Football Manager 2012

Football Manager 2012 features similar gameplay to that of the Football Manager series. Gameplay consists of taking charge of a professional football team (the game also includes semi-professional, amateur, and international teams) as the manager. Players can sign football players to contracts, manage finances for the club, and give team talks to players. The Football Manager series is a simulation of real world management, with the player being judged on various factors by the club's AI owners and board. Football Manager 2012 added increased levels of scouting, including the amount of information a scout would bring back for in-game players. The largest new addition to the game was the ability to add or remove playable leagues from the game at the end of every season (previously, once leagues were selected, they were not able to be changed).

A demo of the game was released on Steam in association with Sky Sports HD on 6 October 2011. It provides half of a season of gameplay, which can be continued within the full purchased version. The demo is limited to only the leagues of England, Scotland, France, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Australia, which are playable as quick-starts.

Digital rights management

Football Manager 2012 is the first in the series to require the use of Steam software; this angered many thousands of fans of the series. The move means that users must activate the game online before they are able to play. Sega indicated that the change was intended to reduce piracy.

According to media review aggregator website Metacritic, Football Manager 2012 received "generally positive reviews". GameSpot said that the "ability to turn leagues off and on was a great addition". The German website 4players.de rated the game with 88% as "sehr gut" ("very good").