Football Manager 2021: Xbox Edition makes its debut next month and brings the depth, drama and detail of the world’s most popular football management simulation to Xbox. FM21 Xbox drops you into a living, breathing football world and gives you the opportunity to take one of more than 2,000 real clubs to the top of the football pyramid. On your way, you’ll turn wonderkids into world beaters and create a blueprint for success that you can refine at the biggest clubs from across the globe as you cement your legacy.
Unrivalled Simulation Gaming
Football Manager offers a football management simulation like no other with unparalleled control and detail creating a truly immersive experience. You can choose to take control of your favourite club or travel the footballing world and manage in any of the 117 playable leagues across 52 nations. FM21 Xbox, like the rest of the Football Manager series, empowers you to make all the same decisions a real manager would from team selection to tactics while you’ll also have to manage the expectations of the board, the media and the fans.
It’s not just about achieving success in the short-term though as the game will you let you play for up to 30 seasons into the future, allowing you to create a long-lasting legacy at your club. Players and staff will come and go and you’ll need to unearth wonderkids – young players who can become the next generation of football’s superstars – who can keep you at the top of the game or elevate you to the next level.
Whether you choose to start at one of the world’s elite clubs or work your way up from the bottom of the football pyramid, this is the closest you can get to doing the job for real.
Take Control of Your Team’s Destiny
The ultimate goal in Football Manager is to compete for and win the biggest prizes in world football but there is no single path to success in the game. Your route to the top is dependent on you and the way you use the tools at your disposal.
There are some areas of football management that will demand more of your attention than others. FM21 Xbox is based on the Touch version of Football Manager which prioritises the managerial essentials, giving you full control over tactics and transfers but limiting your duties with the media, for example. This gives you more time to focus on match preparation and how you’ll pick up those important three points.
Let’s start with tactics. You’ll can choose from a range of tactical templates that let you replicate some of the world’s most popular styles of play which you can put into action with the press of a button. If you want to take a more hands-on approach, then you’ll discover a wealth of tactical options for you to tweak and adjust or take things even further and create your own style from scratch.
When it comes to building and improving your squad, you can choose to dominate the transfer market in whichever way suits you. With the power of the Football Manager database and its 500,000 real players and staff behind you, there’s a wealth of talent to discover and different recruitment routes to take. You might want to go all-in and pursue the world’s elite players or delve into one of the most satisfying areas of the game – finding and developing wonderkids.
When it comes to Matchday, you can sit back and watch your game plan come together on our most lifelike 3D match engine ever which offers the most realistic simulation of football on the market or, if you’re in a hurry to get to the top, you can skip straight to the final whistle by using the ‘Instant Result’ option.
When you’re confident in your managerial abilities why not compete against your friends for the ultimate bragging rights in one of FM21 Xbox’s online modes? You can each select your favourite club and take on the world – and each other – in an online Career Mode game or mix things up in Fantasy Draft where you and your friends can draft squads of the biggest stars in football and face off against each other. Finally, if you want to settle the argument about whose team is better, head into Versus mode and prove it in a one-on-one contest. Cross-play is supported across the Xbox ecosystem so you can challenge your mates regardless of whether they’re playing FM21 Xbox on console or from the Xbox Store on PC.
We add a host of features and improvements to the series each year and several new enhancements from the FM21 series will also be included in the Xbox Edition, which you can find out more about in our FM21 Xbox deep dive.
Tailored for Xbox
One of our biggest considerations with FM21 Xbox was making sure that the Football Manager interface was fully optimized for the Xbox Controller. The team have spent a tremendous amount of time focusing on the individual screens across the game to ensure that navigating through FM21 Xbox on your way to footballing greatness is a breeze.
We’re also making use of Microsoft’s Play Anywhere technology which allows you to transfer your FM21 Xbox progress between your Console and Windows 10 PC using the same Xbox Live profile. We’ll also be using Smart Delivery so if you buy FM21 Xbox it will work across Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S and be optimized to offer the best experience on whichever console you’re using.
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S
We’ve taken advantage of the next-generation power of the Xbox Series X|S to create a deeper and even more detailed footballing world. You’ll be able to enjoy Matchdays in glorious native 4K on Xbox Series X and load more leagues on those consoles than on Xbox One or Xbox One X|S. You’ll have more insight and analysis too through an increased amount of stats and opposition data on the next-gen hardware that will help give you the edge over your opponents on Matchday.
FM21 Xbox Edition releases next month and the stage is set for you to make your mark on the footballing world. Now you’re up fully up to speed, the key question is who will you choose to manage first?