Football Manager 27’s Launch Preview is Free to Try

Well, this is a surprise I wasn’t expecting. Football Manager 27‘s “Launch Preview” will be absolutely free to play. You can try the full game with no time restrictions, no league restrictions, no restrictions at all aside from when the Launch Preview event ends on the 3rd of November. Reading that, I nearly fell backwards out of my chair because that is, no matter how you chop this up, a fantastic move by Sports Interactive and SEGA from a PR and consumer standpoint. Let’s read the thing and talk about it:

“Your first big call of the season is made easier this year as Football Manager 27 will be free to play on PC and Mac from 29 October to 3 November. Starting at 6 PM GMT on October 29 and running for the next five days, the FM27 Launch Preview will be freely playable across Steam, Epic, the Microsoft Store, Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass [only available for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers]. There’s no additional sign-up required – you can simply download from your preferred platform and begin converting your beliefs into dugout decisions with all game modes available,” noted the blog post yesterday morning.

Completely free, no real catch. You get five days of playing any and all saves you want, anywhere, for as long as you like in-game. If you want to run a simulation to see if Man United can win five in a row and that bloke can cut his hair, you can, but the women’s team have already done that twice in that time. The sky is quite literally the limit on this one. You can play an unhealthy amount (for legal reasons, don’t), or you can return after throwing all your toys out the pram over FM26 and get a completely free look at what Sports Interactive and SEGA are doing with FM27.

As I said before, it is a fantastic PR move because you get headlines like this, but it is also a brilliant consumer move after the, to borrow from James May a little, cock up that was last year. I can note that I’ve played FM26 for 1280 hours all day long, and I could talk about the saves with Tranmere winning the Champions League or using Alloa and Motherwell in a Build-A-Nation save; it doesn’t counter anyone else’s disappointment. Giving people this “go wild, tell us what you think” time is going to bring some people back. Others have lost their goddamn minds.

Is that it, is that all that’s worth noting? Well, No. As some may have noticed over on Steam, there is a Launch Preview FAQs on some things you might want to know, including: Why will FM27 be free to download and play for this limited time?

“Earlier in the cycle, we said we wanted to show more of the game before opening pre-orders and asking players to commit. With the free play period, we’ve taken that one step further, giving fans the opportunity to experience this year’s game for themselves before making a purchase. We also said we were committed to rebuilding player trust and confidence in the Studio, and the free play period is a tangible example of that commitment.” That is about as honest as you are getting, SI and SEGA holding hands up and admitting that people were disappointed.

Similarly, again the question will be asked even though it is stated plainly above: What platforms is the FM27 Launch Preview Free Play available on? “Across PC and Mac, the Free Launch Preview of FM27 will be freely playable across Steam, Epic Games Store and Microsoft Store, or via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass subscriptions until 6 PM GMT on November 3. It can be downloaded from the usual store pages for FM27 on each of these platforms.” So stop asking about PS5, Touch, or Xbox consoles; it is not there. I’ve seen those comments too many times.

I’ll save quoting the FAQs on one or two of these and say something not very PR-friendly: Yes, there is an “incentive” to pre-order still, as Storefronts approved by SEGA will be offering “a 10% discount on the game’s price of £49.99/€59.99/$59.99.” What I will say against my usual “never pre-order, at least until after reviews” is that pre-orders only go live at the same time that the Launch Preview does, so you can still try before you buy with a pre-order. Again, good PR and a good consumer deal.

Also, yes, your saves will carry over. Not just from the Launch Preview, but as noted in the FAQs, your FM24 save that’s in 2946, where Man City still have to face charges, will be able to carry over. Both FM24 and FM26 saves can be ported over. One thing I was thinking, albeit on the toilet before this was announced, was whether SI would have kept the FM23 save porting thing from FM26 at least for this year’s game. The answer is clearly no, but it is very unlikely you’ve skipped both FM24 and FM26 at this point, so sure.

The last thing I will note, because some people are missing this and jumping straight to comments – because why bother reading the thing that’s telling you the very information you’re looking for? How does the Launch Preview Free Play connect to the usual ‘Advanced Access’ period for FM27?

“As soon as the Free Launch Preview for FM27 ends on 3 November, the Paid Launch Preview period begins. The Paid Launch Preview, taking the place of the previous ‘Advanced Access’, allows players who have pre-ordered FM27 on PC via any SEGA-approved digital retailer to continue playing the game, ahead of the official launch from November 10. The Launch Preview aims to deliver a version that is closer in quality and finality to launch than previous early play builds.” In other words, you don’t have to stop playing once you pre-order. Stop giving people with brain cells left aneurysms; we want to hit you.

Before I go, however, I will note that there is some news that I didn’t cover last week because, again, I read comments and wanted to hit people with the backhand of a glove like a pimp. The Manager Creator got an update that will now offer more haircuts, coats, hats, and even a wheelchair. The melty wax works that are your newgen wonderkids are even more melty this year, but now move their heads in different ways before taking their school picture.

Also updated were the in-game editor, the 2D match engine (for very old people), and more data, alongside a couple of world updates. To give you cliff notes: Player dots in the 2D engine now have feet to tell you which way they are facing and they are smaller. The editor is no longer a tile/card (never understood which is which); it is now a full thing so you don’t need to scroll. Messages now have colored tags to let you quickly find what you are looking for before they get deleted by your 65 scouting reports for your 95 players out on loan.

However, again, SI wanted to highlight that messages will now show the information; it won’t just be an attachment you need to click on to read the NXGN 50 or countless other important things. This includes being able to access and effect training modules and other things right there in the message. There is also more data to be shown, much of which is “[data point] per 90,” like chances or shots on target.

There is also a massive change to a number of things, including the Bundesliga’s TV rights thing, an MLS issue where teams play each other back-to-back, and even the Champions League issue of playing two teams of the same nation during the league phase. In total, there are “more than 18 million database changes and 1,500 competition updates have been made for FM27.” So, not something I’m going to detail here.

Of course, Football Manager 27 will be fully released on the 10th of November, which can’t come soon enough, but neither can the 29th of October now with the free Launch Preview. As stated above (take the time to read things), pre-orders do go live the same minute that the Launch Preview starts at 6 PM GMT, but try before you buy. Yes, if you do pre-order, you can keep playing from the 3rd of November when the free Launch Preview ends all the way through to the 10th and beyond. Unsurprisingly, I am excited; you might have noticed – hurry up and get to the 29th already!