Football PC game fans (and when we say "football" we mean the American game, not soccer) got burned last year when EA Sports declined to release a version of Madden NFL 09 for the platform. We've been reporting since then on a new Boston-based game developer, Play Hard Sports, which was founded by a former CEO of Turbine and has hired former EA Sports and 2K Sports team members to work on their projects.

Today Play Hard announced that they have raised $8 million in additional venture capital funds to help develop their first large scale game, Play Hard Football. The company has now raised a total of $13 million since its announcement last April. The browser based game, where players take on the role of a coach/general manger of a football team and play against other people onlinem is currently taking sign-ups for people to beta test the game at its web site. The final game is expected to launch around the same time as the start of the 2009 NFL season (September).