and moved it to a Hub

Yeah there is a lot more to it than the old 'news item' that you got to read, its built into the game flow so on a match day it'll pop-up where your 'home' page is normally and it gives you a lot more useful information about the up coming match so you can make better decisions with your team selection without having to run around and find the information.

The idea is to allow people to make more informed decisions without slowing the game down.

There are also more pieces of information on there - you can see your supporter and board expectations for the match and a media prediction of how the match will turn out. One minor thing you'll see pop-up in a few places is that all matches now show a ranking from 1-5 (adopted from various Fantasy Football sites) to show how difficult matches are expected to be, this allows you at a glance to determine how hard or easy your upcoming fixtures are and adapt accordingly (very useful if you're playing in a league you're not familiar with).

10 hours ago, Remicchi said:

ENHANCED MATCH EXPERIENCE: New in-match notifications will make it easier than ever to change your setup when your team needs it most.

Maybe some people might need it? I do recall it being an absolute joke in the PC version, Captain Obvious tier advice. Hopefully they implement it well

 

This differs HUGELY to the PC implementation of assistant advice and is totally different, its basically situations where an on-field situation occurs and the manager gets a 'spot decision to make' ... they're fairly rare in matches (ie. you'll only see a few each season rather than loads each game).

To give a couple of examples:

• You're trailing 1-0 in the cup final with 10 minutes to go and your keeper calls over to the bench that he wants to go up for the corner your team have been awarded, do you want to let him do so? ... he might win the match for you, or you might be caught short with him upfield ..
• Your star striker is on two goals during a match and a bit of a prat, he's not great at taking penalties but is insisting he wants to take the one your team have just been awarded. Its 2-2 and you really need the three points, do you risk letting him take it to keep him happy or insist your usual penalty taker takes it?

 

10 hours ago, Remicchi said:

EFFORTLESS ONBOARDING: From tactics to transfers, get to grips with the world of football management with refreshed in-game guidance.

Oh a better tutorial? Possibly good, I wouldn't call it a feature but this remains to see

I don't wholly disagree with your assessment when it comes to 'experienced users' - but because we're expecting a lot of people who haven't played the game to give it a go, this was kind of important for us to implement.

I do think that some of the onboarding existing users may also find useful however, ie. the tactical templates where it explains the positives/negatives for each against your current squad, ie. pointing out that your bunch of clod hoppers with 4 passing might not be best suited to playing tiki-taka no matter how much you might want to

10 hours ago, Remicchi said:

 Quote

NEW REPUTATION TITLES: Earn reputation titles as you progress through your career based on your tactical approach, personality and transfer decisions.

I don't think this should even be classed as a feature, this is probably closer to an achievement screen with additional flavour text

This is actually one of the things which took a long time to implement and is a LOT different to just an 'achievement screen' ...

To summarize as you play the game it will continually assess your style of play and the 'titles' are awarded based upon what you do and reflect how the game world percieves you, each has an realistic effect in the game which can be positive or negative depending on the circumstances and players.

So for example:

Relegation Specialist: This is awarded if you avoid relegation from a division with clubs who were expected to get relegated. This will give most players at your club confidence that you can lead them to promotion and improve their motivation and buy-in to what you're doing (ie. slightly less likely to rock the boat, higher morale etc.) ... however it also means that you're seen as a one-trick pony and might dissuade some larger clubs on taking a chance with you, because you're seen as someone who is 'alright' with smaller clubs but might not be suitable for larger ones.

Hair Dryer: This is awarded if you're hard on your players (in team talks and interactions). This can motivate players to try harder, however some more fragile egos might wilt under the pressure and indeed some players might shy away from signing for your club because of your reputation.

You'll see the effects of these titles in lots of areas of the game - job applications, transfer negotiations, contract negotiations, performance on the pitch, player profiles, player reactions in news items, team talks etc.

(there are sixteen titles in the game, including 'Jinxed' which is awarded should you continually lose cup finals ...)

10 hours ago, Remicchi said:

Previously players who got knocks with the green plus sign used to just be forced to be taken off, and we get the relief of finding out the injury was a minor one post-match. Unless this replaces those instances where it says the players got a knock, and their condition just goes down? That happens as well

Previously a 'red' badge forced you to sub a player, the green badge affects them (both condition and performance a bit) but they can play on - sometimes they'll recover their condition back, sometimes not (same as in real-life).

The idea is that this ensures people don't 'miss' something which might adversely affect their teams performance because they were only watching the overview and didn't see the badge appear, if you don't want to sub the player and are happy for him to continue then you just hit ignore and things roll on.

(as with a lot of the changes this is intended to ensure people make informed decisions without making the game more complicated and a lot slower)

 

10 hours ago, Remicchi said:

I've been clear I think the purple has been something I personally find awful, and I get SI has branded its image around it. The existing tactics screen was the nicest screen for me, and any "reworked design for the Squad and Tactics screen" that adds even more of that purple to it will be a negative to me

 

Just to be clear this is NOT the tactics page and that remains as it was before.

Previously if you 'tapped' on a player position button on the squad page or tactics then a dialog appeared to allow you to switch players, this had little information and could be awkward to use if you didn't know your team because of that.

That dialog is what this replaces, it gives you more information on what you're doing to allow you to make quicker and more informed decisions in that one specific area.

If you use drag and drop for team selection like I do then this isn't a page you'll see a lot of tbh, but for people who use it - it should be a big improvement.

10 hours ago, Remicchi said:

Anyway I hope this was constructive, at least from a player plays long term saves and just likes a good story with interesting player histories

Very constructive and useful and I've made notes on the items you've asked for, but I'm not going to comment upon them partially because I've already taken up quite a bit of space on this thread replying to you and partially because until I know for sure whether I can sneak specific things into an update I don't want to get your hopes up.

[darthcraven]

The level of hyperbole in some of the comments is astounding!

There’s a lot of hubris involved in thinking that any of us know more than SI games about what the effects of going to Netflix will be or the reasons that led to it.  Whether you agree with the decision or not, would you not think they gave this all warranted thought and debate before doing so?

 

I have Netflix, so this is great for me financially; and I totally understand that someone wouldn’t want to get Netflix just for this.  But many railed against the tweet about getting Netflix when what he said was true—that Netflix had value beyond the game alone.  If you don’t have or want Netflix that’s your choice, but it’s crazy to suggest it has zero value other than the game.  From the start I assumed this was a financial decision for the developer and I understood it.  They are a for-profit company and it’s their job to make money with their products.  Making moves to ensure their survival is smart business.  
 

I also think it’s naive to think that because message boards like this one are awash with negative reaction to the Netflix announcement that there will now be nobody playing the game.  Most players probably never come to this board. Clearly they would have researched what percentage of households in their major markets have Netflix, play games with their Netflix account, how many watched sports or football related content and other metrics.  No doubt they concluded that raising the price would not net them the revenue that this deal would.  The most angry fans who don’t have Netflix may no longer play the game, but surely they expect them to be outnumbered by the new players gained via the Netflix deal. People who have Netflix and who say they will boycott on principle: umm, ok.  I think you’ll be hurting nobody but yourself with that gesture, but have at it.  
 

anyway, I wish them the best with this move, hope it works out.  

[Marc Vaughan]

54 minutes ago, darthcraven said:

The level of hyperbole in some of the comments is astounding!

I've always taken the approach of viewing any comment on my games as a compliment, if someone has the interest in them to comment negatively or positively then they care about the games which is a good thing.

(and yeah I do prefer compliments, but as a parent I'm well aware they can be few and far between at times ... which is why they're treasured )

[Remicchi]

Appreciate the time, I'll keep it short. Hope it's clear those were my initial reactions to the short headline quotes, and the titles permeate deeply into many aspects of the game. Your posts on "larger databases and thus more National Teams" have certainly landed much better with the community, so was highlighting that the announcement communicated some things poorly

 

Just one little thing

4 hours ago, Marc Vaughan said:

Previously a 'red' badge forced you to sub a player, the green badge affects them (both condition and performance a bit) but they can play on - sometimes they'll recover their condition back, sometimes not (same as in real-life)

There definitely is a situation where there is a red badge that forces substitution in previous versions, but only AFTER the match do they end up being a green badge or even just with a condition reduction. The suspense of that is tense, and I definitely wish that remains in future versions

 

4 hours ago, Marc Vaughan said:

Very constructive and useful and I've made notes on the items you've asked for, but I'm not going to comment upon them partially because I've already taken up quite a bit of space on this thread replying to you and partially because until I know for sure whether I can sneak specific things into an update I don't want to get your hopes up

I get it, always need to be coy when in a public-facing role

Edited October 27, 2023 by Remicchi

[Marc Vaughan]

3 hours ago, Remicchi said:

Just one little thing

There definitely is a situation where there is a red badge that forces substitution in previous versions, but only AFTER the match do they end up being a green badge or even just with a condition reduction. The suspense of that is tense, and I definitely wish that remains in future versions

Yeah that is still the case - incidentally in case you aren't aware when a player gets a 'knock' sometimes it recovers and isn't an issue, other times it can lead to an injury post match ... if you substitute the player the chance of that injury occurring is reduced (because they don't aggravate it by playing on).

[Superdude]

Absolutely gutted about the Netflix decision. I buy the mobile version every year, I dont want Netflix so wont be paying for it just for the game so that's it for me.

Enjoy all, I'll likely be back if the game becomes available again as a stand alone.

[Marc Vaughan]

2 hours ago, Superdude said:

Absolutely gutted about the Netflix decision. I buy the mobile version every year, I dont want Netflix so wont be paying for it just for the game so that's it for me.

Enjoy all, I'll likely be back if the game becomes available again as a stand alone.

Sorry to hear that - but I understand that not everyone has or wants Netflix, we do have other games which you might already have access to and hopefully you'll find something in the FM family to enjoy until then.

[lcutini]

On 26/10/2023 at 14:41, Marc Vaughan said:

everyone will ultimately make their own decision as to whether to play the game

With how much it costs to play it feels like SI made that decision for a lot of us

[Hitesh]

What time will the game be released?

[João14]

4 hours ago, Hitesh said:

What time will the game be released?

5pm GMT

[PapaLazarrou]

**EDIT

This is not accurate. The game is now available in the Netflix app after a slight delay. The article I linked in my follow up post was incorrect**

 

Looks like I won't be playing this version of the game. I was all excited waiting for it to arrive, logged into Netflix to access the game, but it's not there.

After a bit more digging I find that it is only available to those with a Premium subscription....... at a cost of £17.99 per month!!!!!!!

That's £11 per month more than I pay now, and given the game last year only cost £8.99 there's no way I'm spending an extra £132 a year just for 1 game. That is absolutely ridiculous, and unless they make it available to all levels of subscription then I doubt SI will see many people playing the mobile version of the game this year.

Edited November 6, 2023 by PapaLazarrou

[craiigman]

6 minutes ago, PapaLazarrou said:

Looks like I won't be playing this version of the game. I was all excited waiting for it to arrive, logged into Netflix to access the game, but it's not there.

After a bit more digging I find that it is only available to those with a Premium subscription....... at a cost of £17.99 per month!!!!!!!

That's £11 per month more than I pay now, and given the game last year only cost £8.99 there's no way I'm spending an extra £132 a year just for 1 game. That is absolutely ridiculous, and unless they make it available to all levels of subscription then I doubt SI will see many people playing the mobile version of the game this year.

Wait, really?

[PapaLazarrou]

Just now, craiigman said:

Wait, really?

Not found the official announcement from SI Games, but this article indicate that this is the case:

https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/how-play-football-manager-2024-mobile-using-netflix-gaming

[craiigman]

2 minutes ago, PapaLazarrou said:

Not found the official announcement from SI Games, but this article indicate that this is the case:

https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/how-play-football-manager-2024-mobile-using-netflix-gaming

it get's even worse then, was already bad enough being behind what we thought was a £4.99 sub, but this is actually madness

[Dan Sheppard]

14 minutes ago, PapaLazarrou said:

Looks like I won't be playing this version of the game. I was all excited waiting for it to arrive, logged into Netflix to access the game, but it's not there.

After a bit more digging I find that it is only available to those with a Premium subscription....... at a cost of £17.99 per month!!!!!!!

That's £11 per month more than I pay now, and given the game last year only cost £8.99 there's no way I'm spending an extra £132 a year just for 1 game. That is absolutely ridiculous, and unless they make it available to all levels of subscription then I doubt SI will see many people playing the mobile version of the game this year.

I can confirm this is not the case and it's available on all tiers of membership including the lowest tier "Standard with adverts" (if this is available in your region).

The App should also now be available if you check the Netflix App, there was a slight delay to this being visible.

[PapaLazarrou]

11 minutes ago, Dan Sheppard said:

I can confirm this is not the case and it's available on all tiers of membership including the lowest tier "Standard with adverts" (if this is available in your region).

The App should also now be available if you check the Netflix App, there was a slight delay to this being visible.

Looks like you're right. A combination of a delay in the game appearing in the app and incorrect article meant I was a bit quick off the mark to post. I'll edit my original post to reflect this.

Thanks for the info.

[KAS2]

3 hours ago, PapaLazarrou said:

**EDIT

This is not accurate. The game is now available in the Netflix app after a slight delay. The article I linked in my follow up post was incorrect**

NO WAY!?  😳

[Marc Vaughan]

2 hours ago, KAS2 said:

NO WAY!?  😳

I can confirm this is not the case and it's available on all tiers of membership including the lowest tier "Standard with adverts" (if this is available in your region).

The App should also now be available if you check the Netflix App, there was a slight delay to this being visible.

[Himble]

Spoiler

 

Know I'm late to the party here and a bit of thread ressurection and wanted to add my thoughts.  I don't keep upto date on these things and just realised it was this time of year.  I get an FM version of some kind each year, but as time goes on have less time and interest in the full fat version.  It just takes too long to get through these days.

Was waiting for the new version to show on play store only to see it's now Netflix only.  I don't have a Netflix subscription.  I don't want a Netflix subscription.
I hate the modern trend of subscription based models anyway, now being an old man and shouting at the sky, but really disappointed this is how this has been decided.
SI thinking this will get them more dosh out of Netflix than sales lost, and I understand.  But this does put me off buying any products from you, PC, console or mobile in the future.
 

[turbinator]

I just noticed that farming simulator 2023 has two versions, the Netflix release and a £6.99 released via the company, so there getting Netflix backing and income from people that don't/want Netflix, why FMM23 didn't do this seems absolutely ridiculous, but hey nevermind I hope it's all going well for you behind Netflix wall.

[darthcraven]

1 minute ago, turbinator said:

I just noticed that farming simulator 2023 has two versions, the Netflix release and a £6.99 released via the company, so there getting Netflix backing and income from people that don't/want Netflix, why FMM23 didn't do this seems absolutely ridiculous, but hey nevermind I hope it's all going well for you behind Netflix wall.

I’m sure it’s about money.  Netflix will pay you more for exclusivity.  Seems an easy business decision if you’re looking to secure guaranteed income.  

[Blancos]

On 07/11/2023 at 04:39, Marc Vaughan said:

The App should also now be available if you check the Netflix App, there was a slight delay to this being visible.

I just want you to know, that some other long time players appreciate SI & Netflix cooperation. Now, I and some friends can play FM again after decades FOR FREE, because we can't afford PC/laptops, and we happened to have Netflix subs.

 

We also think, if some people don't have/don't want Netflix but wanna play FM game, they still have the option to buy the original PC/console/etc versions. With having that many other options, taking away our only option to play the mobile version for free is very rude (if not greedy).

[StephenCronin]

On 25/11/2023 at 23:15, Himble said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Know I'm late to the party here and a bit of thread ressurection and wanted to add my thoughts.  I don't keep upto date on these things and just realised it was this time of year.  I get an FM version of some kind each year, but as time goes on have less time and interest in the full fat version.  It just takes too long to get through these days.

Was waiting for the new version to show on play store only to see it's now Netflix only.  I don't have a Netflix subscription.  I don't want a Netflix subscription.
I hate the modern trend of subscription based models anyway, now being an old man and shouting at the sky, but really disappointed this is how this has been decided.
SI thinking this will get them more dosh out of Netflix than sales lost, and I understand.  But this does put me off buying any products from you, PC, console or mobile in the future.
 

I hate it too (and I actually already had Netflix). However reading between the lines it seems this may have been their only choice.

The reasoning given by SI Games was that "Football Manager Mobile sales have been slowly declining over the last few years. We had found ourselves at a point where we were not reaching our necessary targets, which leads to difficult decisions – something we are very used to in the business of making games."

Then Sega (who own Si Games) are actively cutting games that aren't profitable enough. 

Add the two together, and it looks like it was Netflix deal or bye bye FMM... Still sucks obviously, but having it disappear entirely would suck more. I really hope they find a way to offer it for sale as a stand-alone again in future.