Begrebet "Brexit" (British Exit) blev taget lang tid før briterne endelig træf den chokerende beslutning at endegyldigt forlade EU. Beslutningen kan ende med at have en gigantisk effekt på udviklere baseret i landet, og nu lader det desuden til, at det også påvirker spillenes indhold.
Sådan er det i hvert fald i Football Manager 2017, dette års kapitel i den meget succesfulde serie fra Sports Interactive. Studiet er ledt af chefen Miles Jakobsen, og de besluttede sig for i denne omgang at inkludere en Brexit-simluation i deres spil, da aktiveringen af den såkaldte Artikel 50 vil have store konsekvenser for britiske og europæiske fodboldhold.
"We were left with an interesting situation this year when the people of Britain voted to leave the EU and it wouldn't have felt right to leave that out," forklarer Jakobsen til The Telegraph. "It's something we had to reflect on in the game, so we sat down with the research guys and started to plan how we might put it in."
Det viste sig at være en svær ting at simulere, men de arbejdede hårdt:
"Of course, none of us know what will happen. [...] Six weeks ago I would have predicted a soft Brexit, but after the Conservative Party conference a hard Brexit is much more likely"
Han fortsætter:
"We know Article 50 will be invoked before the end of March, but we don't know how long negotiations are going to take. They could take two years but there could be a general election within that time. There are provisions that if a deal hasn't been reached, negotiations could be extended or even scrapped."
Løsningen var et system, hvor spilleren bliver gjort opmærksom på konsekvenserne af Brexit indenfor en 10 år lang periode inde i spillet.