Tag Archives: sports interactive

Sega’s confirmed today that Football Manager 2012 will release from October 21 in the UK. In addition, a demo of the game will launch before the game hits the stores, although no date was announced for that. There’s a blog from Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson detailing the changes for this year’s title here.

Sega’s announced Football Manager 2012 will release “before Christmas” this year, exclusive to PC.

The developer Sports Interactive has highlighted the key improvements that this iteration of the series will bring along with it.

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Sega has said that its two UK-based internal developers are part of the “bedrock” of the UK games development industry.

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Sega’s announced that Football Manager 2011 is now available on iPad.

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Sega Sammy Holdings posted a profits and revenue boost for its nine months ending December 31, but confirmed Platinum’s Vanquish had fallen short of 1 million sales.

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Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson has said that there’s “still a lot of work to do” in terms of getting the games industry the recognition it deserves, both “in the business world, and in education”.

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Following news that Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours list, the developer has told VG247 that the recognition is “important” for the games industry as a whole.

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Chart-Track just confirmed that Football Manager 2011 has entered the UK chart in the top spot, while Activision’s latest Bond efforts have barely registered.

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Two demos for Football Manager 2011 are releasing on Thursday, according to PC Gamer.

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SEGA and Sports Interactive are offering a pre-order bonus for Football Manager 2011, which nets you 20 free SEGA Genesis games with your order through Steam.

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Sports Interactive has just announced Football Manager 2011, releasing a first video showing off a new “emotion engine”.

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Sports Interactive and Sega announced today that Football Manager 2010, for PC and Mac and Football Manager Handheld 2010 for PSP will release on October 30.

It features new tools and changes to improve ease of use, navigation and a brand new match tactics system, along with the debut of the Match Analysis tool.

“We have worked very hard with the Football Manager community to target not only the areas of the game that needed re-working but also what we could add to improve what’s already there,” said Miles Jacobson, Studio Director at Sports Interactive. “We’ve also conducted extensive usability studies which has led us to overhaul the whole presentation of the game, which we’re really excited about.

“There has been a lot of polish to existing areas of the game but it’s also driven us to introduce changes to answer some of the feedback. We’re very confident that having done that we will deliver the very best Football Manager to date in October.”

Good news there.

More over on CVG.

Football Manager Live is doing well and going according to plan, according to Sports Interactive’s Miles Jacobson.

So far, the game has grown to 23 game worlds with 1,000 users each. Jacobson’s pleased as punch.

“It’s going alright. The Sega ops team is being very proactive in launching new worlds when existing ones are full,” Jacobson told GI.biz.

“So it’s kind of going to plan – obviously if it was going perfectly we’d have 1 billion subscribers playing,” he joked, “and eventually 6 billion, but realistically with the economy the way it is we’re doing pretty well. We’re certainly doing well enough for SEGA to keep pushing us with more content, and certainly the flexibility of the business model is there.”

Full thing through the link.

MCV’s reporting that Football Manager Live will launch on January 23, at a cost of £30.

The retail game comes complete with a whopping four months’ free play.

“Football Manager Live is a very different game to Football Manager – imagine a cross between Football Manager, fantasy league, eBay and social networking and you’ll be just about there,” said Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson.

“We’re targeting a slightly more mass market audience than with the Football Manager series. If FM is The Times’ sports section, then FM Live is the Daily Mirror’s sports section, and is the perfect game for the lapsed FM gamer who doesn’t have the time to put into FM Live’s older brother anymore.”

More through there.

Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson has declined to remark on a 2/10 IGN US review for Football Manager 2009, saying criticism of the piece is best left to user comments.

“I’m not a reviewer and therefore don’t think it’s my place to critique critique’s, nor am I likely to be anything but biased,” he said.

“Therefore I’ll leave the comments to the people who are playing the game and are commenting on the website about the review.”

IGN US published the review on Friday, closing with: “The menus are complex and difficult to navigate, graphics are terrible, the sound is non-existent and there is no traditional gameplay to speak of. I couldn’t imagine why anybody would prefer Worldwide Soccer Manager to FIFA 09 or Pro Evolution Soccer 2009.”

IGN UK gave the game 9.1/10, saying the game “is still easily the most in-depth, enjoyable and addictive way to pretend you manage a football team.”

The fans have been less than appreciative of the American review.

“This is without a doubt the worst review in the history of the site,” said one, with another adding, “This is easily one of the most ill-informed reviews I’ve read in the last several years.”

IGN’s score has dragged the game’s Metacritic average down significantly: it now rests at 74 percent.

Sports Interactive’s Miles Jacobson just sent word that all issues with Football Manager 2009 authentication have now been resolved.

So go win a cup, or something.

Sega has apologised for activation problems with the just-released Football Manager 2009, blaming hiccups on “a combination of issues relating to the printing of keycodes and the huge demand for the game.”

“A solution is in place and is starting to clear the problem, we are confident that the issue will be solved today,” said the publisher in a statement.

“The chances of successful authentication are increasing hourly. At this point consumers still experiencing difficulties are advised to leave a 10 minute gap between authentication attempts.

“Sega apologises for the disappointment caused by the problems with activating the game and asks for Football Manager fans to remain patient.”

Just keep trying. And stop whining. They said they’re sorry.

Sega’s announced that Football Manager 2009 is gold.

The publisher also released minimum specs this afternoon. Get them after the break.

The game’s getting a demo on November 2.

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The Football Manager 2009 YouTube reveal appears to have worked. According to Sega this afternoon, more than 165,000 people have watched two videos about the new features in the latest version of the soccer management sim since they were released on Wednesday.

“It’s great to finally be able to announce the new features for the Football Manager series,” said Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson.

“Making a web TV show to do this was a bit of a gamble, but one that has definitely paid off looking at the stats we’ve seen so far, and the feedback we’ve had so far on the new features has been incredibly positive, which is exciting to see.”

Press release, and the movies in question, after the break.

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Speaking to Evo Gamer, Sports Interactive’s Miles Jacobson has confirmed that Football Manager Live is almost complete. Ish.

“We’re pretty close to finishing the first iteration now, as in the code that will be released,” he said. “The game will likely never be ‘finished’ because, like FM, there are loads of ideas for features, and we are taking a stance of ‘constant development,’ meaning that there will be new features and updates every few months for those that subscribe to the game, which will be part of the subscription.”

The MMO version of the nonsensically successful football management simulation has been in beta for many moons, so news the game is nearing a releasable form will be welcome to fans. Much more through the link, and more from Miles soon, hopefully.