Football Manager 2012 - Announced!

Release date...

21st October 2011

Demo will be probably a couple of weeks before.

Sports Interactive Ltd. & SEGA® Europe Ltd. today unveiled the latest version of their successful football management simulation series, Football Manager™ 2012. Planned to be in stores before Christmas, Football Manager 2012 will once again allow you to take charge of your favourite football team and put your managerial skills to the test.

The award-winning Football Manager series has now sold in excess of 7 million copies worldwide and has topped the UK and many European PC charts for the last seven years, with over 108 weeks at no.1 in the UK to date.

“We’re delighted to finally be able to start talking about Football Manager 2012” said Miles Jacobson, Studio Director at Sports Interactive. “It’s another year of evolution, with some revolution thrown in for good measure so we’re pretty sure our dedicated communities, and hopefully lots of new people too, get to play and enjoy the game when it’s released later in the year.”

Counting over 800 new features, not including changes to the rules of the games 50+ leagues, Football Manager 2012 promises to be the most realistic, immersive and playable football management simulation ever for any fan who has ever dreamed of making the big decisions, both on and off the field.

Key new & improved features for Football Manager 2012:

Transfers & Contracts – significant changes to the transfer and contract systems, including loyalty bonuses, better implementation of amateur and youth contracts, an improved transfer centre and the ability to lock areas of the contract negotiation when you aren't prepared to budge. This helps you to manage your budgets and gives you flexibility in what you offer money hungry players, or agents, as incentives.

Scouting improvements – using several real life scouting reports, a new in-game report has been devised which includes squad analysis, tactics information and information about goals scored and conceded alongside lots of other scouting improvements, giving you all the information you need to prepare before kick-off and throughout the season.

3D Match Improvements – new animations, a whole new crowd system, improved weather system, more stadiums, plus two brand new cameras - "Behind Goal" and "Director Cam" as well as all other camera angles being reversible - meaning you can watch and analyse every aspect of every game.

Manage Anywhere, Anytime – the ability to add or take away playable nations in your saved game as often as you want. Manage in that country at the start of the next season- meaning you don’t have to stay in the nations which are chosen by you to be playable at the start of your career.

Tone – a whole new level has been added to team talks and conversations, with the new tone system, which allows you to specify the way you want to say things – be as cool as a cucumber by saying things calmly or throw tea cups around by saying things with passion. There are 6 different tones to choose from with specific comments per tone.

Intelligent Interface – a new adaptive layout system, which means the higher your screen resolution, the more info is easily at your fingertips. The new interface also contains new filters, customisable columns, a new tactics screen, and lots of new overview screens.

Brand New Tutorial – standing separate from the main game, a mode to help new players find their way around the game easily, whilst also offering tips to experienced managers on how to get the most out of the game, as well as a new in-game “how to” system.

On top of these key innovations, there are lots of areas of the game that have had huge improvements, such as the media system, press conferences, the youth system, newgens, the social networking options, friendlies, international management and many more which will be detailed in a series of video blogs over the coming months, alongside more information about Football Manager 2012.

Intelligent Interface Video:

3D Match Engine Video:

My favourite new feature...

Manage Anywhere, Anytime – the ability to add or take away playable nations in your saved game as often as you want. Manage in that country at the start of the next season- meaning you don’t have to stay in the nations which are chosen by you to be playable at the start of your career.

Not sure i understand what that means.

Is it the ability to add/remove leagues while the game has started? Like say for example you start with England,Spain,France,Italy leagues and later on think it would be nice to add US league. You can do that without having to re-start the game? If it means that then it would be awesome.

Is it the ability to add/remove leagues while the game has started? Like say for example you start with England,Spain,France,Italy leagues and later on think it would be nice to add US league. You can do that without having to re-start the game? If it means that then it would be awesome.

Exactly that, yes.

Exactly that, yes.

Thats great. I always wanted them to add that to it!

Does it also mean you can add more leagues to the selected nations once you started? Like say in England you start with the football league, can you then add the non leagues later?

My favourite new feature...

 

Manage Anywhere, Anytime – the ability to add or take away playable nations in your saved game as often as you want. Manage in that country at the start of the next season- meaning you don’t have to stay in the nations which are chosen by you to be playable at the start of your career.

Awesome! Will make career games much better, not having to run loads of leagues all the way through - it just slows everything down. Have to say, I am very excited about this new game now!

Thats great. I always wanted them to add that to it!

Does it also mean you can add more leagues to the selected nations once you started? Like say in England you start with the football league, can you then add the non leagues later?

I'm not allowed to say any more than SEGA/SI say publicly about the game.

How much will it be ?

How much will it be ?

You can pre-order it on most online stores already.

For example...

http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/22857711/Football-Manager-2012/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=football+manager+2012&urlrefer=search

You will probably be able to get it cheaper than that though if you shop around.

Doesnt look too much different in those screenies but the add/remove league thing is a massive improvement.

Doesnt look too much different in those screenies.

Nearly all those screenshots have things you can't do/see in FM11.

Don't let the fact the skin is similar confuse you.

Not sure how the 1-3-3-3-1 formation will work out...

Not sure how the 1-3-3-3-1 formation will work out.

That isn't a formation from the tactics screen. That is to give you an overview of the rankings of players in your squad in each position. For example if you click on the centre back as they have in the screenshot, it will then list all players in your squad that can play as a centre back and list them in order of how good they are.

Nearly all those screenshots have things you can't do/see in FM11.

 

Don't let the fact the skin is similar confuse you.

ok I can see two differences, the tone of the conversation with a player, and the goal time graphs. Everything else can be viewed in FM11.

Everything else can be viewed in FM11.

No it can't.

For example the transfer centre in FM12 is very different (and a lot easier to use)...

As are the squad depth, tactical analysis, dashboard and team comparisons screens.

I really hope I can play this one, without XML passing errors repeatedly crashing my game

Looks great. Would buy it but i'm getting married.

Looks great. Would buy it but i'm getting married.

Make sure you say goodbye to us before your big day.

MLG will tow the party line here but it does look very similar to the others. I am a massive fan and have wasted a lot of time playing their games over the years but lets face it every year, new game is more of a data update with a few small tweaks than a new game. The two big ones this year seem to be 1) You can play in a league you did not run from the start and 2) You can add tone to you team talks mmmmmm not massive changes. oh almost forgot, there is now snow in the graphics.

I will probably end up buying it though.

MLG will tow the party line here but it does look very similar to the others. I am a massive fan and have wasted a lot of time playing their games over the years but lets face it every year, new game is more of a data update with a few small tweaks than a new game. The two big ones this year seem to be 1) You can play in a league you did not run from the start and 2) You can add tone to you team talks mmmmmm not massive changes. oh almost forgot, there is now snow in the graphics.

 

I will probably end up buying it though.

TBF there is snow in 2011 too.

It looks similar, but the transfer centre change is pretty big IMO

I am a massive fan and have wasted a lot of time playing their games over the years but lets face it every year, new game is more of a data update with a few small tweaks than a new game. The two big ones this year seem to be 1) You can play in a league you did not run from the start and 2) You can add tone to you team talks mmmmmm not massive changes. oh almost forgot, there is now snow in the graphics.

It is a football management simulation. May I ask what you were expecting to see in a football management simulation? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeasts sweeping majestically across...

There are over 800 new features in FM12 things to play with, over there between the land and the sky!

Hardly played the last one, but I'll still probably give this a download.

It is a football management simulation. May I ask what you were expecting to see in a football management simulation? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeasts sweeping majestically across...

 

 

 

There are over 800 new features in FM12 things to play with, over there between the land and the sky!

Love that episode!

Don't get me wrong, I expect it will still be good (after the first patch at least!). It is just a little bit annoying when they lay on how amazing the changes are. I guess for some people who notice every small little detail (who could I be referring to here )the differences will be huge but for the rest of us it will be the same game just with some different 'good' players. MLG, you may be the only reason I buy it every year! Just to play it with the new players at Saints with the different CA and PAs. I hope you have made some of the current academy players good.

I have, yes.

Along with the improvements to the training and youth facilities at Staplewood, it should make managing Saints a lot of fun this year!

Will our youth players be poorly rated again?

Chamberlain has turned out cack in my 2010 after his man city transfer and as has Lallana - he is miles off premiership average and is a mediocre championship player.

Will our youth players be poorly rated again?

 

Chamberlain has turned out cack in my 2010 after his man city transfer and as has Lallana - he is miles off premiership average and is a mediocre championship player.

- Chamberlain starts FM11 with one of the highest ratings for a player of his age in the world. He also has an extremely good potential rating.

- Lallana starts FM11 as one of the best players in League One and also has a very high potential rating.

If they don't fulfil their potential, that down to numerous factors. I've seen them both do very well in the Premier League in FM11.

I expect our squad to have players pushing for 130 CA. Lallana and Fonte have to be over 120 at least.

I expect our squad to have players pushing for 130 CA. Lallana and Fonte have to be over 120 at least.

I reckon Cork will be the only one with CA anywhere near this.

Lallana and Fonte will need to have a good season in the Championship (or by the end of January before the data update) before they get near 130 CA. Cork was already at that level in FM11.

Lallana and Fonte will need to have a good season in the Championship (or by the end of January before the data update) before they get near 130 CA. Cork was already at that level in FM11.

So what if we get promoted as Champions? Will they just be good Championship players but in the Prem?

The data is meant to be for a game starting in early July 2011, based on what they did in 2010/11 and not what they do in August, September or October of the 2011/12 season. I'm sure Lallana and Fonte will be 130 CA players, but they have to prove it first. At the moment they will just have ratings reflecting they were exceptional players in League One (in any case that still makes them good Championship players, just not exceptional ones).

I hope Lallana finally has a better corner taking stat than 4? Seeing as you managed to miss fixing that in the January update last year!

Has any thought ever been given to allowing stadium models to be user editted?

Obviously there could be issues when it comes to stadium expansions etc but as a starting point having the ability to have a realistic looking St Mary's and other stadia would certainly be a plus for the 3D match engine.

I hope Lallana finally has a better corner taking stat than 4? Seeing as you managed to miss fixing that in the January update last year!

His corners are sh*t in all honesty.

FM11 Hate the agent element, most are very short on patience, also, a lot of generated players later in the game, seem to have bad attitudes. Even so, no doubts I will buy the 2012 version.

I like Football Manager a lot. Easily the best of breed, and the boys have been doing the business for years.

I have the following problems with it, really.

First, it takes far too long to play. Second problem is that because it takes too long to play, I can't really be doing with a season of mid-table obscurity, so end up quitting and restarting a lot ( yeah, mock me if you must, but we've all done it ). Finally, when you quit and restart, you realise that it's all a bit random, and whether you win or lose depends on the magic modifiers - which adds to a pervasive feeling of pointlessness.

Granted, most games are ultimately pointless - and you could point out that the differing results you might get is the game's attempt at simulating "on the day" performance. Fair enough too. And with that all said, I'll be buying FM2012 this year like nearly everyone else.

That isn't a formation from the tactics screen. That is to give you an overview of the rankings of players in your squad in each position. For example if you click on the centre back as they have in the screenshot, it will then list all players in your squad that can play as a centre back and list them in order of how good they are.

 

15 man starting line ups ey?

I like Football Manager a lot. Easily the best of breed, and the boys have been doing the business for years.

 

I have the following problems with it, really.

 

First, it takes far too long to play. Second problem is that because it takes too long to play, I can't really be doing with a season of mid-table obscurity, so end up quitting and restarting a lot ( yeah, mock me if you must, but we've all done it ). Finally, when you quit and restart, you realise that it's all a bit random, and whether you win or lose depends on the magic modifiers - which adds to a pervasive feeling of pointlessness.

 

Granted, most games are ultimately pointless - and you could point out that the differing results you might get is the game's attempt at simulating "on the day" performance. Fair enough too. And with that all said, I'll be buying FM2012 this year like nearly everyone else.

totally agree..takes ages to play, hate it when you have a game when you have 20+ shots on goal compared to your oppos 5 and you lose 1-0.....come on...

also, why do you have to change tactics every season..? do man u change tactics..? NO

like you, I will buy it as I am a lemon for these games.....

do man u change tactics..? NO

 

Really?

totally agree..takes ages to play, hate it when you have a game when you have 20+ shots on goal compared to your oppos 5 and you lose 1-0

.....

Totally unrealistic, yes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_2/8842079.stm

The problem is that people don't like there being a random element to a game. They want 'doing the right things' to always equal victory (which is how most games work). Well, it isn't like that in real football and it isn't like that in FM either.

A couple of things I don't like about FM11.

Press conferences: Firstly, I find the questions repetitive (and the answers available) and I can't really see what effect my participation in them actually has on my success in the game. I know certain comments can change player morale but is that it?

Training: I still don't find it easy to grasp how I should be using the training function. I end up just ignoring it really and I'm sure that's not the best idea!

Training: I still don't find it easy to grasp how I should be using the training function. I end up just ignoring it really and I'm sure that's not the best idea!

I just download positional schedules from the sigames site, assign players, and then ignore it.

Press conferences: Firstly, I find the questions repetitive (and the answers available) and I can't really see what effect my participation in them actually has on my success in the game. I know certain comments can change player morale but is that it?

Get a decent assistant manager and set him to them, nay problemo then.

Training: I still don't find it easy to grasp how I should be using the training function. I end up just ignoring it really and I'm sure that's not the best idea!

Have a fiddle about. It's pretty simple when you spend some time looking at it...I generally end up setting a (new) GK schedule as well as Centre-back, Full-back, Winger, Defensive mid, centre mid and striker schedules. Just adjust the sliders to the most important attributes.

However, it's a pretty pointless exercise until you can afford decent backroom staff...

That's my problem with it, seems to be a year behind with the ratings. I guess it has to be really, but it's frustrating when you know, as we do, how good Lallana is. He's clearly one of the best Championship players but he won't be rated that way until next season, when he might well be a top flight player.

Tbh I usually just buy in most of a new team when I play with Saints. The only players that regularly featured in my FM11 Saints squad in L1 were Fonte, Harding, Schneiderlin, Chamberlain, Lallana and Lambert.

That's my problem with it, seems to be a year behind with the ratings. I guess it has to be really, but it's frustrating when you know, as we do, how good Lallana is. He's clearly one of the best Championship players but he won't be rated that way until next season, when he might well be a top flight player.

How is it a year behind? The game starts with you taking over a club in early July 2011, so his rating reflects him at that point. As of July 2011 in real life, he hadn't proven himself to be a top Championship player. He does however have a high potential rating, so he will improve as the season and your savegame progresses.