SI Gets Its Skates On

SI GETS ITS SKATES ON

Sports Interactive swaps the
football pitch for the ice rink for its first non-football release, NHLTM
Eastside Hockey Manager

June 23rd, 2004 – Sports
Interactive, the creator of the Championship Manager series, is putting its
immediate future on ice, with the announcement that NHLTM Eastside Hockey
Manager (NHLTM:EHM) will be available to the public for the first time from
Friday, July 2nd in Europe, with releases to follow in Czech Republic in August,
and the US in September. The PC version of the game will also be available as a
digital download from the 2nd July, with more details to follow in the coming
weeks.

NHLTM:EHM, a comprehensive and
absorbing simulation of professional ice hockey management, has been in
development at Sports Interactive’s Islington offices since July 2002. The game
has been crafted by a team of hockey fans led by Risto ‘Riz’ Remes, the man
behind the original Eastside Hockey Manager (first released as a ‘freeware’
download in 2000). The NHLTM:EHM team has combined its own extensive knowledge
and experience of hockey with SI’s market-leading expertise in sports management
simulation to create an ultra-realistic game that will appeal to hockey fans
across the world.

"We are exceptionally proud of NHLTM
Eastside Hockey Manager," says Miles Jacobson, Managing Director of Sports
Interactive. "It’s a remarkably detailed and exceptionally playable game which
we’re confident is going to become a ‘must have’ title for hockey fans and
management gamers the world over. We are also excited because this is our first
non-football title and will therefore open doors for us in a number of new
territories around the world."

Officially endorsed by two of
hockey’s most influential bodies, the North American-based National Hockey
LeagueTM (NHL) and the National Hockey League Players’ AssociationTM (NHLPATM),
NHLTM:EHM features a total of 18 playable leagues from 12 countries, including
multiple leagues from North America, Finland, the UK and Sweden and individual
leagues in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Norway and Slovakia.

The game allows its users to take
complete control of any one of 250 playable teams from across the globe.
Managers build and shape their roster by trading players, signing free-agents
and drafting promising youngsters, while coaching their way to success by
setting practice schedules, selecting tactics, re-negotiating contracts and
scouting for players from all over the world.

The detailed in-game engine allows
managers to follow the games via text commentary, while the post-match analysis
provides a wide range of statistics and 2D snapshots of the action, allowing
managers to analyse and improve their team’s performance.

From today, players will be able to
experience NHLTM:EHM for the first time, as a fully-functional, half-season demo
of the game has been made available for digital download from
www.sigames.com  and the new NHLTM:EHM
website www.sega-europe.com/nhlehm
, which features a wealth of information on the game and a first glimpse at the
game’s packaging, which shows the direction that artwork will be taking for all
future titles that come from the Sports Interactive and SEGA partnership.

NHLTM:EHM Features

  • All of the NHLTM teams and players
    including most player photos – managers can choose their favourite franchise
    and guide it to Stanley CupTM glory.

  • The complete world of hockey,
    featuring 18 playable leagues from across the world, incorporating more than
    250 playable teams with a database of 15,000 players, coaches and staff to
    choose from.

  • A detailed transfer system that
    allows users to buy, trade and select the world’s top players.

  • A realistic in-game engine that
    simulates a hockey match, complete with live commentary, allowing managers to
    view and analyse player ratings and statistics, a period-by-period recap and,
    of course, all-important match statistics including shots and goals.

  • Complex player personalities,
    which combine with true-to-life physical and mental attributes to determine
    how every player feels and plays throughout each match.

  • Just like real-life professional
    hockey, NHLTM:EHM uses two separate methods to allow players to move between
    teams: in North America, players are usually ‘traded’, while European leagues
    use a ‘transfer’ system similar to that used in football.

  • NHLTM:EHM exposes its managers to
    the complexities of the draft system, where (in its simplest form) newcomers
    to the league are selected by each team in reverse order to its league
    standing. This task is made a little easier by the inclusion of the
    International Scouting Service (ISS) which ranks players at three points
    during each season.

  • Managers are kept up-to-date with
    the latest happenings in all leagues (including trades, transfers, contract
    offers etc.) and are expected to respond to many of these reports.

  • Performances can be improved
    through careful use of NHLTM:EHM’s practice regimes, which can be individually
    tailored to suit the needs of individual players and entire teams.

  • Managers are responsible for
    settings team and individual tactics before the beginning of each match – and
    can then adapt these tactics through each game, if required.

NHLTM Eastside Hockey Manager will
be published in Europe by SEGA for Windows and Macintosh computers (dual-format
disc) on July 2nd 2004. The game will also be available as a digital download
(for PC only) to customers from the US and Canada from that date, with full
releases scheduled for those territories in September. A special version for the
Czech Republic will be available in August.

About Sports Interactive

Sports Interactive (SI), the creator
of the Championship Manager series, is the world’s leading developer of sports
management simulations. Founded in 1994 and based in Islington, North London, SI
has a full-time staff of 34 and employs the services of more than 2,500
part-time researchers across the globe. Five of SI’s creations are among the
UK’s Top 20 best-selling PC games of all time. The company’s future games will
be published by the global computer and video games giant, SEGA. Further
information on the company is available from its website,
www.sigames.com .

About SEGA

SEGA Europe Ltd. is the European
Publishing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA Corporation, a worldwide leader in
interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company
develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products
for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those
manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. SEGA
Europe’s web site is located at
www.sega-europe.com
.

SEGA is a registered trademark of
SEGA Corporation. Football Manager and Sports Interactive are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Sports Interactive in the UK or other countries.
Championship Manager is a registered trade mark of Eidos Interactive. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.