Sports Interactive and SEGA, the developer and publisher behind the best-selling Football Manager series, are pleased to announce the release date for this year’s game. Football Manager 2013 will be released across the world on Friday, November 2nd.

And for those fans who can’t wait until then, there’s even better news. Anyone who pre-orders this year’s game through a participating retail partner will be rewarded with something almost priceless… early access to a fully-playable version of the game.

Any fan who pre-orders (or pre-purchases) Football Manager 2013 – either boxed or as a digital download – will receive a unique code giving access to a pre-release, single-player ‘Beta’ version of the game around 14 days prior to the official launch date.

“Our fans are very good at letting us know what they want and the one thing that’s consistently at the top of their wish list is an earlier release date,” says Sports Interactive’s Studio Director Miles Jacobson. “While we can’t, strictly speaking, offer them exactly what they want, this Beta version is the next best thing… a fully playable Football Manager they can get their hands on around two weeks before the finished game hits the streets.”

The Beta version of Football Manager 13 will give access to most of the forthcoming game’s features, including the all-new Football Manager Classic mode and the short-term Challenges (for more information, go towww.footballmanager.com/features).

The Beta version will remain fully functional until Monday, November 5th, after which it will no longer be playable. However, the Beta version’s saved games will be fully compatible with the final release, so none of the player’s progress over the pre-release period will be lost.

Football Manager 2013 will be published by SEGA for Windows PC and Mac on November 2nd 2012. Further information on the game’s new and enhanced features is currently being unveiled in a series of video blogs which can be viewed on the official website, www.footballmanager.com.