FOOTBALL MANAGER™ 2008 ANNOUNCED WITH A HOST OF ALL NEW FEATURES
The most realistic representation of the challenging world of football is back and set to hit PC and Macintosh before Christmas 2007
LONDON (July 27th, 2007) – SEGA Europe Ltd. today announced that Football Manager™ 2008 for PC and Apple Macintosh will be in stores before Christmas 2007. Football Manager™ 2008 is the next iteration of the prize-winning Football Manager™ series developed by world respected studio Sports Interactive. The latest version of Football Manager will be fully updated for the new season and will allow players to select their favourite club or international team and guide them to glorious success by putting them through Cup matches, Leagues, European Championships and even major international tournaments, with over 5,000 playable teams from over 50 countries.
Fan feedback on the previous version of Football Manager™ was, as always, taken very seriously by the Sports Interactive team, resulting in over a hundred new features, including a brand new advisory system to help new players through the different aspects of the game. This makes Football Manager™ 2008 the most accessible Football Manager™ yet, without losing any depth for the more experienced player.
“With Football Manager™ 2008 we’re once again raising the bar in the sports management genre.” commented Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of Sports Interactive. “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.”
With all-new features, improved gameplay and a depth only seen from Sports Interactive, Football Manager 2008 offers a management simulation that is second to none. To whet the appetite of every Football fan, SEGA and Sports Interactive have unveiled the key new features available in Football Manager™ 2008.
New features for Football Manager 2008 PC/Apple Macintosh Match Flow – The largest change to match-day in a Sports Interactive game since the introduction of the 2d match engine. Match flow brings more atmosphere to match-days with match previews, team talks, opposition player instructions, the match itself, half time and post match. These now seamlessly follow on from one another, with no more pausing to make tactical changes, and a mini-radar pitch whilst making those tactical changes to keep you in touch with what’s going on in the match
International Management – The international management gameplay has been completely revamped for Football Manager™ 2008, including, but not limited to, media improvements, international retirements, player interaction, international scouting, improved pool selection, captain selection and a separation of international and club morale for players.
Easier to Use – A much cleaner skin, a brand new advisor system to help players through various areas of the game. A new notes and notebook system, better button positioning for simpler navigation and an updated tutorial and manual. Also, coach reports make taking over a new team easier, and the new calendar system lists all important dates throughout the season. These all help to make Football Manager™ 2008 the easiest Sports Interactive game to use yet.
Confidence – Players can now easily tell what the board and supporters think about their performance in the game through the new confidence section. This gives players feedback not just on their current progress in competitions, but also their financial management and signings.
Transfer Centre – A new way of managing all current transfer and loan bids for a players club, both incoming and outgoing, making it easier to compare bids and reject or accept them.
Match Engine Improvements – A greatly improved match engine, once again utilising the footballing brain of former Republic of Ireland international player Ray Houghton as well as other tools used by real-life managers to make the most accurate simulation of football in a computer game. The ability to change the pitch dimensions at the start of the season to suit players styles of play better has also been added.
Awards re-write – An overhaul of the awards system inside the game which is not only more accurate now, but also includes new awards such as the European golden boot, and a “best eleven”, which shows the all-time (in game) best eleven for all teams and nations.
Finances revamp – To reflect the changes in modern day football, Sports Interactive have updated the finance area of Football Manager™ 2008 to better reflect the ever changing football world, with more information available to the manager too, including, but not limited to, corporate match day income, season ticket news, investment funds, improved sponsorships, collective win bonuses, and the ability to move around funds from the wage budget and transfer budget (and vice versa) at any point to help you in your quest for the ideal squad.
Fan days – The board can now arrange fan days to boost ailing attendances, or for matches that are likely to attract a low crowd, with a long term affect to attendances if all goes well.
Expanded media – More media and feedback than ever before, plus more detail in existing media, and a new competition news section to find out what major things are going on in all league competitions
Regenerated player photo’s – All in game generated players now have pictures using FaceGen technology to give each player more personality, and the ability for the players to be seen to grow up in front of your eyes as the game is going on.
Speedyfastier – Saving and loading is now significantly faster, with network gaming faster and smoother to play, as well as tactical changes and match reports being quicker than ever before.
Football Manager 2008 for PC (XP & Vista) and Apple Macintosh (OS10.3.9 and above) is set for release before Christmas 2007. For further information please go to
Sports Interactive - The creators of the Championship Manager series and developers of Football Manager 2005, NHL EHM and OOTP:FE or the completely re-vamped
www.footballmanager.net website. For all SEGA assets please visit
Sega PressVault .
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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
SEGA.
About Sports Interactive:
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 the 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,
Sports Interactive - The creators of the Championship Manager series and developers of Football Manager 2005, NHL EHM and OOTP:FE.
What is the actual release date of FM2008/Worldwide Soccer Manager on PC/Mac?
The game will be released before Xmas 2007. We cannot be more specific than that until the game is in manufacture.
Why no mention of Football Manager Handheld or Football Manager on Xbox 360? Those announcements will come later in the year.
Why are there no match engine screenshots? The match screen isn’t finished yet. When it is, there will be shots of it.
What are there no screenshots of non-UK teams? For licensing reasons. They will come later.
Why are all the screenshots in English? All the text is written in English, and then translated, so the non-English language text isn’t in the game yet.
Will other information be given out about the game before release? Yes – there are going to be blogs and pod casts that will give more information and more depth of information about the announced new features, and some of the smaller unannounced ones.
Why is the game only being released on XP/Vista for PC? To ensure Vista compliance, some things had to be changed that could cause problems with older operating systems. As the makers of those systems no longer offer support for them, neither do we.
Is the game being released in <insert random country name here>? If the game was released officially in your country last year, then it will be this year. We are trying to get more digital download opportunities for people based in countries where it’s not sold at retail.
Where can I buy WWSM08 in America? You will be able to get the boxed game from amazon.com, like last year
Screenshots: 
FM2008 announced with a host of new features 
Linear Mode
