Football Manager 2005 hits heady success
First reports of large sales figures filter through for Sports Interactive's first match with Sega.
Eurogamer has learnt that Football Manager 2005 has sold around 40,000 units in its first day on sale in the UK and is expected to sell at least 80,000 before the beginning of next week.
The predicted success of the game will bring much relief to both publisher Sega and the fabled British developer as this is the first game from SI since its split with longstanding publisher Eidos and the enormously successful Championship Manager brand in 2003.
While the sales are impressive and couldn't be called anything but a success, they somewhat pale into insignificance against the gargantuan release of GTA: San Andreas last week, which sold through 677,000 copies in its first day. It could be argued, conversely, that Football Manager's sales are all the more impressive after so many of its potential audience had already made a full price purchase the week before.
We'll bring you official figures next week.