Sega Nerds

Fancy doing some beta testing for Sports Interactive?

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, PC. Tagged with Beta Testers, Football, Football Manager, Soccer, Sports Interactive.

If you do then you are in luck.  Sports Interactive is looking for anyone interested in their popular Football Manager franchise to join their “Dream Team” beta testers.

All you need do is post a comment on the thread over at the official Sports Interactive forums, explaining why you think you should be accepted as a tester.  The applications close Sunday January 11th, and anyone accepted will be informed on the 14th.

For full details, and the chance to apply, check here.

Review: Football Manager 2009

Posted by Graham. Filed under Europe, G, News, PC, Review. Tagged with 2009, Football Manager, Mac, Sports Interactive.

Football Manager is a pretty niche product.  Football (Soccer) isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (though it’s possibly the most played team sport in the world), and even though football games sell very well, I’m sure a lot of you (Sega Nerds) don’t play them that much, and football management games are certainly even less appealing to many gamers out there.

That said, the franchise has continued to sell incredibly well year after year, so it must have something there which brings gamers back.  This is something I decided to find out with FM2009.

Sega Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009 to hit Steam

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, PC. Tagged with Football Manager, Sports Interactive, Worldwide Soccer Manager.

Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009 is set to hit the US via the digital download service, Steam with the retailer version to be exclusively sold on Amazon.com.

Better known as Football Manager 2009 in Europe, the best selling Football Manager series tends not to do quite as well in the US.  But, by teaming up with Steam, Sega is able to offer the game to a large audience at a lower production cost - which is nice.  Football Manager 2009 (in Europe) will also be available on Steam.

“Many of us at Sports Interactive have been big fans of Steam since its inception, so to be working with them properly this year across releases of Worldwide Soccer Manager on the PC is fantastic” said Miles Jacobson, studio director at Sports Interactive. “It gives us the opportunity for all of our games players to get any patches or updates that we make available quickly and easily, as well as a place for us to host any other downloads, such as demos and promotional videos, with super fast broadband speeds for download, and no issues with bandwidth, which we are hit with each time we release a demo”.

Sports Interactive announces Football Manager 2009

Posted by Graham. Filed under Europe, G, News, PC, Sony PSP, Video. Tagged with Football Manager, Sports Interactive.

Yesterday evening Sports Interactive announced the latest edition to the best selling PC franchise, Football Manager 2009.

The announcement came in the form of two Youtube videos. The first (shown above) has very little actual gameplay footage or information, but is more of a mini documentary on Sports Interactive and the Football Manager series. While not an essential watch, it is actually quite interesting.

Football Manager 2009 is being released on PC and Mac, with the PSP also recieving a stripped down version - Football Manager Handheld 2009. No main console versions announced (yet).

Check out after the break for the second (gameplay) video and more information.

Eurogamer: Football Manager Live impressions

Posted by Ryan. Filed under News, PC, Ryan. Tagged with Football Manager.

Euro gamer have a preview of Sega and Sports Interactives new game in the Football Manager series, This game is slightly different to the annual Football Manager.

This is Football Manager Live, basically it’s an MMORPG where you set up a football team and pit them against other peoples teams online while buying and selling players and doing all the other things that football managers do, what ever that is!

It’s more likely that FML will appeal to SI’s existing user base, and work for those that are already familiar with and playing online games, while serving as an entry point for those who aren’t.

 You can see the full impressions of the game HERE

Football Manager comes to Xbox 360

Posted by Graham. Filed under Europe, G, Microsoft Xbox 360, News, PC, Sony PSP. Tagged with Football Manager.

If you didn’t already know, one of Sega’s most profitable and popular franchises, is the Football Manager series, created by Sports Interactive.

Having huge success on the PC, Sega brought the popular 2007 edition of the game to home consoles.  However, until now Football Manager 2008 was only for PC/MAC and a slightly stripped down version for the PSP.  It looked as though, perhaps, Sega had second thoughts about a home console version.

But have no fear Football (Soccer) fans, Sega has now decided to release a version for the Xbox 360, with all PC features intact, updated stats to coincide with the new transfer window and PC to 360 online play!

“Football Manager 2008 on Xbox 360 gives console gamers the chance to dive into the wonderful world of football management.” commented Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of Sports Interactive Ltd. “With the same feature set to the PC version and various online modes, we hope that there is something for every Xbox 360 owner to get stuck into.”

The Xbox 360 version is set for a March 28th release. Better get the clackers, scarfs and pork-pies at the ready, for some online Football fun.

For full details, here’s the press release:

Football Manager takes down FIFA, to reach top spot

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, PC. Tagged with Football Manager, Sales Chart.

Sega and Sports Interactive have done it once again, they have broken into the number 1 position, on the multi-platform charts, with Football Manager 2008.

According to Spong, Sports Interactive now hold 7 of the Top 10 spots, for biggest launch weeks ever for a PC game, with the other three being claimed by World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, The Sims 2 and Half Life 2.  I knew that Football Manager ‘07 was one of the fastest selling, but I didn’t realise that Sports Interactive had some 5 others under its belt already.

This great news, marks a whole year since Sega have managed to reach the number 1 position, in the multi-platform charts - last hitting pole-position with Football Manager ‘07.  It also meant that Sega beat down the might of EA, knocking FIFA 2008 out of the no.1 spot.

Other noteable games FM’08 held back, include; The Orange Box (Half Life 2), Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Halo 3 and PGR4. 

In the words of Borat “Great Success!”

[Source: Spong]

Win a laptop, football shirts and copies of Football Manager 2008 - with Sky Sports

Posted by Graham. Filed under Europe, G, News, PC, Video. Tagged with Football Manager, Giveaways, Mac.

UK-based sports channel, Sky Sports have teamed up with Sega and Sports Interactive, to give away a great prize for one lucky winner, plus a copy of Football Manager 2008, for five runners up.

“To celebrate the release of FOOTBALL MANAGER 2008â„¢ for PC and Apple Macintosh, we have teamed up with SEGA and Sports Interactive to give away a fantastic Laptop, five exclusive Toffs ‘custom-made’ Football Manager shirts for 5-a-side team and a copy of Football Manager 2008. We also have five games for runners up. “

Football Manager 2008 is the next installment in the award-winning series, from Sports Interactive, and is heading to PC and Mac formats, on October 19th.

For you’re chance to win the goods, all you need do is answer a very simple question…. I’ll give you a clue, the answer is in the last paragraph you just read, and the title image…

Also, from reading the terms and conditions, the contest isn’t limited to the UK.  So you US types, who obviously love ‘Soccer,’ can also enter!  Chances are Football Manager 2008 won’t be released state-side, or will be later than in Europe, so you could be the first American holding a copy of the game… plus getting a laptop.

For full details and to enter the contest, follow the link, here.

For now, here is the official trailer for you to enjoy:

[Source: SkySports.com]

Loads of Football Manager news!

Posted by Ryan. Filed under News, Ryan. Tagged with Football Manager.

Firstly, Football manager 2008 has gone gold!

SEGA Europe Ltd. and Sports Interactive today announced that Football Managerâ„¢2008, the next iteration of the prize-winning Football Managerâ„¢ series, has gone gold.

A generously lengthy demo has been available since Sunday 30th September and is already smashing records. On its release, the demo was downloaded from its two official websites over 250,000 times in less than two days, which is more than double the amount of downloads achieved by last years demo.

GET THE DEMO HERE!

Football Manager 2008 set for Christmas release

Posted by Graham. Filed under Europe, G, News, PC. Tagged with Football Manager, Mac.

Sega has announced that Football (this is Soccer, to all you American folks) Manager 2008, the latest title to the successful, (in Europe at least), Football Manager series, will be out in stores before Christmas 2007.

Football Manager 2008 will allow players to select their favourite club, or international team, and then guide/train them to the top, by playing Cup matches, Leagues, European Championships, and major international tournaments.  The game is set to have over 5000 (!) playable teams, from more than 50 countries. (If Crystal Palace is in the list, I think I may have to lay down some money for this).

Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of Sports Interactive, had this to say on the game;

“With Football Manager 2008 we’re once again raising the bar in the sports management genre. With dozens of new small features and larger things like a complete revamp of international management and the new match flow system, we’re really looking forward to seeing the reaction from people when they get to play it on release.”

Upon developing the 2008 edition of the game, apparently, Sports Interactive took feedback from fans of the series and tried to implement the ideas thrown at them.  This leads us to the many new features the game is said to have.  According to the press release from Sports Interactive, there are meant to be over 100 new features added to latest version.  Considering the previous titles are highly acclaimed, and award-winnning games, this makes me think that the 2008 version could be the best yet.

Follow the jump, for a run down of the, extensive, ‘main’ new features list, (Don’t worry they haven’t listed 100 new features, just the key few).