It was quite obvious that COVID-19 massively impacted the creation of Football Manager 21 for obvious reasons. It is so difficult to create a best-selling computer game when the world is ultimately at a complete standstill.
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And after weeks of teasing us about new features coming to Football Manager 21, they’ve finally addressed the elephant in the room: Will Coronavirus feature on Football Manager 21?
And although it will heavily impact the game, coronavirus won’t feature as an illness in Football Manager 21.
In a statement on their official website, FM said:
FM is meant to be an escape from reality, and having a squad ravaged with an illness has the opposite effect.
We knew that our stance would have to change for FM21 as COVID-19 and – possibly more significantly – its social and economic effects have had a serious impact on real world football. As we pride ourselves on FM’s realism, we knew that we had to reflect that, while still offering that escape.
They also went into detail on how coronavirus will feature in the game. And it will heavily impact club finances and the season start and end dates, as well as transfer windows. The changes to substitutions will also be reflected in FM21.
This will be reflected in FM21, as your chosen club’s finances will inevitably be in a worse state than you would normally expect when you start a new save. The most visible knock-on effect of this will be transfers; we’ve rewritten chunks of our transfer system to ensure that while superstars and wonderkids will retain their value, FM21 will see more ‘loan to buy’ offers, the value of mid-range players dropping and clubs in real financial trouble trying to move players on a more regular basis. However, as money comes back into the game over time, the transfer system will adapt and eventually return to some sense of ‘normal’.
Another question that was asked was whether crowds would be able to attend games on Football Manager 21. And thankfully they will.
We eventually decided that crowds will attend matches from the very start. The revenue this generates will allow clubs to get back onto an even keel sooner and will help with the above-mentioned in-game financial and transfer systems.
One quite funny change, is that they had to change the ‘shake hands’ with players function (as part of their interaction overhaul) with ‘elbow bump’.
Crazy world isn’t it.
Check out all of the new features coming to FM21 below:
Football Manager 21’s New Features: Player Interactions
Football Manager 2021 New Features: End Of Season Features
Football Manager 21 New Features: New Matchday Features
Football Manager 21 New Features: New Recruitment Features
Run meme pages and this website. But spend far too much time on Football Manager to do either very well.
