GAMES
Take the Next Step this Season in Football Manager 2023, Available November 8
Back in September we announced for the second successive year our latest release, Football Manager 2023, would be available on November 8 and included Day One with PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass. We’re buzzing with anticipation and we’re sure you are as well.
Should you want to kick-off your FM23 career on PC earlier than November 8, you can pre-purchase the game now from the Microsoft Store to own the game and receive Early Access, which is typically available about two weeks prior to full release.
Before then, we’re here to give you a taste of what’s to come in both FM23 and FM23 Console by delving into the new features, game upgrades, and licensing updates that’ll make this year one to remember.
Don’t Just Meet Expectations – Crush Them
The world’s favorite sports management simulation, Football Manager delivers the closest experience to stepping into the hotseat at an elite club for real. The world of professional football has been carefully modelled, enabling you to chase your dreams and write your own football story. Whether you’re developing title-winning tactics or recruiting the best Wonderkids on the market, you’re making key decisions in the moments that matter most.
In FM23, new tools thrust you closer to the heart of the beautiful game than ever before. Not only will you be challenged with building a squad capable of fighting for football’s biggest prizes, but you’ll also have to navigate the demands and expectations of both your owners and your fans.
Formerly titled the Xbox edition, FM23 Console is a bespoke version of the desktop classic zoning in on football’s most important areas – the transfer market, the tactics board, and the pitch. Whether you’re chasing promotions, winning titles, or dominating your friends online, you’re empowered to play the beautiful game your way.
Tailored to work across the Xbox ecosystem, FM23 Console maximizes the capabilities of the Xbox Controller and harnesses the power of Xbox Play Anywhere technology, allowing you to transfer your progress between your console and Windows PC using the same Xbox Live profile. If you’re playing on Xbox Series X|S, you’ll also benefit from stunning 4K visuals.
New Features for a New Campaign
This year, we’ve placed a real emphasis on reflecting on the insights we’ve gleaned from close relationships within the real world of football to make FM23 the most true-to-life experience yet. Our Recruitment revamp has been powered by an understanding of how clubs execute their planning, scouting, and transfers over multiple seasons. Our Tactical Instructions have been freshly aligned with terminology from modern football analysis and our Supporter Confidence system reflects the growing importance of fans to managerial security. We’ve also introduced hundreds more features that advance our everlasting pursuit of creating complete football authenticity.
A key area of change across both FM23 and FM23 Console is in the Match Engine. We’ve furthered last year’s work on animations, with new technology allowing us to not only improve the quality of the animations, but also the way they’re blended together. A number of player roles have been adapted, with Wingers now consistently offering more width and Advanced Playmakers pushed higher up into the half-spaces to contribute to build-up play. AI Managers are now smarter than ever, with an extensive rewrite of their logic enabling them to evaluate every facet of a match and create more nuanced tactical battles with you. We’ve simplified a number of our tactical instructions in order to make them more accessible. In FM23 Console, you’ll notice that matches now have a more ‘hands on’ feel to them, with radial menus, an improved Touchline tablet, and refined User Interface pulling you into the heart of the on-pitch action.
Another new addition for both FM23 and FM23 Console is the Dynamic Manager Timeline. Sharing Football Manager stories is a key part of what makes our community so special, so for this year we wanted to provide a new way of displaying and tracking the achievements and milestones of every career. On the timeline, you’ll see snapshots of various events throughout your career, ranging from title wins to academy players getting their debuts, all in chronological order.
We recently delved into these features and other FM23 additions, such as Supporter Confidence and our Recruitment revamp, in our Headline Feature reveal video, which you can find on the Football Manager YouTube channel.
A long-time request from our community, Team Talks are a new addition to FM23 Console. Make your voice heard at half-time and full-time with a wide range of reactions that allow you to become a difference-maker in every situation.
In FM23 Console, we’ve also introduced a raft of accessibility changes to make this the most engaging edition of Football Manager for the platform yet. Whether you’re an experienced player or a series newcomer, our new onboarding flow ensures you’ll get the right level of detail and responsibilities in every career.
Create the Future
This season it’s all about going bigger than ever. Don’t just build a team, create a dynasty! It’s time to tear it up.
With more than 2,000 clubs across 53 nations available for you to choose from, where will you create the future in Football Manager 2023?
Football Manager 2023 Console
SEGA Europe Ltd
$49.99
$39.99
Become the best in Football Manager 2023 Console, newly renamed for this season. Formerly titled the Xbox edition, this tailored version of Football Manager zones in on football’s most important areas – the transfer market, the tactics board and the pitch. Whether you’re chasing promotions, winning titles or dominating your friends online, play the beautiful game your way.
In perfect sync with the Xbox controller, it harnesses the power of Microsoft’s Play Anywhere technology to enable you to keep your career on the move across both console and Windows 10 PC with the same Xbox Live profile.
New features, game upgrades and pre-order information will be revealed in October. Follow Football Manager on social media to stay ahead of the game.
Game Description
• Choose where to start your journey, with the world’s biggest leagues at your fingertips. Will you aim for instant success at an elite club ready to win European trophies?
• Effortlessly snap up the globe’s best players with the help of your scouts. They’ll also help you to identify the wonderkids that will drive your success.
• Hit the ground running with the tactical styles and formations of the world’s most successful managers just a click away.
• Matchdays are there to be remembered. Watch your vision play out in native or upscaled 4K as your side battle their way to three points.
• Dominate the group chat with victories over your friends across a trio of multiplayer modes. Triumph head-to-head in Versus Mode, create an elite team against the clock in Fantasy Draft or go the distance over a season in Online Career Mode.
Football Manager 2023
SEGA Europe Ltd
Build your team, establish your managerial style and create a dynasty in Football Manager 2023. Get ready to begin your journey to soccer glory.
Pre-purchase for 20% off and Early Access*.
To become elite, managers must win the love and respect of the fans. In FM23, it’s not just about picking tactics or crafting a team. It’s about establishing your style and creating title-winning dynasties.
Turn supporters’ dreams into reality this season by exceeding their expectations and dominating your rivals. It’s time to change the game. How will you be remembered?
Game Description
• Find the club that’s right for you. Meet the board’s expectations and beat the best on your way to winning football’s top prizes.
• Don’t just sign superstars, create them. Recruit smartly with the help of your backroom staff and provide pathways to the first team for your wonderkids to develop a world-class squad.
• Your team’s playing style is down to you. Create a unique strategy on the tactics board to deliver big wins and memorable matchday moments.
NEW FOR THIS SEASON
BETTER SQUAD BUILDING
Power your transfer activity with revamped scouting and recruitment meetings, a closer relationship with player agents and brand-new squad planning tools. Deliver on the club’s ambitions with a better oversight of your future superstars.
OUTSMART YOUR RIVALS
Test your managerial skills against the most realistic opposition yet. Every manager you face will now make smarter decisions, while new tactical instructions empower you to experiment more with defensive and counter-attacking football. Changes to the way wing-backs and double pivots operate and a range of new animations are among the further match engine advancements as you begin your journey to the top.
GET THE FANS ONSIDE
Get closer to the fans of your club and their ambitions with the new Supporter Confidence system. Deliver on their expectations on and off the pitch to ensure a bright future in the dugout.
BIG EUROPEAN NIGHTS
Experience a greater sense of occasion with the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Europa Conference League all fully licenced. Remodelled Cup Draws and officially branded team sheets, scoreboards and goal graphics vividly bring to life UEFA’s Club Competitions.
SAVOUR YOUR SUCCESS
Relive your career milestones and achievements with the brand-new Dynamic Manager Timeline. Whether you’ve given a youth player their first-team debut or won the UEFA Champions League, it’s never been easier to celebrate and share your Football Manager story.
Countless more features, big and small, designed to improve your game experience are ready for you to discover in every career.
*Early Access versions of the game may go live at different times on different platforms.
GAMES
This Week’s Deals with Gold and Spotlight Sale
GAMES
The German Empire Marches to Italy in a Free Expansion Today
We have a new expansion for our WW1 Italian Front FPS game Isonzo releasing today! It’s the first part of our Caporetto season of free expansions, and features a whole new faction with the arrival of the German Empire on the Italian Front, and brings a new map for the Offensive game mode. There will be two more releases in the Caporetto season, each one with a new map to ultimately link together into a three map Caporetto Offensive.
The German faction comes with more than ten new weapons, as well as historically accurate uniforms and equipment. This first Caporetto map sees you taking part in the early stages of the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, with German troops assaulting Italian positions on the road to Caporetto. Historically it was a military disaster for Italy which brought down the government – but maybe things can go differently with you on the battlefield?
The update sees new uniforms and equipment from the German Empire for Isonzo’s six classes: Rifleman, Assault, Engineer, Officer, Marksman and Mountaineer. For those who aren’t familiar with the game, each class has different weapon, gear and perk options that allow you to specialize your play style within the overall focus of the class. For instance, Marksmen are always sharpshooters, but a lot depends on your loadout. You could be a long-range sniper and observer identifying and eliminating high value targets with a scoped rifle, or you could equip body armor to take and hold a front line position with deadly accurate mid-range fire. Every class has choices to make in this regard.
In Isonzo’s signature Offensive game mode, one side must attack and break through multiple defensive lines. Thick layers of barbed wire, trenches, and whatever extra defenses the enemy engineers put together will stand in the way of a successful attack. Objectives can be taking and holding key points, or planting dynamite to sabotage enemy supply stashes or heavy artillery guns.
The new Caporetto map – the first of three in the season – is a huge battlefield based on the strategically important Monte Kolovrat. There are five defensive lines, where each line has two objectives for the attackers before they can advance further. While in the historical Battle of Caporetto both German and Austro-Hungarian forces were involved, in Isonzo we’ve chosen to focus on the German contribution, so the map recreates the stunning German advance from the town of Tolmein all the way to Kolovrat Ridge. It’s a damp, overcast day when the attack begins, and the attackers must first cut their way through lines of wire to break into a devastated town – including capturing a church defended by multiple heavy machine gun positions. Fortunately, in Isonzo there are many tactical options available to deal with such strong points: artillery barrages, smokescreens, snipers, rifle grenades, even poison gas. From there, it becomes a literal uphill battle for the German attackers as they begin to climb towards the peak of Kolovrat Ridge. They’ll need to sabotage bunkers and capture command posts while navigating rocky trenches and steep forested slopes. At the penultimate fourth defensive line there is a huge siege mortar to sabotage and a cluster of houses providing cover to the Italian defenders – then it’s one last climb to reach the final objective: Hill 1114. If the Germans can take it, the Italians will finally be the ones fighting uphill as their reinforcements stream in to try and counterattack.
Of course, things are no walk in the park for the defenders either – although it’s easier to maneuver when going downhill, and it’s much simpler for officers to deploy flares to call in support, the extensive trench lines can become a liability once the Germans get a foothold, providing cover as they advance. Some of the Italian defensive positions can be exposed against the sky, making it easy for German marksmen to pick off targets. Italian engineers should make good use of their construction abilities to put down additional sandbags and lay out extra wire to prevent German assault troops sneaking through the trees to flank trenches with their grenades or light machine guns.
As we mentioned before, historically the Battle of Caporetto was a disaster for the Italians. Appalling leadership led to poorly motivated and unprepared troops falling apart in the face of the combined Austro-Hungarian and German armies using cutting edge infiltration tactics. The Italian soldiers were not allowed to retreat until too late, and in the end hundreds of thousands would surrender. After Caporetto the top Italian general was fired and replaced by someone far more competent, who managed to turn the war around for the Italians. In Isonzo, it’s a more fair fight where both sides have an equal chance of winning, if they can use all the tactical options available better than their opponents.
The release will also bring other improvements to the game, including a prestige mode and higher level cap. Additionally, for those who want more options for visual customization of their character, the Royal Units DLC is releasing alongside the free expansion and contains uniforms from the German Kingdoms of Bavaria and Württemberg. Though part of the German Empire, these states had their own distinctive uniforms which we’ve carefully recreated with the same accuracy and attention to detail as with the other uniforms in the game.
The Battle for Caporetto Begins…
Isonzo is available right now on the Microsoft Store for Xbox, and the free Caporetto expansion is out today! Plenty of time to master the art of mountain warfare before the German Empire joins the action on the Italian Front. Follow us to get the latest development news as we add the finishing touches!
We’ll see you in the trenches!
Isonzo
BlackMill Games
$29.99
World War One expands to the mountains of the Italian Front – beautiful but deadly in equal measure. Inspired by the two year struggle for control of the Isonzo river valley and the Alps during World War One, Isonzo elevates the WW1 Games Series, figuratively and literally.
From the makers of Verdun and Tannenberg…
Take part in historical offensives from the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo to the Strafexpedition. Reflecting the course of the actual battles, as the attackers advance the fighting will shift through vastly different landscapes within a single offensive: from hillside fortresses to mountain trenches and fierce urban combat on city streets. Everything is recreated based on research and field trips, from sound effects and uniforms down to the houses, vineyards and trenches you’ll be fighting over.
The new Offensive game mode puts you right in the middle of key historical offensives on the Italian Front. Lead the charge across stunning Italian landscapes as you choose your path to victory – cut paths through barbed wire, flank your enemies by following mountain trails, or man a mortar to blast a way through. Shape a dynamic battlefield by laying sandbags and wire, placing ammo crates, deploying trench periscopes or sniper shields, and more.
Call in support with a unique historically accurate flare system: flare guns can mark targets for artillery or biplane flybys, or different colored flares can be used to guide your team. Once the big guns have softened up the enemy, finish the job at close quarters with an Arditi dagger or mountaineer’s pickaxe. Man heavy machine guns, mortars and even mountain guns for more direct fire support.
Choose from six classes based on historical combat roles and build your loadout from a selection of weapons, equipment and perks linked to that class, giving flexibility and variety while staying grounded in what real soldiers might have carried. You’ll be operating wire cutters, bandaging yourself and wounded teammates, and blowing the whistle to start an assault. One shot can kill and even lighter injuries can lead to quickly bleeding out.
Being an effective soldier in Isonzo is not just about being a good marksman. Mastering the terrain is also key – the mountain can be a friend or foe. Learn how to navigate well to maintain cover and surprise your enemies or support your allies.
Finally… watch out for the dreaded poison gas. You’ve never experienced WW1 action quite like this!
Isonzo key features include:
• MOUNTAIN WARFARE: Assaulting mountain fortifications, battling through ruined towns, and fording rivers are just a few of the challenges you’ll face as you fight your way through numerous enemy positions
• TACTICAL MULTIPLAYER FPS: Choose your role and loadout carefully to survive this high altitude combat – play a sniper to pick off the enemy engineers before they can cut your wire, use rifle grenades to clear enemy machine guns, and much more
• WORLD WAR ONE GAMEPLAY: Historical Offensive game mode based on real battles and focused on the unique challenges of Alpine warfare. Fight with 30+ WW1 weapons, poisonous gas attacks, and intense artillery barrages
• BUILD FOR VICTORY: Place your own wire, sandbags, trench periscopes, and more! Whether you’re digging in or on the attack, shaping the battlefield to your advantage will be key to victory
• FACES OF WAR: Make every class your own by picking from a variety of historically class-appropriate uniforms, accessories and headgear. As a finishing touch, you can even pick your mustache from several famous period-accurate styles!
• AUTHENTIC WW1 ATMOSPHERE: Accuracy in everything from maps and weaponry to music and the uniforms – fight for the Kingdom of Italy, the German Empire or the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy
MORE GAMES IN THE AUTHENTIC WW1 GAME SERIES
Immerse yourself in more WW1 action with our other standalone titles Tannenberg and Verdun. Experience trench warfare on the Western Front in Verdun, or maneuver for control of key sectors in Tannenberg on the Eastern Front. These authentic WW1 shooters let players choose from a range of squads from across the war, as they fight for control of the ever-changing frontlines.
GAMES
Transport Fever 2: Console Edition is Bringing the Full Transport Tycoon Experience to Xbox
Today, we proudly share a sneak peek into the development of Transport Fever 2: Console Edition, and how we managed to bring the full transport tycoon experience to Xbox.
Transport Fever is a very popular and highly rated transportation tycoon franchise on PC. Its latest entry, Transport Fever 2, delivers a level of size and detail never before seen in the genre. The goal of the game is to build a successful transportation company by constructing railroads, streets, water and air lines. Starting in the 19th century, the player connects towns and industries to transport both passengers and cargo. In addition to a customizable free game mode, there is also a fully-fledged campaign mode with challenging missions set in real-world transportation history.
After the huge success of Transport Fever 2 on PC, it was only logical to bring the experience to consoles as well. Not only that, but no efforts were spared to give the console community the full experience that made the game great on PC. In order to achieve this, the engineers at Urban Games had to pull some rabbits out of their engineers’ hats.
Always providing the freshest layer of paint
One of the most cherished features of Transport Fever 2 are its highly detailed vehicles. The game comes with more than 200 lovingly hand-modeled trains, ships, and airplanes, each sporting multiple 4k textures and normal maps.
On PC, it is easily affordable to have all the models and textures in memory whenever needed, as a typical rig has 16 GB of RAM and a GPU with a dedicated extra memory. Consoles, however, are built differently. They have a unified architecture with an overall smaller amount but ultra-fast memory. The key to make it work on consoles is texture streaming, which allows to clear textures of models that are not in view anymore. Moreover, this technology is used in Transport Fever 2 to constantly load textures at the highest affordable resolution to present the stars of the show, like the classic Class A 3/5 steam locomotive, in their best coat of paint at all times.
Keeping the ground like a console pro
A trademark of Transport Fever 2 are its huge maps. During development of the game, it was always paramount to provide a real sense of scale. The engine should allow for maps where a high-speed train, such as the famous Japanese Shinkansen, can really make use of its superior speed. So, a lot of effort was put into designing a highly effective terrain rendering pipeline that can handle maps of more than 120 sq miles of size with a detail resolution of almost 1 yard. Central to this is a dynamic terrain tessellation algorithm on the CPU that, while costing a bit of extra memory, makes sure the engine can render these maps on a wide variety of PCs.
Now, enter the world of consoles with their incredibly well-designed GPUs and graphic APIs. Here, the hardware can be leveraged very well for terrain rendering by making use of the GPU tessellation feature. This feature generates the render mesh for the terrain fully on the graphics card, saving valuable processing time for the complex economy and city growth simulations. While generating more triangles, the hardware approach still costs less memory overall due to its efficiency. So vast maps can be viewed from a bird’s view high up in the sky and seamlessly zoomed in down to individual rocks on a riverbank.
Inspiring the inner architect
Finally, let’s talk about constructions, a central and defining part of the Transport Fever 2 experience. Constructions are large assemblies that consist of dozens of assets, street segments, ground decals and terrain modifications. Think of structures like airports, train stations, docks, highway crossings, and many more. Anything that is needed to build a vast transportation empire.
For a smooth construction experience, it is key that the player really feels that he has precise control over the building placement. On PC, constructions are typically built using the mouse. As the average PC user is very well adjusted to this method of input, it is sufficiently performant to calculate the entire construction each frame and place it under the cursor. However, on consoles, the best way of building constructions is to have them always kept in the center of the screen and move the camera along the map for placement. And moving the camera needs to be as smooth as silk.
So, for the console release of Transport Fever 2, the construction preview pipeline was overhauled. All dynamic calculations are now performed in the background while a static preview of the structure and its underlying ground plan are shown. Not only are constructions now completely stable in terms of FPS, but they also give feedback to the player on what environment features the construction would tear down when built.
Let’s get tycooning on console
We are very excited to bring the Transport Fever franchise to consoles for the first time ever with the release of Transport Fever 2: Console Edition on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One in February 2023, and we hope you will enjoy it as much as we did developing it.
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