A bold move by SI Games.
The latest edition of the acclaimed Football Manager series will include players coming out as gay. This will only concern “newgens”, that is players generated automatically by the game as time progresses.
Miles Jacobson, studio director, explained:
“It doesn’t happen with any real-life players because of course, we don’t know who in real life is gay and who isn’t, and we didn’t want to wrongly be outing players.”
That’s a feature that will pop up as a message if one of your star players decides to come out.
“We know from a number of professionals that there have to be players who are gay but feel they don’t want to come out. I find it weird that it’s still a problem in football, so we decided to try and show people that coming out isn’t a big deal and can be a positive thing. I just think it’s crazy that in 2017 we are in a world where people can’t be themselves.”
The football community is still very fossilized when it comes to sexual orientation so the move by Sports Interactive seems like a responsible decision.