Football Manager MMO out this year

By Robert Purchese Published 7 October, 2008

"The game is done," says Jacobson.

Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson has said the developer will soft-launch Football Manager Live, its first stab at a touchline hairdryer MMO, later this year.

"Well, Football Manager Live will be released [in 2008], but we're not having a release day, or anything like that," Jacobson told GamesIndustry.biz.

"So this year there'll be a limited amount of game worlds launched, which are available for people to pre-order at the moment, and they should be released before the end of the year. Then there'll be a proper push on FML early next year."

Initially, three month, six month and twelve month subscriptions will be available. Retail copies are to be held back until 2009, and only English servers will exist for the time being.

This soft launch helps Jacobson and team slowly build the community and effectively continue to stress test the game, avoiding the "million different problems" of release date player stampedes.

But the game is definitely finished, said Jacobson, and paying subscribers can expect free updates every three to four months rather than expansions. The first of these patches is due in January.

"I understand what you're saying, that people might think we've just got extra people testing the game, but the game is done. So from that perspective, it's not the case," added Jacobson.

"The first version is done, and we're planning for the first update, which should be out in January - and then every few months from there. The game development team are currently working on the code for that January update."

Football Manager 2009, for PC and PSP, is also due out this year on 14th November.

Included are flashy features such as a 3D match engine and press conferences and a rewritten transfer system.

Head over to our Football Manager Live or Football Manager 2009 gamepages for more information.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (5) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • mikll #1 3 years ago

    I pre-ordered mine two months ago. And if you look on the site there are actually confirmed start dates!

    This must be an old article come on EG get up to date!!

    Always been a fan of the FM games and will be getting the single player game aswell this year.

    Woot go Fernandes group!

  • TheMoonRat #2 3 years ago

    I've pre-orderered (Lineker) - but am seriously considering cancelling it. Had been top of the current beta world for a week - but the time I spent each day playing it... an hour at lunch then couple of hours at home; just felt necessary to put in that time when perhaps I could be playing other games and getting somewhere with them! I know the game is trying to be casual friendly, but IMO, it's just not

  • hiddenranbir #3 3 years ago

    I pre-ordered then cancelled. I don't think it'll be enough to take away from 09. Think the pricing model could be cheaper for this kind of game, or slightly different.
    Edited by 1 at 07/10/08 @ 11:56

  • Collie #4 3 years ago

    The thing is, one of the pull of the FM games was to wheel and deal on the transfer market and get rid of your crap overpaid players and get in young aspiring stars for cheap and make loads of money out of them. With a MMO version, it's difficult to see how this will work. I remember playing an online football management game a few years back whilst it was in beta and it was impossible to shift your poorer players. Aside from a few star players, you were stuffed. How will it work in this game?

  • raydenvm #5 3 years ago

    There are some interesting FM 2009 features.