Football Manager 2020 ‘will be fastest on Stadia’

Football Manager 2020 has been announced, including a Stadia version that will be “the fastest way to experience” the game.

While the precise launch date is yet to be confirmed, Football Manager 2020 (PC, Mac and Stadia), Football Manager 2020 Touch (PC, Mac, iOS and Android) and Football Manager 2020 Mobile (iOS and Android) will release simultaneously in early November, while Football Manager 2020 Touch (Nintendo Switch) will arrive in late November.

Developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega, this year’s edition of the management simulation will mark the first time the series will be available as a launch title on a new platform in the form of Stadia.

Sports Interactive studio director Miles Jacobson said: “Football Manager on Stadia includes technology that is only available on that platform, utilising the power of the cloud and Google’s data centres to ensure that more matches can be processed in parallel utilising spare bandwidth across the whole system – this means you can have more leagues loaded into your save, or just go for a faster experience by keeping the amount of leagues the same, but having the matches process quicker than you can on any other platform.”

Sega said information on new game features will be revealed in mid-September via the Football Manager website and social media channels.

A Football Manager 2020 beta will be available to customers who pre-purchase the PC or Mac version of the title. It will launch about two weeks before the game and single player career progress will carry over to the full release.

Football Manager 2019 is the “fastest selling, best-selling, and most played version of the series to date across all of its release platforms”, according to Sega, which claims over 60% of the people who bought the PC or Mac version of the game following its November 2018 release are still playing it every month.

Jacobson said last month that Football Manager 2019 had cleared two million sales across all platforms for the first time in the history of the long-running series.

Headline additions to last year’s series entry included the debut of video technology in the form of both the video assistant referee (VAR) and goal-line technology, and the first British female manager with the inclusion of Chelsea boss Emma Hayes.

Google Stadia will launch in November 2019 with over 30 games available to purchase on day one.