Miles Jacobson might just have one of the best jobs on the planet.
The Studio Director at Sports Interactive is the main man when it comes to Football Manager, having joined the company over two decades ago. He now makes all the key decisions when it comes to one of Europe's most popular games.
"I’ve been involved for 21 years," Jacobson told us on the day of the game's launch, this past Friday. "The first game I worked on was CM2 (Championship Manager 2) as a tester. Now I run the studio and direct Football Manager. I decide everything that goes into it basically, but the ideas aren’t all mine. They come from everywhere, and I help put the jigsaw together."
This particular jigsaw was only completed at the start of November—perilously close to the launch date on Friday the 13th. Jacobson’s cool demeanour suggests everything has gone smoothly. Potential nightmares avoided.
Forward planning is the key to success, with a first version of the new game on the table as far back as April. Changes are subsequently made on a weekly basis.
“Typically I get a first cut six or seven months in advance," he said. "It’s frustrating throughout the cycle as it keeps breaking at the early stages, but come June or July I can start to give genuine feedback about what I’m liking and what I’m not in the game.
"Every week throughout the cycle I’ll put together a dossier about all different parts of the game, and that gets split across the team to work out what changes can be made. That then goes to the coders, who sort it out.
"In house we have 10 full-time QAs, and then we have 30 or 40 contractors in the studio each year. Then there is up to 1,000 beta testers, which might come from our research team or people who have given constructive criticism on the forums. We also have just under 1,000 footballers who help us test the game, ranging from very well-known, world class players through to non-league and youth team players."
Jacobson is a man who values feedback. Whilst he has final sign-off on all new features in the Football Manager game, he’ll take ideas from anywhere and everywhere.
That means players themselves, agents and, perhaps most importantly, gamers who purchase the latest edition each and every year, have a say.
"We’ve got a database full of features and ideas. There are about 3,000 that haven’t made it into games which have been approved,” he added.
"I put together my own dream feature set for the next year—a lot of which is done already—and then it goes to the programmers who estimate how long it will take. They typically have to cut between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of the ideas, and these then move to the next year.
“Online, we are onto our third wishlist thread for fans. I’d say about 60 per cent of new features are mentioned on their before the game comes out, and 20 per cent are mentioned on their first, so fans always have an impact on the game. Good ideas come from everywhere and anywhere—the pub, the office, anywhere.”
Putting those ideas into practice have led to a new game Jacobson describes as “the best one yet.” When pushed as to why that’s the case, a couple of factors quickly come to mind. Improved interface and playability are obvious, improved match analysis and scouting less so.
"We’ve got a deal with Prozone now, so rather than just having our own analytics tool, we’ve got people who have been through their training system and can implement that on the game. It’s important that people have the same tools that real managers and coaches have to use. That’s the case on FM16.
"I think about five years ago the football industry started taking us much more seriously. Part of that was because they’d started using data a lot more, but another part of that was because of our scouting record. Sure, we’ve got some wrong and they always get mentioned but when you’ve got 20 wrong and thousands right, it’s a slightly better record than any other manager out there.
"When your a club being sent thousands of agent videos every week, how do you decide who you’re going to send to Chile. If you’ve got a reference tool based on people actually in the ground at the game in Chile, then it’s easy to see why you’d take us seriously."
The Football Manager 2016 database has 32,500 players and non-players on it, with 2,250 clubs covered across 116 divisions and 51 countries. In an effort to avoid mistakes and inaccuracies, an incredible scouting network of 1,300 people is spread across the world.
When you consider that the original SI database had 4,000 players and non-players on it, it’s easy to see how this football simulator has grown into the phenomenon that it is today.
And, there’s plenty more to come with Jacobson at the helm.
"I’ve started doing work on the 2017 edition. It’s been on my table for a while," he said. "FM16 is probably the most complete game we’ve ever made, I know there is more to come in the next edition, which is what excites me and gets me coming to work every day—if you can call it that.
"Take the match engine. We have a five-year plan for that and we’re now in the second year. The plan is that within five years, if you were to watch a game of football from the same camera angle as you see it on Football Manager, you wouldn’t know the difference.
"That doesn’t mean we want to be FIFA or Pro Evo, which are fantastic games in their own right, because we don’t want to look like them. We want a look that is unique and specific to Football Manager.”
With an army of Twitter followers to respond to, Jacobson is forced to call time on our conversation, hurrying into the B/R studio for some filming before a swift exit.
His plan for the new evening? “I’ll be playing it. I enjoy having the final product to work with and have a Watford game that’s currently in 2019 on the go. It’s for work as well, of course, making sure there are no issues.”
You know you’ve made it when you can call playing Football Manager work.
All quotes were acquired firsthand