Following the huge sales of Football Manager 2009, Sega will launch its first MMO – Football Manager Live – on January 23rd, MCV can reveal.

The game will receive a full retail launch – with the boxed product featuring four months’ subscription for £29.99. And Sports Interactive’s MD Miles Jacobson is confident this latest title can target an alternative audience to this year’s big selling FM release.

“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,” he 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.”

Jacobson also stated that Football Manager Live will be under ‘constant development’, and that Sports Interactive and Sega is keen to work with retail on future game bundles and promotions.

“The initial boxed copy is an exclusive package for retail,” continued Jacobson. “There are lots of possibilities for new packages in the long term, and Sega will continue talking to retailers from across the spectrum to find out what is working for them, and what could work for them in the future – which is the beauty of a constantly evolving game such as Football Manager Live.”