Football Manager 2009 teams up with Steam

Sports Interactive have announced that for the very first time in the series, the PC version of Football Manager 2009 will use Steam. Not only will the game be sold on the servers, but all updates will be made available through the service as well, thus making life that bit easier.

Steam will also host and distribute the Football Manager 2009 game demo which will be available when it is released a couple of weeks before the release of the full game.

“Many of us at Sports Interactive have been big fans of Steam since it’s inception, so to be working with them properly this year across releases of Football Manager on the PC is fantastic,” said Miles Jacobson, studio director at Sports Interactive. “It gives us the opportunity for all of our games players to get any patches or updates that we make available quickly and easily, as well as a place for us to host any other downloads, such as demos and promotional videos, with super fast broadband speeds for download, and no issues with bandwidth, which we are hit with each time we release a demo”.

“The Football Manager 2009 team has an incredible plan to extend the product beyond launch and achieve a level of connectivity with FM 2009 players that surpasses any prior release in the category,” said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. “We’re delighted to have Steamworks selected as the vehicle to help take this legendary franchise to the next level and look forward to offering the game to the millions logging onto Steam each week.”

Football Manager 2009 is now available for pre-purchase as a PC digital download from the service, and will be available for players to play at 9AM GMT on the 14th November 2008