Football Manager 2010 Dated for October 30

September 18, 2009

Football Manager 2010 Dated for
October 30

Sports Interactive listen to
consumer feedback to create the best Football Manager in the series yet

Sports Interactive & SEGA of
America, Inc. today announces Football Manager 2010 formerly known as Worldwide
Soccer Manager in North America. The game will be available on multiple
platforms including the PC, Apple Macintosh and for the first time ever Football
Manager Handheld 2010 will be available via download for the PSP in North
America. The game will be available for download purchase on October 30th, 2009;
boxed editions will be available on November 2nd, 2009 exclusively at Amazon.com.

Football Manager 2009 is the most
successful in the Football Manager series to date, selling in over 1 million
copies worldwide. According to data gathered from Football Manager 2009, people
played the game for an average of 240 hours each and developer Sports
Interactive has spent the last year working closely with consumers and the
Football Manager community to implement key improvements to this year’s game.
Football Manager 2010 features new tools and changes across the board including
some big additions to improve ease of use, navigation and feedback from the game
with the introduction of a brand new match tactics system, the debut of a Match
Analysis tool, a completely new look and new User Interface among other
features.

“We have worked very hard with the
Football Manager community to target not only the areas of the game that needed
re-working but also what we could add to improve what’s already there. We’ve
also conducted extensive usability studies which has led us to overhaul the
whole presentation of the game, which we’re really excited about,” said Miles
Jacobson, Studio Director at Sports Interactive. “There has been a lot of polish
to existing areas of the game but it’s also driven us to introduce changes to
answer some of the feedback. We’re very confident that having done that we will
deliver the very best Football Manager to date in October.”

The introduction of a Tactics
Creator makes it easier to instruct the team to play the way the manager wants,
alongside the introduction of touchline ‘shouts’ and quick tactic changes for
instantly altering your team’s playing style during the match. Working with
coaches from various levels of football, alongside some of the Football Manager
communities most respected independent tacticians, the game now has an extensive
array of pre-set tactical options allowing the user to select a player’s role in
the team (such as ‘Ball winning midfielder’ or ‘Deep lying playmaker’), however
the option to use the old ‘slider’ controls remains.

Feedback from matches has been
improved to give the user better insight into where their team is going, wrong
or right. A new Match Analysis tool lets players see where shots, passes,
crosses, headers, tackles, fouls and interceptions have been made on the field
for all players on the pitch. Managers can view this analysis both live in-game
and post match, allowing them to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of both
their team and their opponent’s and adjust their tactics accordingly.

Football Manager 2010 features a
brand new User Interface, with a light or a dark skin to choose from as part of
a vibrant new look and has undergone a complete navigational overhaul. The side
bar navigation of previous years has been replaced by an intuitive tab system at
the top of the screen, making Football Manager’s famed depth easier to navigate
and will make the game more accessible to new players.

A brand new Data Editor will allow
the addition of new divisions to existing leagues and of entirely new leagues as
well as making it easier to keep the game up to date for free. The delivery of
information to the manager has been refined now allowing users to sign up to the
News Center, an in-game subscription based newspaper that lets you get the news
that you want about the football world and filter out the stories that you do
not need, making the football world as immersive as you want it to be.