I played a bit of SM15 and also did some voluntary beta testing for its sequel – Soccer Manager 2016. Having played the Soccer Manager multiplayer game since 2007, I was naturally very interested in the single-player experience. The first product from this new series – Soccer Manager 2015 – was released in November 2014, to a fairly positive response. In the mid-2010s, they started to branch off from their multiplayer game by building a single-player version that could be played in an internet browser. The developers behind the game are Soccer Manager Ltd – a small but dedicated team based in Preston.

It has been translated into many languages and has housed around 25 million virtual managers, over a million of which currently log in at least once a month.

The game – now known as Soccer Manager Worlds – has become hugely successful, largely because of its free-to-play model and the ability for you to ‘sign’ real-life players for real-life teams. Some of you might be familiar with the Soccer Manager online game, which launched in 2005. I think Rock Paper Shotgun summed it up pretty well when they labelled it “a scrappier and slimmer FM”. Today, I will be looking at a free game that I have been playing on-and-off over the last few weeks. The top Champions League-quality games are awarded 5*, and the hapless Sunday Leaguers only get 1*. I’ll look into the background of each game, explain which features I liked or didn’t like, and then give a star rating out of 5. This is the first installment of a new, occasional series in which I will review a pretender to Sports Interactive’s virtual football throne.

Every now and then, I will also cover any other football management computer games – retro or modern – that catch my eye. Contrary to what you might think, Fuller FM is not a blog solely dedicated to the Football Manager series.

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