Football Manager 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LONDON (September 4th, 2008) – Sports Interactive & SEGA Europe Ltd. yesterday announced via a video on their YouTube channel ( www.youtube.co.uk/sigames) that Football Manager™ 2009 for PC and Apple Macintosh will be released on November 14th.

Football Manager™ 2009 is set to feature a vast array of all new features including, for the first time ever, a full 3D view of the world famous Football Manager™ match engine. Football Manager™ Handheld 2009 for Sony PSP is also set for release on the same day and sees the debut of a 2D match engine for the handheld franchise.

The Football Manager™ match engine is being brought into full 3D with motion captured animations for each player, developed in conjunction with SEGA’s in-house studio, Sports R&D Division. You can now watch your matches in 3D from multiple camera angles, and can re-watch any part of the match by fast forwarding and rewinding the action using a new match time bar that flags the key moments in the game. There is also a new full screen TV view, where players can customise their match view by choosing the information they would like to view during the match, be it the latest scores or player performance stats for the match, and arranging this information onscreen using a new drag-and-drop widget system, that lets players customise their match day screen with the information that they need as a football manager.

“With the 3D view of the match engine, and dozens of animations for each player, this year is definitely one of revolution for the Football Manager™ series,” commented Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of Sports Interactive. “We always said that we wanted to make the in-game match engine fully 3D but that we wouldn’t do so until we were confident that it was technically possible, and after nearly 3 years work and with huge thanks to Sports R&D Division, it’s now here.”

Football Manager™ 2009 will also allow players to receive added help from their Assistant Manager with pre-match and in-match feedback on how the team is performing, as well as hints on how the team could play better. So if you can’t work out why your tactics aren’t working, why the opposition seem to effortlessly demolish your team, or why a new signing isn’t fulfilling his potential, having the advice of a good Assistant Manager will be an invaluable asset.

The media system has been vastly improved to provide the player with an unprecedented level of detail on what’s going on at their club and the in-game football world as a whole. Football Manager™ 2009 also sees the introduction of press conferences for the first time. Attend pre-match and post-match press conferences with local and national journalists but choose your answers carefully because they could come back to haunt you in the media at a later date!

The entire transfer system has been completely overhauled and re-written, providing an even more realistic simulation of real-life football, with the addition of transfer rumours so you can view the hottest news on what players are being speculated on, and who’s said to be interested in securing their services.

Players can be trained to learn a wide variety of ‘preferred moves’ to add to their game on the pitch that are applicable to their played position, so you can train central defenders to hold onto possession, or wingers to cut inside to bypass the full backs.

Football Manager™ 2009 allows you to play as a female manager for the very first time, so you can be the first woman to lead your favourite team to domestic and European glory. The game will also be fully updated for the new 2008/09 football season with all the latest league, club and player data, featuring over 5,000 playable clubs from over 50 countries, and around 350,000 players and staff from around the world, drawn fresh from the famous Sports Interactive database.

You can view the Football Manager 2009 announcement video now at www.youtube.co.uk/sigames where you will see footage of the new features, including the 3D match engine. Further features will be announced closer to the launch of the game in November via a series of blogs, podcasts and news stories.

Football Manager 2009 for PC and Apple Macintosh, and Football Manager Handheld 2009 for Sony PSP are both set for release on November 14th.

For further information please go to www.sigames.com or www.footballmanager.com.

About SEGA Europe Ltd.:

SEGA® Europe Ltd. is the European Distribution arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA Corporation, and a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. SEGA Europe’s web site is located at www.sega-europe.com.

About Sports Interactive Ltd.:

Sports Interactive (SI), is the world’s leading developer of football management simulations through it’s Football Manager series of games Founded in 1994 and based in the Old Street area of London, SI has a full-time staff of 44 and employs services of more than 1,500 part-time researchers across the globe. The company’s games have enjoyed an unparalleled history of commercial and critical success, with nine of its creations among the UK's Top 20 fastest-selling PC games of all time, and 4 in the UK’s top 20 best selling PC games of all time. Sports Interactive became a wholly owned subsidiary of SEGA in 2006. Further information on the company and its games is available from the SI website, www.sigames.com.

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