''Football Manager 2012'' is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

management

simulation video game Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...

and the ninth instalment in the ''

Football Manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

'' series developed by

Sports Interactive Sports Interactive Limited is a British video game developer based in London, best known for the ''Football Manager'' series. Founded by brothers Collyer brothers (game designers), Oliver and Paul Collyer in July 1994, the studio was acquired in ...

and published by

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

. It was released on

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

on 21 October 2011.

Gameplay

''Football Manager 2012'' features similar

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game. The term applies to both video games and Tabletop game, tabletop games. Gameplay is the connection between the player and the game, the player's overcoming of challenges, and t ...

to that of the ''Football Manager'' series. Gameplay consists of taking charge of a professional football team (the game also includes semi-professional, amateur, and international teams) as the

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. Players can sign football players to contracts, manage finances for the club, and give team talks to players. The ''Football Manager'' series is a simulation of real world management, with the player being judged on various factors by the club's AI owners and board. ''Football Manager 2012'' added increased levels of

scouting Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...

, including the amount of information a scout would bring back for in-game players. The largest new addition to the game was the ability to add or remove playable leagues from the game at the end of every season (previously, once leagues were selected, they were not able to be changed).

Release

A demo of the game was released on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

in association with Sky Sports HD on 6 October 2011. It provides half of a season of gameplay, which can be continued within the full purchased version. The demo is limited to only the leagues of England, Scotland, France, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Australia, which are playable as quick-starts.

Digital rights management

''Football Manager 2012'' is the first in the series to require the use of Steam software; this angered many thousands of fans of the series. The move means that users must activate the game online before they are able to play. Sega indicated that the change was intended to reduce piracy.

Reception

According to media

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, ''Football Manager 2012'' received "generally positive reviews". ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' said that the "ability to turn leagues off and on was a great addition".Football Manager 2012 Review
. Gamespot (19 October 2011). The German website ''4players.de'' rated the game with 88% as "sehr gut" ("very good").

References

External links

* {{authority control

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...