This year, our focus for the Soccer Manager series is on delivering a game that is match fit.
Our overriding focus is on building the most stable and seamless Soccer Manager experience, both for our next instalment and all future iterations. Every new release going forward will simply be a major update to the app you already have, with no need to download a new app and start over every season. We’re also rewriting whole systems to make them work better. We’re tackling bugs that are long overdue a fix. We’re going over every single detail of the game to make sure the user experience is as smooth as it possibly can be. The Match Fit Initiative is set to deliver the best game that we have ever put together.
Read on through this article to find out exactly what the Match Fit Initiative will look like, including the areas we’re focusing on, how the game will be released, and how you can get involved with shaping the future of the series.
A Seamless Yearly Experience
This is one of the biggest changes coming to the Soccer Manager series in the history of the game. Gone are the days where you would lose your saves and progress every year. Soccer Manager 2026 will not be releasing as a separate app – and neither will any future releases. This year’s release will simply be a major update to the app you already have on your phone, tablet, or computer.
This change will also bring a change to the way in which we work. Instead of structuring our year around a September/October release window, we’ll be more flexible. Major new features will no longer be confined to a yearly release. We’ll have the option to work on these year-round and release them as part of more frequent updates.
With the continuous app, your SM experience will be smoother and much more stable than before. Instead of a single major new release that may have a few teething issues, we’ll be working year-round on new content for the game. This means that there won’t be a huge number of changes at any one time – something that inherently brings risks. Instead, we’ll be able to thoroughly test key new elements of every update internally and through our beta programme and deliver the best possible experience to the full game.
As there won’t be a new release every year, there will be some changes to things like Ultimate Edition, Enhanced Edition, and other elements of the game. We’ll be releasing another article on these bigger changes closer to release, so keep an eye out on our socials & Discord for that!
A Roadmap To Fitness
The Match Fit Initiative has been split into two phases. Phase One will cover the rest of Soccer Manager 2025’s lifespan, taking us into the summer until it hands over to the next phase. Phase Two will cover the usual period in which we promote the next Soccer Manager game and run the closed & open beta releases. The roadmap above covers the areas that we will be working on across these phases, though the particular dates of releases will be flexible within the different time periods.
We’ve been working through Phase One of our plan since Christmas and the next set of these improvements will be with you in the next few weeks. These include some high-priority issues that have been brought to us by the community, including work on the job vacancies system, the tactics system, and some performance issues. These changes should bring an immediate change to these specific areas and fix some long-standing bugs that we’ve been made aware of. The bigger changes to the game, however, are slated for the next phase.
Phase Two has a huge amount of work that will make the Soccer Manager series feel better than ever to play. Firstly, the UI is getting a complete overhaul. This includes the usual colour scheme switch up (which we are excited to show you – keep an eye out for that soon…), but we’ve also spent a long time making things easier to access. Some features felt buried deep in the UI, so we’ve put time into bringing these to the surface. After that, we’ll be revamping major systems of the game. Transfers are long overdue some attention, with lots of different bugs being reported to us weekly. With a full refactor of the system, we’ll be squashing these nagging issues and making it smoother. The same can be said for the scouting system which will return better results once we’ve spent time working on it.
As well as overhauls, there are a few additions coming too. Whilst this year won’t include any major new features in a similar vein to the releases of the past, we’re still including a few goodies for you all. One of our most requested features has been manager awards – these will be working their way into the game. Events and achievements will also be introduced on Steam. There’ll also be new objectives for you to work towards as well. Whilst we’d love to be able to deliver the quality-of-life changes that the game needs and lots of new features at the same time, we’ve made the choice this year to really get to the bottom of the issues that have been raised with us and fix them up once and for all.
Community First
One of our company values is to put the players of our games at the heart of every decision we make. The move to a single release that will receive frequent updates will let us put feedback from the community at the front and centre of everything we do more than ever before. We’ll be able to address your concerns faster, introduce new features more frequently, and build a better game that features the things that you want to see.
As part of our work for our move to this model, we’ll be publishing a community survey over the coming weeks. This survey will ask for your thoughts on how the game is now and on what you would like to see us do in the future. The results will be used to help shape the path of our future work, including on which features we decide to dive deep into refining once we have completed the Match Fit Intiative work. We’re really excited about how we’ll be able to work going forwards on delivering the things that you want to see the most.
If you aren’t already a member, our Discord server has dedicated channels for leaving feedback and bug reports. We keep a really close eye on what our Discord community has to say, so if you want to make your voice heard outside of the community survey, head over to discord.gg/invinciblesgames and let us know what you’re thinking! We also run giveaways frequently there, so there’s more than one reason to stick around.
Wrapping Up
This is going to be quite a big change for us as a company and for how you’ll play Soccer Manager games in the future. It’s a really exciting change and we think that the future of Soccer Manager is brighter than ever. The voice of the community is really going to be at the heart of everything we do from now on, so if you have any thoughts or feedback, we’re ready to listen and work these ideas into our plans going forwards.
There’ll be a lot more news, deep dives, and sneak peeks about this year’s major update, so make sure you’re following us on all of our social channels to stay up to date! There’s some exciting things coming that we can’t wait to share with you…
