sports-interactive posts

Miles Jacobson, the studio director of the UK-based Football Manager developer Sports Interactive, has been given a huge honor this week by being names as the recepicant of the O.B.E. by the Queen. As PC Gamer reports, O.B.E. stands for Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Jacobson was given the honor for his work in the games industry.

Founded in 1997, Sports Interactive first gained fame and sales for its soccer management sim Championship Manager. In 2004 it started another rival series, Football Manager, after losing the name rights to the Championship Manager series to Eidos. Sega started publishing the Football Manager series and in 2006 acquired Sports Interactive.

If you are a Steam user you can go ahead and download the demo for Football Manager 2011 from developer Sports Interactive and publisher Sega. This is the so-called "strawberry" demo that contains 12 different leagues to play with (England, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Brazil, Argentina and Chile) in this free portion of the sports management sim.

The strawberry demo will be released to non-Steam users on Friday along with the so-called "vanilla" demo that just has two leagues, England and Scotland. Look for the full version of Football Manager 2011 to be released in the US on November 9.

As was the case last year, two demos for the upcoming management simulation Football Manager 2011 will be released by developer Sports Interactive and publisher Sega this week. According to Eurogamer the first "strawberry" demo will debut on Steam on Thursday and will feature 12 different leagues (England, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Brazil, Argentina and Chile). It will be made available to download for everyone else on Friday.

Friday also sees the release of the second "vanilla" demo, again for everyone, which just has two leagues, England and Scotland. The full version of Football Manager 2011 is still set for release on November 5 in the UK and on November 9 in the US.

The exciting world (well, exciting for some people) of pro soccer management simulations will get its latest version in just over a month. Publisher Sega just announced that Football Manager 2011 now has a solid release date of November 9 for the PC and Mac for US gamers. (UK gamers get access on November 5) As we mention earlier this month pre-orders for the game will be able to download 20 classic Sega Genesis games for free.

One of the interesting new feature additions for the new version are the links to other web sites. Players can video a match and upload it to YouTube and also post the game's achievements to their Twitter accounts. The game will support Steamworks achievements as well

Sega and Sports Interactive's Football Manager 2011 is one of many soccer/football management sim games you can buy this fall. However the publishing team at Sega is going all out to make getting their game a much bigger value. This week it was announced that pre-orders of Football Manager 2011 on Steam will net the user 20 free games.

Those 20 games will come from the two Sega Genesis Classic collections. The fact that each game included in this offer is sold separately for $2.99 each means that you will be getting free games valued for a total of close to $60 with your $39.99 pre-order of Football Manager 2011. You can see the full list of free games you will be getting after the jump:

While it's not exactly a shock since this game comes out with a new version every year, today Sega officially announced plans to publish Football Manager 2011, the latest game in the sports simulation series for the PC and Mac platforms. The game will be developed once again by Sports Interactive.

Some of the new features in this edition include a revamped training system that will allow virtual team managers to "give their team specific areas to focus on in the lead up to a match." In addition the new game will feature a way to "negotiate contracts with players in real time" with several different type of sports agents to deal with. Hey, maybe Jerry Maguire might show up to "show you the money." The game is due out before Christmas 2010.

This is the English language 'Vanilla' demo for Football Manager 2010, which features a half season of gameplay and is available for both PC and Mac. It includes the English and Scottish leagues, but with no player photos or logos, to make it easier for download. The larger 'Strawberry' demo includes all player pictures and logos, with quickstarts for the world's biggest leagues, giving players a chance to try out their skills in leagues from multiple countries. It is also multilingual.

Save game files from either versions of the demo will be compatible with the full game when it releases on October 30th.

Download Football Manager 2010 Vanilla Demo (274 MB)
Download Football Manager 2010 Vanilla Demo [Mac] (231 MB)

Download Football Manager 2010 'Strawberry' Demo (1 GB)

The long running sports sim series from Sega gets another entry in October with the release of Football Manger 2010. If you like being able to be the greatest manager in the world in the sport that is beloved everywhere (except the US) you will certainly be interested in this.

And to make it even sweeter, the Steam service has set things up that if you pre-order Football Manager 2010 you get a free Sega game. It's the arcade racing title Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast. The game, which normally sells for $9.99 on Steam, can even be given to someone else if you already happen to own the title.

In related news, Direct2Drive has cut the price of Zeno Clash down to just $7.50 until this week.

This client installs Football Manager Live, the online version of the sports management game. Users must go to the official website to sign up for a paid subscription to play.

"Football Manager Live is a brand new game from Sports Interactive, the creators of the hugely popular Football Manager series. It is a combination of Fantasy Football, Auction sites, Social Networking and the Football Manager concept all rolled into one."

Download Football Manager Live Client [Windows] (1 MB)
Download Football Manager Live Client [Mac] (2 MB)

This new patch for the football manager sim from Sports Interactive and Sega includes an updated database and incorporates all of the updates from the 9.1.0 and 9.1.1 patches

Download Football Manager 2009 v9.2.0 Patch (101 MB)
Download a Football Manager 2009 Demo
Check out all Football Manger 2009 downloads