One of the questions I'm asked most often is why Retro Manager doesn't include real clubs, leagues and players.

The simple answer is licensing.

The rights to use official club names, badges, kits, competitions and player names are owned by different organisations and require commercial licensing agreements. For large publishers these costs are part of doing business, but for an independent developer they're simply out of reach.

Rather than spend years chasing expensive licences, I've chosen to focus on what matters most to me: building the best football management experience I can.

Every feature added to Retro Manager—from the match engine and scouting to player development, Steam Workshop support and ongoing gameplay improvements—has been created with that goal in mind.

The fictional world also gives players something a little different. New clubs can rise, new rivalries can form, and every save develops its own history without being tied to real-world football.

For players who enjoy creating their own worlds, the Steam Workshop makes it easy to share databases, leagues and other community creations. Seeing what the community builds has been one of the most rewarding parts of developing the game.

Could Retro Manager ever feature official licences? I'd never say never, but the reality is that those licences are extremely expensive and well beyond the budget of a small independent studio.

For now, I'd much rather invest my time and resources into improving the game itself than paying for names and logos.

Thank you to everyone who has supported Retro Manager so far. Every purchase, review, suggestion and bug report helps me continue developing the game, and there's still plenty more to come.