Sky Sports Football Manager is The Ultimate Realistic, Multi-Player Football Management Game

Sky Sports Football Manager is a massive multiplayer football management simulation game that lets thousands of people run their favourite football club from the top five English divisions, while competing against other on-line players for the coveted title of "Sky Sports Football Manager of the Year".

With Sky Sports Football Manager you can manage your favourite football team, whether it be Manchester United, Stoke City or Yeovil. Buy and Sell players, select and train them, and compete in a league against other managers - real people, not just computer artificial intelligences. Manage a real club, choosing any side from the Premiership, the Nationwide leagues or the Conference. Play with real-name footballers in proper leagues.

Sky Sports Football Manager comes complete with transfers, suspensions, injuries, promotions and accurate statistics on thousands of worldwide professional footballers. Training, transfers and tactics are extremely realistic, and the skill, ability and behaviour of your players at the start of each season are fine-tuned to match their real-life counterparts. That's where you take over…

Sky Sports Football Manager is considerably more satisfying than fantasy football type games, purely because it's more realistic. It actually gives you a taste of what it is really like to run a top team. And in line with the sport, you are joining a broad and passionate community, competing against thousands of fellow managers, experiencing the emotions, banter and glory associated with real football.

When you first play Sky Sports Football Manager you start at the entry level, Bronze 3, which is where all managers start their careers. Players gain promotion through outstanding performance as a manager, moving up to the higher Bronze and Silver Worlds and even to the elite heights of the Gold World if they are good enough.

The best managers of the season will play in the 'Gold World'. The Gold World is the top level of play within Sky Sports Football Manager and is made up of the Premiership, the Nationwide divisions 1-3 and the Vauxhall Conference - in all, 114 teams which play the exact same fixtures, on the same days, as real live matches. This is where players get to find out who really is the top manager - move over, Sir Alex!

Sky Sports Football Manager will be a subscription-based service. Versions of the game will be distributed both online and at retail. The Sky Sports Football Manager programme and the game statistics can be kept current through online updates. The game has also been specifically designed to exploit emerging wireless and digital technologies to expand players' accessibility and gaming experience.

Sky Sports is one of the biggest brands in football, delivering football to nearly 10 million viewers, while more than 5 million subscribe to Sky Digital. The brand brings an incredible endorsement in the world of football. And Sky Sports' style and pioneering coverage will be reflected in the game, lending a TV-style presentation to both look and feel.

The service, which combines a standalone program running on a PC with an integrated website for content and community operations, will launch in the UK in September. Sky Sports Football Manager will be available on a monthly subscription of £6.99. Billing, customer care and online support will be managed by N.I. Sports, with Intel providing a fully managed hosting environment.

"This joint venture brings together some of the biggest names in sport, games publishing and game development," said Fergus McGovern, Managing Director of HotGen Studios. "With Sky Sports' brand and marketing, THQ's publishing skills and HotGen's technical and design expertise, we have formed a winning team. The game is easy to use but still offers enormous depth of play, with a vibrant community of fans and players, that team managers can join by simply pressing a button on a browser."

Bernard Dugdale, General Manager of N.I. Sports said "In the past, football management games have enjoyed tremendous success - but you have never played them like this before. Our players can choose their favourite team, whether it's Manchester United or Exeter City. They play against other human players and against the computer - it's a genuinely multi-user experience where players can use their skill, knowledge and management abilities to see how good they really are at managing their club."

Tim Walsh, Senior Vice President of THQ International Ltd said, "We are excited to participate in this cutting-edge football management experience. It represents a quantum leap in gameplay and gaming technology which simply translates into more excitement for football fans and a greater challenge for game players."

Pre-registration for the game is located at www.nisports.com/prereg/