Official ChampMan mag in the works
You've played the game, eroded the social life, been dumped by the girlfriend - now buy the magazine!
Sports Interactive and Eidos, developer and publisher respectively of the massively successful Championship Manager series of football management games, have signed up Future Publishing to launch the Official Championship Manager Magazine - with the first issue going on sale on October 24th, priced at £5.49. The magazine, which will be edited by Mark Sutherns, has been offered unprecedented access to the development team at Sports Interactive, and issue one promises to carry the first concrete information on the highly anticipated Championship Manager 4 - along with a selection of other CM goodies on the cover-mounted CD. Although there is no definite publishing schedule for the magazine, Sports Interactive managing director Miles Jacobson is keen to emphasise that the company will be continuing to support the title throughout the development of CM4 and beyond. "It's going to be an irregular magazine, as we'll do issues of it when there is important stuff to talk about in depth, or when there is something special that we want to covermount. It's not a one off," he told GI.biz this evening. "With over three million copies in its illustrious 10-year history, Championship Manager is probably the only game with a following which can support such an ambitious publication," according to Miles. "We'll be working closely with Future Publishing to give our fans a superb collection of official magazines - with stacks of additional data available only through the magazine and on www.sigames.com." The company also plans to make all covermounted content and screenshots available through its website on the date of publication of the magazine. "This is a unique agreement for Future Games," according to James Binns, publisher of the magazine at Future. "We have had a lot of success with our licensed titles, based around hardware platforms and operating systems - we've never backed a series of games like this before. Championship Manager is a software phenomenon. We're investing heavily in the magazine and look forward to producing a quality publication treated with the love and respect its fans demand." Sports Interactive is also promising fans a major Xbox-related announcement at next week's X02 Europe event in Seville.