FM 2011 Demo release dates confirmed

FM 2011 has gone gold, and Miles finally confirmed on his latest blog post that the release date for the demo will be 22 Oct, exactly as we have predicted. You will be able to get vanilla and strawberry versions via direct download & torrent.


However, Steam users will be able to get the strawberry version installed a day earlier. This is a clever move by Sports Interactive, in an effort to probably force more FM enthusiasts into installing the Steam client and become engaged with it, hoping more and more will be using this online platform to at least activate their copy of the game...

So, Sports interactive is releasing the demo this year in 2 phases, with strawberry on Thursday morning through Steam only, and vanilla and strawberry through direct download and torrent on Friday.

One of the reasons for this move I have already explained above, but there are more of them.

• They basically don’t have enough time to get all the different versions built and tested by Wednesday night, so had to decide whether to release them all on Friday, or split them.
• Besides, Steam is a PC and Mac distribution platform, everyone can get it via this system, it provides great download speeds, it will once again be one of the two options for installation for the boxed game (with a bunch of benefits) and is a system most of people use without an issue.
• Everyone who wanted to get the strawberry demo on Thursday could do without breaking SIgames.com & FM.com (as it happens every year), and those that were more patient, or didn’t want to use Steam for whatever reason, could still get the demo the very next day.

SI partners for the demo will be MirrorFootball in the UK, Marca in Spain, Veikkaaja in Finland and L’Equipe in France (as far as direct downloads are concerned I believe), but that does not mean that people in other countries will be unable to get the demo. Anyone in the world will be able to download the demo via Steam as soon as it goes live. We will have download mirrors here on FMScout.com for both versions on Friday anyway.

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The strawberry demo will be available in all languages (same as retail) have 12 playable leagues (also known as quickstarts):

• England
• Scotland
• France
• Spain
• Portugal
• Italy
• Norway
• Denmark
• Sweden
• Brazil
• Argentina
• Chile

The vanilla demo will feature just the English and Scottish leagues, and should be available in English language only.

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If you wish to grab the strawberry demo quickly on Thursday morning, then you should download the Steam client in advance, and then you’ll be just a couple of button clicks away from being able to grab it.