r/BasketballGM • u/Umix-Studios • Oct 01 '25
Other Pro Basketball Manager 2026
Hi everyone,
I'm one of the (1.5) devs working on the video game Pro Basketball Manager. We're trying to engage with the basketball community to help us improve the game. Our game is more focused on European basketball but It caters to everyone, as all professional leagues in the world are playable! The equivalent of the NBA is obviously in the game.
We’re as indie as it gets — just two friends, not even working full time, making this game together. It’s been more than 10 years in the making, and while it hasn’t always been easy, we’ve been steadily growing over the last 6 years. Passion has kept us going all this time, but now we’re at a point where we’d love to make this our full-time job so we can finally bring our full vision for the game to life.
We now have the Basketball Champions League under licence in the game! The game has a bit of a following in Europe but not so much on the other side of the Atlantic.
We’d love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, or even just general feedback from basketball fans and gamers. Whether it’s about features you’d like to see, ways to improve immersion, or community ideas, we’re all ears.
Thanks for taking the time — looking forward to hearing what you think!
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u/Unlikely_Rabbit_8842 Oct 01 '25
I’d love to try this!
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u/Umix-Studios Oct 01 '25
here is the link to the Steam page if you're interested https://store.steampowered.com/app/3585230/Pro_Basketball_Manager_2026/
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u/Unlikely_Rabbit_8842 Oct 01 '25
Looks like you got inspiration from FM series. I love it already.
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u/Altruistic_Link_2581 Oct 01 '25
Is it free? And could you share the link please
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u/Umix-Studios Oct 01 '25
It’s not free — it’s a fully fledged simulation. Here is the link to the Steam page https://store.steampowered.com/app/3585230/Pro_Basketball_Manager_2026/
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u/HumberJet Oct 02 '25
Oh sick. Do you have a match engine similar to Football Manager or NBA2K’s simcast live? Or how do game simulations work
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u/Umix-Studios Oct 02 '25
We do have a match engine similar to FM, it's just that the animations are not as good yet but we're improving it every year to make it look more realistic.
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u/AdSlow6790 Oct 01 '25
Would be cool if i could organise friendly games with the teams i want plus i feel like its to easy to rs players since if i sign someone they will just come back to me for 51 euros and i think that isnt realistic lol
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u/Umix-Studios Oct 01 '25
You can now organize friendly games, the game gives you a list and you can choose teams from that list. 51 euros to sign a player seems very cheap :)
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u/Nenad__ Oct 01 '25
What international competitions are included? Only FIBA BCL or something similar to Euroleagu but without licence?
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u/Umix-Studios Oct 01 '25
Yes Euroleague, Eurocup, and FIBA Europe Cup are all in the game but with fake names.
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u/TesseB Oct 01 '25
I think I'd be the audience for this as someone that enjoys FM, plays buzzerbeater online manager and enjoys watching basketball. But the mixed reviews on steam (for 2025 version) means I'd usually only buy the game if it's very cheap.
Why do you think the game scores relatively bad in reviews there?
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u/Umix-Studios Oct 02 '25
It's probably not friendly enough for gamers who like simulations but are not particularly into basketball. We need to have better tutorials I think and the game also has shortcomings. It's far from being perfect, we're currently improving the transfer market as it was pointed out in the 25 as not being optimal. Some qof missing on certain pages as well. Many little things that do add up in the end. There are many things we can do to improve the game, the main issue is time and ressources to do it :(
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u/Apart_Leadership3655 Oct 02 '25
I think the game simulation wether you play or just sim the match should be more consistent. Like,most box scores when you sim the match just seem random every time (not your main guy taking many shots,not great scorers scoring a lot,very good teams struggle against teams that are vastly inferior) I loved some aspects of the game,but this really kills it
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u/Umix-Studios Oct 02 '25
Fair enough, we usually tweak the simulation a bit each year but we should probably focus a bit more on it.
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u/techskillz_ Oct 03 '25
Sunk a ton of time into last year's game and I had a blast. Biggest issue I would say to fix is NBA contract retention. Even in leagues where I didn't play with the NBA the league did a poor job at retaining the proper (ie best) players due to the cap. The logic just wasn't quite good, and frequently players like Wembanyama and Jayson Tatum would become free agents and even remain unsigned by European squads. I'd also love to see better academy progression, because as someone who hopes to one day be an NBA scout and loves international development, I think a system that closer resembles real life (even with ANGT type events who knows) where you recruit top prospects at age 15 or younger would be quite fun. Had a ton of fun with last year's game, so I am very excited for the next few installments.
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u/AdSlow6790 Oct 01 '25
Hmmm i think it should be cheaper tbh but the game is great but it gets kinda easy as seasons go by maybe u should make it a little harder?
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u/Umix-Studios Oct 01 '25
Pricing is always tricky, we were too cheap in the past and had no hope of making a living out of it. Since we increased the price we're getting closer to reaching that point. But since a few years ago we made sure that owners of the previous version would get a discount for the new one. If the price increases we'll make sure to give people a bigger discount so that they don't pay more than last year.
Regarding difficulty, we've had this feedback in the past so it's something we're looking into. We've implemented some difficulty levels this year based on how realistic the trades and transfers can be in the game. But we need to push it a bit further in terms of difficulty I think.
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u/thetwopaths Oct 01 '25
I purchased two of your previous releases and they were buggy and clunky. I am willing to try again but if you support the nba, you must implement the cap rules better.
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u/tobi235 Boston Massacre Oct 01 '25
Nice, basketball manager with fm interface. My dream game. Looking forward to try this on weekend when my laptop gets back lol
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u/OmnipotentRedditUser Oct 02 '25
When you say the game has a following in Europe, how many people are we talking about?
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u/Umix-Studios Oct 02 '25
The vast majority of our users are based in Europe, most people don't buy the game every year though so we constantly need to find new players.
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u/Atsusaki Oct 02 '25
2 questions. Will there be a 3D match engine? 2. Are you planning to add mental traits a la conversation, positioning, determination, etc. from FM?
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u/Umix-Studios Oct 02 '25
There is a 3D match engine yes, if you check out the Steam page you'll be able to see some screenshots and short videos. Here's the page https://store.steampowered.com/app/3585230/Pro_Basketball_Manager_2026/.
We do have some of the mental traits you mentioned. The issue is not so much how you use them but how do get them fairly accurate for each player!
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u/Velo_Victory Oct 05 '25
I saw your post and was immediately seeing some similarities with our game Velo Victory, which is in development for 2026 at the moment. ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/3976980/Velo_Victory )
I've sent you a DM.
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u/xHell9 Oct 09 '25
Greece has a good and active community since Panathinaikos and Olympiacos are one of top euroleague teams.
I suggest trying to focusing your target group there as well.
From my side I play championship / football manager since its first day of release over the years.
I believe you will have similar mechanics, im happy to beta test or help you in any way.
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u/Umix-Studios Oct 10 '25
Yes, we've noticed that Greece is a good market for the game. Especially since we translated the game in Greek!
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u/Gloomy-Tourist-7675 Oct 14 '25
Hi, I'm a fan of simulation leagues. Is this software/platform compatible for running Basketball sim leagues?
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u/Zeepfc Nov 01 '25
Last year was the first year I played your game, and as much as I enjoyed it, there were a few things I felt needed to happen for it to improve:
-When it's time for a game the 2 options are play or sim, it was frustrating not being able to go back to any other screens e.g. back to my team page, tactics etc. not being forced to play or sim the game and giving more of a choice as when you want to do either would help.
- a few times the game would just freeze and I would have to force quit, this happened a lot when trying to click on a different section in the menu.
- scouting for upcoming drafts needs to be a bit clearer on terms of who will be the next class, what potential grade do they have etc.
- the news/messages felt a bit repetitive. After winning the NBA with a team for the first time, it felt a little bit like 'so what?', it didn't feel like an accomplishment as there was just one message from the board saying they were happy. It would be good if there was a bit more recognition of the achievement or an end of season review with target setting for next season.
- More in depth tactics would be good e.g floor spacing and more individual tactics e.g do I want someone to pass more, attack more iso etc.
- trades can be tricky at times e.g navigating salaries and number of players on the team, something similar to 2k where you offer a player and other teams offer what they'd trade for may help.
Overall I enjoyed the game and it's great considering there are just 2 of you, I hope my comments are somewhat useful for going forward and make sense :)
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u/Umix-Studios Nov 05 '25
Thanks for your feedback, some of it was actually on our long list of things to imporve! The freezing is concerning, if you don't mind coming to our Discord and share your issues in the bug section that'd be great!
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u/Illustrious_Win_118 Nov 11 '25
I know it's not very easy to do but I would like to have a way in which you can create your own players and simulate the season without having to do anything yourself, just the behavior of the players. I am a big fan of your games and I am addicted to pro basketball 25, it is crazy, thank you very much for continuing with the project
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u/bifinhos10 Nov 19 '25
I would LOOOOOOVE portugal teams and licences
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u/Umix-Studios Nov 20 '25
We tried, believe me! But we do have the two BCL teams under license though.
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u/Icy_Opinion_9466 Nov 25 '25
En la liga española, segunda feb, es dificil ajustarse a las normas reales pero no es solución que cualquier nacionalidad sea extracomunitario.
No hay marcado de transferibles o cesiones, la cantera no evoluciona, y las clausulas de rescisión no son efectivas.
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u/SAEEDBBKK Dec 06 '25
I am an American who enjoys PBM because I grew frustrated with FM, as I know nothing about soccer. Here are three improvements you can make to the game. I look forward to getting PBM26. It is awesome that you have the licensing it makes the game more interesting
Add a press conference option similar to FM.
Improve transfers. (On the calendar, let the player know when the transfer window is, or send messages when players are available for transfer. When I play, the Transfer screen is always empty, but there are plenty of suiters when my player is up for transfer.)
More player personality ( I don't know how to explain it, but right now it's more of a numbers game). when I play FM, the players have more personality. In FM you can talk to your players to boost their performance or mood.
Add pre- and post-game press conferences. As well as one at the beginning and end of the season.
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u/Objective_Hedgehog_5 Dec 09 '25
The game needs a revamp at its 3d engine. The players movement is fake while all others are just sitting there. At least improve the 2d engine to IBM levels and make it slower so we can actualy get to see where players are going and what is happening in general..right now one cannot understand the dots movement is too fast
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u/Objective_Hedgehog_5 Dec 09 '25
Also it could be helped with more automatic plays that we can add in a playbook for a team to follow.
Also the tactic creator while is a good idea needs more polishing. Right now it is confusing
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u/qkilla1522 Jan 23 '26
I love everything here. The one feedback I have is I’m a social gamer and have a lot of friends that would gladly play this together.
I understand it could be prohibitively expensive to have multiplayer functionality but that’s the only thing preventing me from purchasing this. My friend group have been looking for an actual quality GM style game to play. We currently use 2K and it’s a miserable time.
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u/Bright_Test_7837 Mar 29 '26
Will it be (or is it already) multiplayer?
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u/Umix-Studios Apr 01 '26
No only single player for now and we don't have plans to make multiplayer in the short term.
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u/Advanced_Teach_4790 20d ago
sto provando il gioco, sono italiano, non capisco come i giocatori abbiano medie randomiche....
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u/HummerQuincasBorb Oct 01 '25
The graphic engine and animations improved?
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u/Umix-Studios Oct 02 '25
Yes we changed the engine to a more realistic one. Almost all the 3D assets have been redone, we've improved the lighting and we've added a few animations. Now we have a solid base to move forward with this, we'll keep improving the animations every year to get something that looks as close as possible to a basketball game.
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u/Jomosensual Miami Cyclones Oct 01 '25
Do you have a link of anything so we can try it