''Premier Manager 98'' 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 ...

released for the PC in 1997 and the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

the following year. It was developed by

Dinamic Multimedia Dinamic Multimedia was a Spanish software house and publisher created in 1993 which was created after the bankruptcy of Dinamic Software in 1992 by some of its former members. After having released several titles, they filed for bankruptcy in ...

and published by

Gremlin Interactive Gremlin Graphics Software Limited, later Gremlin Interactive Limited and ultimately Infogrames Studios Limited, was a British software house based in Sheffield, working mostly in the home computer market. Like many software houses established i ...

. It is the fifth game in the ''

Premier Manager ''Premier Manager'' is a series of a football management simulation video games started in 1992. Published by Gremlin Interactive, it was first developed by Realms of Fantasy, later passed to Spanish company Dinamic Multimedia. The later games ...

'' series.

Gameplay

''Premier Manager 98'' is a football management simulation game that puts the player in charge of a team of their choice from the top four English divisions (

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

to the third division, as it was known at the time) from the 1997–98 season. Players are responsible for team selection, tactics, training, player transfers, and limited financial direction, for example setting the ticket price and allocating funds to various areas of the club's operations. The game progresses on a week-to-week basis, pausing to allow players to make decisions and to watch matches. The game offers two different modes: Arcade in which allows players to control a club of their choosing, and Simulation mode in which players take on a vacant job in the lower leagues and can work their way up to manage a bigger club. In-game highlights use the same engine as for Gremlin's 1997 release '' Actua Soccer 2'', with

Barry Davies Barry George Davies MBE (born 24 October 1937) is an English retired sports commentator and television presenter. He covered a wide range of sports in a long career, primarily for the BBC. Although best known for his football commentary, Da ...

again providing commentary as he did in that release. The game is playable with the

PlayStation Mouse The PlayStation Mouse is an input device for the PlayStation that allows the player to use a mouse as a method of control in compatible games. The mouse was released in Japan on December 3, 1994, the launch date of the PlayStation. The mouse it ...

accessory.

Development

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

-based

had already worked on several titles in the genre, having developed and published the ''

PC Fútbol ''PC Fútbol'' was a series of football management simulation games developed by Spanish developers Dinamic Multimedia. It was one of the big successes in the Spanish PC market, spawning several titles from 1992 until the studio's closure in 20 ...

'' series from 1992 and developed the ''Premier Manager'' series for

since the ''97'' release. The developers enlisted the writers at ''Goal!'' magazine,

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...

editors and football fans to provide individual statistics for the players in the game's database. To mark the game's release Gremlin held a press launch with real-life football managers

Joe Kinnear Joseph Patrick Kinnear (27 December 1946 – 7 April 2024) was an Irish professional football manager and player. As a defender, Kinnear spent the majority of his career spanning ten seasons with Tottenham Hotspur and one with Brighton & H ...

Harry Redknapp Henry James Redknapp (born 2 March 1947) is an English former association football, football manager (association football), manager and player. He has previously managed AFC Bournemouth, West Ham United F.C., West Ham United, Portsmouth F.C., ...

and

Dave Bassett David Thomas Bassett (born 4 September 1944 in Stanmore) is an English football manager and a former player. Bassett won a total of seven promotions and is one of a select number of managers who took charge of over 1,000 matches. After a playi ...

Reception

The game reportedly sold 44,000 copies in its first week after release, becoming the highest selling video game in the UK in July 1998 and the fourth highest selling of the year overall. It went on to become Gremlin's most successful ever UK boxed release. Writing in '' CVG'', Steve Key awarded the PlayStation release a score of 5/5, describing it as "deeply involving" and setting a "virtually unreachable benchmark for all those that dare to dry and better it". ''Extreme PlayStation'' magazine's Saul Trewen was similarly positive, writing that "the graphics aren't great, the sound is only functional, but the gameplay, depth and addictiveness are phenomenal". The game received a score of 7/10 in '' Official PlayStation Magazine'', with reviewer Steve Faragher describing it as a "game that die-hard football management fans are going to find rather lightweight", pointing to its lack of challenge and "limited tactical options" including the inability to change tactics mid-game. ''Arcade'' magazine were critical of the PC version, commenting that while it had undergone an "accurate database update", the "imperfections that bugged PM's previous incarnation (''

Premier Manager 97 ''Premier Manager 97'' is a football management simulator video game developed by Gremlin Interactive and published by Sega for the Mega Drive in 1996. A PC Windows version was released in 1997. It is the fourth game in the ''Premier Manager'' ...

'') remain and now stick out further that

Jimmy Hill James William Thomas Hill, Order of the British Empire, OBE (22 July 1928 – 19 December 2015) was an English football in England, footballer and later a television personality. His career included almost every role in the sport, including pla ...

's chin".

References

{{Premier Manager series 1998 video games Association football management video games Dinamic Multimedia games Europe-exclusive video games Gremlin Interactive games PlayStation (console) games Premier Manager Single-player video games Video games developed in Spain Windows games 1997 video games