Football Manager 2014 Officially Announced, Pre-Orders Get Beta Access

Since August is in full swing, football fans don’t have long to wait for another edition of “Madden” to grace their consoles. Of course that’s American football. For the game the rest of the world calls football, the video games don’t roll out until a little later in the year, but Sports Interactive still got soccer fans pumped today by officially announcing the next “Football Manager” game for PC.

“Football Manager 2014” will once again give players a chance to try their hand at managing a team in the world’s most popular sport when it hits computers everywhere this fall. As always, a host of new features and improvements are part of the package, and Sports Interactive has already teased the following:

• Cloud saves: For the first time, players can pick up their careers from any computer no matter where they are in the world. “Football Manager 2014” is integrated with Steam as always and is playable on Linux this year.
• More realistic transfers and board interaction: The SI team added more real world contract clauses to negotiations, and opposing teams are supposed to respond to offers in more lifelike fashion. Arsenal supporters, no word on whether that means Arsene Wenger won’t actually sign anyone. And when it comes to talking to the board about your own contract status, you’ll be able to compare visions of the club and even try to get more money or job security for staying loyal if you end up a hot commodity.
• Football Manager Classic enhancements: The mode that allows you to play “Football Manager” without sacrificing things like eating and sleeping returns, but with more than three playable nations this time. Other additions include a Transfer Deadline Day fast play mode and a variety of unlockables.

That’s just scratching the surface, as SI has been working on improving the 3D match engine, overhauling the tactics system, enhancing the UI and making the news system more useful. As for a launch date? Well, the only thing the studio is saying for sure is that the game will be “out before Xmas 2013.” But if you simply can’t wait that long to get your footie fix, “Football Manager 2014” is already available for pre-order, and the incentive for doing so is getting access to the beta two weeks before the on-sale date, whenever that may be.

So what are you waiting for? As Robin Thicke would say, you know you want it, so go investigate a pre-order of “Football Manager 2014” for PC, Mac or Linux right now.