Football Manager 27 will be free to play for five days before its full release, in "industry first" for a game of its kind

You can play Football Manager 27 on PC and Mac for free this year for five full days later this month, in a first for the series and apparently an "industry first" for games of its kind.

The free period itself will start on 29th October at 6pm GMT, and run until its typical paid 'launch preview' period starts on the 3rd November, which is available to those who pre-order the game before its full launch on 10th November.

"Making an annual title free to play with all game modes available is believed to be an industry first and is a move that continues Sports Interactive's efforts to support its community of players," a studio press release says.

FM27's pre-orders, meanwhile, will then only open alongside the free play period, where players can buy with a 10 percent discount to get access to the aforementioned launch preview. Your saves will also continue across all of these periods into the full game, which is a nice touch, and likewise for those playing on Xbox Game Pass, too.

The news comes in an unusually quiet pre-launch period for developer Sports Interactive, and after the especially rough year of FM26, which despite steady player numbers still sits at a 'Mostly Negative' Steam user score, almost a full year after its launch.

That game was the first in two years, after Sports Interactive took the extraordinary step of cancelling the release of FM25 while it moved the game over to the Unity game engine from its own internal one. The result was new systems that the developer says weren't possible in previous versions of the game - notably the quite sophisticated system of splitting out in- and out-of-possession formations and tactics - at the expense of a huge number of classic features the developer couldn't get working in time. That, and a reworked "cards and tiles" user interface that I and an awful lot of players found a bit of a nightmare to navigate.

It all makes for a huge year for the franchise. FM27 promises "an improved interface with more intuitive navigation, creating a more immersive experience," as well as several new features such as Tactical Tweaks, which supplement the old, returning touchline shouts system. Whether they come off is likely to have a major impact on fans' trust in the studio after a difficult couple of years. This five-day free period at least suggests Sports Interactive is feeling confident.