Football Manager 2021 has just been announced for a release in November 2020, and for the first time in the series, it is launching on Xbox One and Xbox Series X, alongside PC and Nintendo Switch.
The Xbox edition will be based on an expanded Touch version, customized to take advantage of the controller developed by Microsoft. It will be an Xbox Play Anywhere title, supporting cross-saves across the Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Microsoft Store PC versions.
However, the game won’t surprisingly release on PlayStation consoles, skipping PS4 and PS5 even though Sports Interactive and SEGA didn’t sign any exclusivity deal with Microsoft.
Miles Jacobson, the Football Manager series creator, has shared why Football Manager 2021 won’t be coming on PS4 and PS5, and the reason is quite hard to believe.
“To make games for a platform, you need a dev kit. To get a dev kit, the platform holder have to want the game on the platform,” Jacobson said.
“We spoke with Sony, we have no dev kits. We spoke with Microsoft, they sent them to us,” he added.
Fans will remember PS5 dev kits and their fancy design, which was unveiled months before the actual console design was shared.
Jacobson tried and justified the lack of a dev kit at the British studio, as “there are limited dev kits available,” and they “prioritize games they want on their platform as all hardware platforms do.”
With so many games releasing on PlayStation every year, it sure feels unusual to hear that such a famed developer and acclaimed series do not have space on PS4 nor PS5. However, fans eager to manage some football can play Football Manager 2020 for free on PC.