The big Online Update has just been released!

We're continuing to expand the online side of Pitchside Empire, and this update was built almost entirely from your reports and feedback.

Matches now have sound, the pitch is much faster, your facility can continue to grow, and saving will no longer lock you inside the game.

Matches can now be heard

The pitch now has sounds for kicks, passes, goalkeeper saves, and goals.

Crowd ambience continues throughout the match and rises when a goal is scored before settling back down.

Every step of the countdown now has a sound, with the pitch increasing during the final seconds.

Previously, the match screen had no sound at all.

Faster online matches

The ball now feels like it is actually being kicked instead of slowly gliding across the pitch.

• In online matches, a pass has been reduced from 3.5 seconds to 1.1 seconds.
  
• An attack has been reduced from 5 seconds to 2.1 seconds.
  
• While watching the pitch, a pass has been reduced from 7.1 seconds to 1.1 seconds.
  

Match results, goal times, and final scores have not changed.

Only the visual pace of what you see on the pitch has changed.

If "Reduce Motion" is enabled, the previous pacing is preserved.

Club partnerships and stadiums

You can now sign a partnership with a league club and build a stadium at that branch.

All six requirements must be met before a partnership can be signed, and partnerships cannot be reversed once completed.

A stronger club costs less upfront but takes a larger share of matchday revenue.

A weaker club works the opposite way, with a higher upfront cost but a smaller share of your revenue.

Choosing which club to partner with is now a real strategic decision.

After building your stadium, you can also add:

• Stand expansions
  
• Club shop
  
• Broadcast booth
  

Matchday revenue now appears as a separate line in the end-of-day report.

Every branch now has its own staff and building

Every branch after your first one now requires its own staff.

Each branch separately needs:

• Manager
  
• Groundskeeper
  
• Security guard
  
• Cleaner
  
• Cook
  

Without staff, overnight maintenance will not happen, messages will pile up, and nobody will intervene in fights.

All of these situations are shown directly on the branch card.

Plots 2–8 also each have their own exclusive building:

• Industrial workshop
  
• Dockside container row
  
• Lakeside pier
  
• Turnstile entrance
  
• Highland viewing terrace
  
• Picnic area
  
• Faculty building
  

Single-plot facilities and the first 27 days of the game remain completely unchanged.

Facility Channel

You can now record and publish your matches to build your own follower base.

Recording quality depends directly on the quality of your facility.

The following factors affect your recording quality:

• Pitch level
  
• Grass condition
  
• Floodlights during evening matches
  

If you neglect your audience for too long, your follower count will begin to decrease.

You can ask teams for permission before publishing their matches.

You can still publish without asking, but doing so will reduce those teams' trust in you.

Issues reported by you

• "Save and Main Menu and Quit Game don't work. There's a line through the buttons."
  
  We found the cause.
  
  When the disk was full, saving would fail, and that error prevented the rest of the exit process from continuing.
  
  As a result, returning to the main menu, quitting the game, and even using the window close button could stop working.
  
  Saving now never prevents you from leaving the game.
  
  If saving fails, the game explains why and gives you the following options:
  
  
  • Retry
    
  • Exit anyway
    
  • Continue playing
    
  
  
  The line displayed over disabled buttons in High Contrast Mode has also been removed.
  
  
  
• "We get FPS drops when doing upgrades quickly."
  
  Purchasing the floodlight upgrade no longer freezes the scene.
  
  Worst frame time has been reduced from:
  
  
  • 442 ms → 225 ms
    
  • At low resolution: 400 ms → 84 ms
    
  
  
  The number of shader programs accumulating during a session has also been reduced from 56 to 32.
  
  
  
• "I have pitches in five regions, but the income budget is too low."
  
  Pitch construction costs now stop increasing after the 16th pitch.
  
  Late-game plots have also moved to fixed pricing.
  
  The payback period for late-game plots has been reduced from:
  
  81–103 days to 61–67 days.
  
  The first 60 days of progression remain completely unchanged.
  
  
  
• "The guy rejected 410 the first time, then I offered 410 again and he accepted."
  
  This can no longer happen.
  
  A customer's counteroffer now also counts as a rejection.
  
  If a negotiation ends without an agreement, the offered price is remembered, and the same team will continue rejecting that price for the next few days.
  
  
  
• "The items I bought disappeared even though I saved my game."
  
  We found the only source of this issue.
  
  An older save created later on the same day could silently overwrite a newer save because the day and pitch count had not changed.
  
  Older copies are now preserved first.
  
  The save slot card can also display a "A newer backup exists" warning.
  
  Before opening the save, the card now shows how many of the following are stored inside:
  
  
  • Pitches
    
  • Facilities
    
  • Equipment
    
  • Players
    
  
  

Known issue

We still have an open report on Windows where some areas may appear black after quitting and reopening the game.

We were unable to reproduce the issue during this update, so it has not been marked as resolved.

If you experience this issue, please report it through the in-game reporting system.

Your graphics card and driver information will also be included with the report.

Thank you to everyone who continues to send reports and feedback. The big Online Update has only just begun, and we'll continue improving Pitchside Empire with your feedback.