Football Manager may get a subscription, SEGA confirms it's looking into the idea

Football Manager may get its own subscription model, and could be the latest series to follow the franchise-as-a-service business model.

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Today, SEGA published the translations of its recent Q&A session in a Q3 earnings call with Japanese investors. Included in the documents is a confirmation that SEGA is exploring the idea of a subscription for Football Manager. This move looks to be directly inspired by fan feedback and could be welcome news to the millions of people who play the best-selling sports franchise every year.

SEGA recently made the tough decision to cancel Football Manager 25 as part of its restructuring plan for European teams. SEGA incurred a write-down expense of around $26.7 million due to FM25's cancellation. The developers at Sports Interactive also faced technical issues with the game that reinforced the decision.

This annualized game series has contributed greatly to SEGA's game sales--Football Manager 24 was a mega-hit for SEGA, selling 7 million copies and becoming the top-selling game in the series.

Here's the Q&A exchange with SEGA management that mentions Football Manager's potential subscription service:

Q. Following the cancellation of Football Manager 25, how do you plan to maintain engagement with users and carry this over to the next instalment?

A. First of all, we would like to enhance dialogue with the user community and then create an environment where they can look forward to our next title. In addition to continuing to sell Football Manager 2024, we are also looking into the ways to enable players to continue playing it through a subscription service.

Developer Sports Interactive hasn't commented on a subscription service for Football Manager.