Premier Manager (series)

Premier Manager is the name of a football management video game series started in 1992. Published by Gremlin Interactive, it was first developed by Realms of Fantasy, later passed to Spanish company Dinamic Software. The later games are published and developed by Zoo Digital Publishing, who bought the rights from Infogrames and hired some members of the original Gremlin staff.

Premier Manager latest version is Premier Manager 12.

Games in the series

• Premier Manager is the debut game in the series for the Amiga, DOS and Atari ST platforms. Developed by Realms of Fantasy and published by Gremlin Graphics in 1992. This game allows up to 4 players to manage a team in the FA Conference League. Premier Manager was also released for the Sega Mega Drive in 1996
• Premier Manager 2 is very similar to Premier Manager. Released in 1993, it now has a maximum of 2 players. There are increased functions in this version. It was developed for the same platforms as Premier Manager. The Mega Drive version of Premier Manager is based on Premier Manager 2
• Premier Manager 3 is a refined version of Premier Manager 2. Featured full match graphics plus customisable formations. Gremlin Interactive later released the Premier Multi-Edit system, allowing players to edit the built-in player and team data. A Deluxe version was released which updated the player data to the new season. It was released on the Amiga and DOS platforms.
• Premier Manager 97 is the first game not developed by Gremlin Interactive. Development was passed on to Dinamic Software, who made the popular PC Fútbol series. The game was PC Fútbol 5 without arcade mode. For the first time, gave the player the option to coach a Premiership team from the start.
• Premier Manager 98 is just a simple update of Premier Manager 97. Bugs ironed, squads updated, and nothing more. It turned to be the last game to achieve moderate success and positive reviews in the series. Released for Windows and Sony PlayStation in 1997.
• Premier Manager: Ninety Nine was released only in Europe in 1999 for the Windows, PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Nintendo 64 version is known as Premier Manager 64. The final game in the series released by Gremlin.
• Premier Manager 2000 was developed and published by Infogrames. It was released in 1999 for the Sony PlayStation. In 2003 it was given a budget re-release by the new Premier Manager intellectual property owners Zoo Digital.
• Premier Manager 2002 to 2009. Between 2002 and 2009, seven more versions of Premier Manager were released by Zoo Digital. Each with minor graphical, interface and statistic upgrades. All were released on just the Windows and PlayStation 2 platforms only with the exception of the 2004 and 2005 versions which were released for the Game Boy Advance system as well. Because Premier Manager 2005 regarded places such as Tibet and Hong Kong as separate states, the game was banned in China by the Ministry of Culture.^[1]
• Premier Manager 12 is the current version, it is available on PC and PlayStation 3 (via PSN).

External links

• Interview with Jon Seymour; Premier Manager Executive Producer

References

1. "Ministry of Culture bans Premier Manager 2005". People's Daily Online. 2004-12-09. Retrieved 2008-03-12.