Football Manager 27 Is Free to Play on Steam This Weekend

Football Manager 27 doesn't launch until 10 November, but anyone can play it free on PC and Mac until 3 November, on Steam, the Epic Games Store and the Microsoft Store. What's free is the Launch Preview, the near-final game with every mode in it, and any career you start carries over if you buy the game.

FM27 is Sports Interactive's football management sim, published by SEGA: you pick a club, build the squad, set the tactics and make the calls from the touchline on match day. Earlier Football Manager betas were a reward for pre-ordering. This time Sports Interactive is letting everyone try the game before deciding to buy it.

Where you can play it free

• Steam: the button on this page. Steam runs the free play from 18:00 UTC on 29 October to 18:00 UTC on 3 November.
• Epic Games Store: Football Manager 27 Launch Preview
• Microsoft Store: Football Manager 27 Launch Preview
• PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate: subscribers can play it through their subscription.

You don't need to sign up for anything beyond the store account. Sports Interactive notes that the free play may start at slightly different times on different stores.

What's in the free version

You get the whole game, every mode included, among them Shuffle Draft, the new multiplayer mode. The Launch Preview takes over from the betas of earlier years and is meant to be much closer to the finished game, but you may still hit some bugs. Sports Interactive collects reports in a bug tracker on its forums.

Some licensed data is still waiting for approval from rights holders, so a few clubs, players or their assets may be missing or not match real life until launch.

What's new in FM27

• Tactical Effectiveness: a new measure of how well your players suit the way you want to play, alongside refreshed training that puts more focus on player and team development.
• Tactical Tweaks: more say from the touchline, to go after the gaps you spot in the opposition's defence.
• Match days: better crowds, stadiums and surroundings, and attacking play with more flair and individual skill.
• The football calendar: Cup Draws and Transfer Deadline Day are back.
• Interface: a reworked interface that puts the key decisions up front, with more ways to customise it.
• More to manage: new licensed leagues, an improved 2D match view, deeper data and more than 1,500 competition updates.

What happens after 3 November

The free period ends on 3 November at 18:00 GMT. If you pre-purchase, you keep playing the Launch Preview until the full release on 10 November. Game Pass subscribers move on to the paid Launch Preview through their subscription. Either way, your careers from the free days carry over into the paid Launch Preview and the full game, so you don't have to start again.

Pre-purchases are 10% off until launch at SEGA-approved stores, Steam included.

Will it run on your computer?

• Windows: 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, 6 GB of RAM (12 GB recommended), a graphics card around a GeForce GTX 960, Radeon R9 380 or Intel HD 530, and 20 GB free.
• Mac: macOS 13 or later on an Apple M1 or an Intel Core M, 6 GB of RAM (12 GB recommended) and 20 GB free.

The Steam version uses Denuvo anti-tamper, with a limit of 5 machine activations a day.

Sources: Sports Interactive's announcement and the Steam store page.