Fellow virtual managers, this Christmas we have an extra reason for joy, since the highly anticipated Football Manager Live will be finally released by Sega and Sports Interactive in January next year! And since the game is both the first MMO ever released by Sega and the first FM MMO, we can only say: it’s a great start!

The game will receive a full retail launch, and if you decide to purchase the boxed product you’ll be happy to find out that it features four months of subscription for £29.99. Also, you can go for the other subscription plans which come in 3, 6 and 12 month packages.

“Football Manager Live is a very different game to Football Manager – imagine a cross between Football Manager, fantasy league, eBay and social networking and you’ll be just about there,” Miles Jacobson, Sports Interactive’s MD told MCV. “We’re targeting a slightly more mass market audience than with the Football Manager series. If FM is The Times’ sports section, then FM Live is the Daily Mirror’s sports section, and is the perfect game for the lapsed FM gamer who doesn’t have the time to put into FM Live’s older brother anymore.”

But I’m sure that for hardcore gamers that are willing to spend their daily free time in the Football Manager Live universe, the game will prove to be as exciting (if not much more) than Football Manager 2009. And since the two games will have many similarities, you can go and read our FM 2009 review to get familiarized with the game.