The Price Debate

 

We now know that FMM19 will be released on Friday 2^nd November and that it will likely cost the same as last year at £8.99 or 9.99 euro. The price the game costs is often up for debate here on Vibe in the lead up to a new release and I thought I would just jot down a few of my thoughts on the issue.

One thing to get out the way early is that there are ways to save money on the game if you act quickly by signing up to some of the questionnaire apps that are available and give you credit to spent in the app stores. I have been using the Google Opinion Rewards app since the beginning of September last year and over that time I have earned £10.52 for answering 69 surveys (a bit more than 1 a week) so that is about 15p a time which doesn’t sound much but most surveys take about 30 secs to complete and as it stands FMM19 is going to cost me about £1 as I have spent some of that credit already. You can get similar apps for iOS as well and I think it is something worth looking into as even though you may not save a massive amount before FMM19’s release anything is better than nothing.

I think one point that can often be missed is the fact that at least in my opinion anyway FMM19 is a true computer game and not just an app which may sound obvious but I often see people describe FMM as an app. It is far more detailed and immersive than your standard mobile game and so I don’t think it can be put in the same bracket as something that is free to download or costs a few pence. We are all used to going onto the app store and downloading an app for free or for a few pence and a lot of mobile “games” work on a freemium model. That means you can download it for free but to progress in the game quickly you need to spend money on extras that may otherwise take hours to unlock and without them you are stuck waiting to continue the game. FMM is different in that almost all aspects of the game are available from the off and you can play as long as you want without needing to wait to earn coins etc, we can also start in any of the leagues and with any club we wish straight off without any extra payment. The exception is international football which takes a bit more effort or 99p to unlock but things like sugar daddy, no loan restrictions etc can be unlocked after a few hours of play especially if you start with one of the easier teams to manage. If you compare FMM to its PC big brother it is only the fact you can’t start in international management without unlocking or paying that is the difference although FM does come with a free PGE so you can give your chosen club a sugar daddy that way of you wish.

That isn’t to say SI aren’t trying to squeeze a few more £££ out of us all with a myriad of extras or shortcuts that can be purchased, some which save you time in the game such as sugar daddy or a tutor to help a coach pass his exam first time and some which add new in game scenario’s and of course the IGE. I believe the complete package of extras and unlockables comes in at around £15.99 but in the end it’s your choice if you want to pay that or not. One area I feel SI could be a little more generous though is the IGE as they are asking the same price for that as the full game costs! Personally I have no interest in editing my saves unless it is for an experiment but I know that for many people they do like to use the editor for whatever reason and with the create a club feature being pretty basic I can see the appeal if you wish to make a club of your own with perhaps your mates in the team. To charge the same price as the game though seems crazy to me and unless the price has changed it is more expensive then the IGE that can be bought for the PC version which to me makes no sense. I think that at the moment SI have the balance right with the unlockables and I would hate to see them add many more especially extra leagues which need to be unlocked or payed for as I think all teams and leagues should be available straight away.

The other big bug bear for many of us is that we are asked to pay £8.99 for a product that if it follows the last few years is essentially unfinished and will likely need a couple of updates to fix problems in the game within the first few weeks of release. Just take a look at our bug reporting thread and you can see the myriad of problems that this year’s game has had and in some cases still has. It is hugely frustrating but I think we have to look at were we are in the list of priorities for SI. FMM19 will cost £8.99, FM Touch 19 will be £21.99 on Steam and the full game is listed with a pre purchase 10% discount on Steam at £34.19. The PC version will far out sell any other version and bring in much more money so that is always going to get the most development time with a big team working on it and of course FMT is essentially the same game so much of the development overlaps with the full game and now it is on Switch probably sells very well too. That leaves FMM at the bottom of the pile and will have a much smaller team working on the game and a much shorter development time which shouldn’t excuse a buggy release but at least goes some way to explaining why it happens.

The one thing that will ultimately lead me to buying the game again is that for all its faults I love it and I get far more than my moneys worth out of it and in no small part thanks to Vibe. If I go to the game status page on my current Atletico save I can see just how much value for money I have got by looking at the game time.

 

You need to take that figure with a pinch of salt as I have a tendency to leave the game loaded on my tablet and going off for an hour or so and doing something else but still if you half that it is still only 6p an hour or 9p if it is quartered. This isn’t the only save I have had with my DT that lasted 8 seasons and then test saves, saves for articles and various short Vibe challenges I have essentially got the game for nothing when you consider the amount of time I have put into it and despite a few bugs and areas of the game that could have just a little more depth I have loved it and will be back for more next year.

This is just my thoughts but I would love to hear from you guys. Will you buy the game next year or do you feel the game doesn’t offer you value for money these days and you may give it a miss? You can also vote on the polls below.

Cheers lads.

 

[Nucleus]

£8.99 is pocket change, especially as the device that the majority of us play it on will have cost more than ten times that value. I’ve had massive value for money from this years game and will without a doubt be purchasing FMM19 on release day! Year on year we ask for more features and the like but all I want for 19 is for them to fix what they started in 18 and go from there for FMM20. I honestly hope they don’t play around too much though, as it could severely damage the freedom and possibility we’ve already got. 

Great piece Foxy!

[olayinkajnr]

It's actually cheaper than that here in Nigeria.

 

1,800NGN translates to $4.99.

That's how much I bought FMM18. It's always cheaper at release for Nigerian stores.

It's 3,200NGN presently now and that translates to $8.86.

Even if it cost $15, I'll still purchase it.

[Ashez]

Couldn't have said it better mate, yeah it's expensive for the App Stores but the content you get makes it a bargain. 

[Rob]

Great article buddy. 

 

Rather than compare it to other apps, I always compare to video games. I’ve purchased and played a load of Mario Kart and Odyssey for the Switch over the last few year, but no more game time than I’ve played FMM. In that instance, which is value for money? The expensive but gorgeous game, or the cheaper but visually basic game? I’d put them as equal.

I would be more than happy if they kept the same match engine/game from 18 and just released an updated player database each year as a budget version. 

[Kennyd100]

I dont have a problem with the price as stated above its more than value for money, and i would of actually paid £20 or £25 if you could of managed Germany in it 😂😂 but very glad its in the new game for the price, i do think they are missing a trick thou by not putting out possibly a basic version and a premium version of the game.

[Nucleus]

2 minutes ago, Kennyd100 said:

 i do think they are missing a trick thou by not putting out possibly a basic version and a premium version of the game

 

I hope to god you’re joking

[FuddledFox]

1 minute ago, Kennyd100 said:

basic version and a premium version

How basic would you want it

I would say they do that anyway as you buy the basic version and then you can add all the extras on if you want to make a "premium version".

[Kennyd100]

Prob not described it the best above but will say normal then instead of basic is prob better, normal meaning you buy the game like usual and get everything the same as previous games, and say premium game you buy it for more at the start, but say the new transfer windows etc you get the update say 7 days before the normal game does, something like that or other extra add ons that the normal game will get but the premium one gets them quicker, just an idea i hardly think it will happen 😂

[Woody]

Imo the price is more than fair.

Its a full game...updates are always free and tend to fix most issues. 😂

What more can you ask for really without being mega picky?, i dont see it as an app either...its a fully fledged no crusts game and i love it!

Bring on 19!! 

[Scratch]

Yeah, the price seems fair enough to me, given the amount of usage I get out of it... I spend more time on this than I do on Netflix and I pay the same for that every month! Also, I have been buying CM/FM for more than 20 years now and it cost less to fuel my addiction than it used to.

[Seth Anacondas]

$16 SIN is fair. No excuses to miss out on Fulham's return to the Premier League anyway.⚫⚪

[FuddledFox]

It's interesting that so far 6 people think FMM isnt good value for money.

It would be good to hear why they think that. Is it that they didn't play much this year or some other reason.

[Kennyd100]

Ill be honest i actually bought FM touch this season as well as FM18 and touch was £19.99, first time ive bought it and played it , ive only played it twice, i think its because im so used to fmm the set up and playing it for years i feel like touch is ailen to me as diff set up and suppose just like actual football manager havent played that in years also, so would take time to get back into them, just havent given touch the chance i suppose because i do still enjoy FMM, which to me shows its still a great game that after years of playing you still prefer it speaks volumes

Edited August 14, 2018 by Kennyd100

[Nucleus]

8 minutes ago, Kennyd100 said:

Ill be honest i actually bought FM touch this season as well as FM18 and touch was £19.99, first time ive bought it and played it , ive only played it twice, i think its because im so used to fmm the set up and playing it for years i feel like touch is ailen to me as diff set up and suppose just like actual football manager havent played that in years also, so would take time to get back into them, just havent given touch the chance i suppose because i do still enjoy FMM, which to me shows its still a great game that after years of playing you still prefer it speaks volumes

I bought touch too, and like you I’ve only picked it up twice! Too slow and too much going on for my liking

[Fish18ish]

As I see it, FMM is more immersive than Fifa career mode. Fifa will set you back 6 times more than FMM, so it's a no brainer. People only get annoyed at the price because its a mobile app. 

[Jens]

I still think the price is a joke!

In a good way, that is. I vividly remember the PSP days when you had to pay 25-30 pounds for the physical copy. And that was one that couldn't get any upgrades! So if there was a bug in it (and there always was of course), you'd be stuck with it for the rest of the year. 

So 10 pounds for a game that has expanded exponentially is pocket change, really. Even all those saying at the start 'I'm paying for an unfinished product', so what? You should be glad that the game will receive patches and updates, because in Yo Olde Days... that was a dream. 

FMH has always been a game that massively expanded the lifespan of my handheld, and it's today still one of the reasons I have my phone in my hands so much. 10 pounds? Even if I don't play it often, it's money well spent.

[FuddledFox]

13 minutes ago, Jens said:

I still think the price is a joke!

In a good way, that is. I vividly remember the PSP days when you had to pay 25-30 pounds for the physical copy. And that was one that couldn't get any upgrades! So if there was a bug in it (and there always was of course), you'd be stuck with it for the rest of the year. 

So 10 pounds for a game that has expanded exponentially is pocket change, really. Even all those saying at the start 'I'm paying for an unfinished product', so what? You should be glad that the game will receive patches and updates, because in Yo Olde Days... that was a dream. 

FMH has always been a game that massively expanded the lifespan of my handheld, and it's today still one of the reasons I have my phone in my hands so much. 10 pounds? Even if I don't play it often, it's money well spent.

Agreed

How are you getting on with FMT?

[Jens]

10 minutes ago, Foxy said:

Agreed

How are you getting on with FMT?

*sigh* it's still a struggle  I even manage to struggle using Man City. But that's probably also because I don't like to walk down the usual paths. I don't really use the often talked about 4231 or 433 but try to come up with something myself... Currently I'm having fun though with a 4231 with 2 DMs, wingers in the midfield strata, an AM and AF. But it's hard.  

[Ashez]

It's not even £0.60 a league! FMM is a bargain! If FMM went DLC leagues you can guarantee they wouldn't be £1 each never mind 60p. 

The only area I think the game is a rip off is the IGE and how it's existence hinders other features and has neat ideas locked behind it. MyClub is crap and poorly implemented and imo that's due to the IGE as if Myclub was good the IGE would have no point, and don't get me started on the club colour changer being locked behind the IGE. 

[Neddy]

Um completely unrelated (I'm new to this game and site) but how do I get real Logos and Audio commentary for this game? I was just saw them in a youtube video

[Nucleus]

2 minutes ago, Neddy said:

Um completely unrelated (I'm new to this game and site) but how do I get real Logos and Audio commentary for this game? I was just saw them in a youtube video

Welcome to the site 😁 you can find our logos pack here

As for audio commentary, I’ve never known it to be possible, it may have been an edit from the publisher of the video you saw maybe?

[Cockers2505]

Who cares what it costs, for example a ps4 or xbox can be in the range of £25 - £70 depending on many alternatives, and can really only be played in your home, for £8.99 i can play FMM 16/17/18 anywhere, and anytime! Period, so is it worth its money, it's a no brainer, I'd pay whatever the cost because when I work out the cost per time I play it, the outcome is in the negative, so a game that costs less than £0.01 to play, and I never get bored because you can change the tactics, league, team or challenge ANYTIME, to be honest the best game EVER for me

Thanks to all those who create it, make it and distribute it at whatever cost, I'll always buy it every year

Yours a happy customer 👍😁

Edited September 16, 2018 by Cockers2505

[Nick11]

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Edited June 22, 2019 by Nick11