Sports Interactive & SEGA Europe Ltd. today announce that the PC versions of  Football Managerâ„¢ 2009 will incorporate Steamworks, a complete suite of publishing and development tools that offers PC game developers and publishers access to the game features and services available through Steam.
source:our Football Manager forums

So what is STEAM?

Basically it's an internet shop for games. You buy games via Mastercard / Visa etc and then you download the game from Steam's servers. This means that you can, as long as you know your password and nick and stuff like that, download the games you've paid for anywhere and at any time. You obviously rarely have to download your games often, but you could theoretically do this a million times if you want. This whole thing is much, much safer than having just a serial code, and even if you are setting up a new pc, it will remember the games you've bought previously and you can then download these games again or choose not to.

This is how Steam looks like:


Okay, so when you've downloaded your game, it gets installed and when the status is "100 % ready" it means that you can play the game. When it's not 100% ready it means that the system is downloading a patch for you or some game content (I doubt there will be much extra content for FM09, but we'll see). I think it's kinda nice to not have to worry about downloading patches for games, Steam does these things for you.

Steam is also much more than just installing games: you can create and join chatrooms, join clans and join friends in games and other stuff. By the way, downloading Steam costs nothing and you are never getting forced to buy a game. Some games are free too.

http://steampowered.com/

STEAM link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/10540/

TIP: Try to get someone you know in the US to send the game to you on Steam as a gift. In the US FM09 only costs $29.99 on Steam, which means that you can save quite a lot on this (the game costs $59.99 in Europe).

Steamworks will support both the retail and electronic versions of the Football Manager 2009 games giving players game updates, downloadable content, and patches. Also, players will be able to play from any PC in the world without needing their DVD copy of the game. STEAM will also host and distribute the Football Manager 2009  game demo which will be available when it is released a couple of weeks before the release of the full game.

Football Manager 2009 is now available for pre-purchase as a PC digital download from STEAM, and will be available for players to play at 09:00 GMT on the 14th November 2008. For details on availability and pricing, please visit www.footballmanager.com/buynow.

Many of us at Sports Interactive have been big fans of Steam since it’s inception, so to be working with them properly this year across releases of Football Manager on the PC is fantastic” said Miles Jacobson,  studio director at Sports Interactive. “It gives us the opportunity for all of our games players to get any patches or updates that we make available quickly and easily, as well as a place for us to host any other downloads, such as demos and promotional videos, with super fast broadband speeds for download, and no issues with bandwidth, which we are hit with each time we release a demo”.

“The Football Manager 2009 team has an incredible plan to extend the product beyond launch and achieve a level of connectivity with FM 2009 players that surpasses any prior release in the category,” said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. “We’re delighted to have Steamworks selected as the vehicle to help take this legendary franchise to the next level and look forward to offering the game  to the millions logging onto Steam each week.”

Football Manager 2009 features a vast array of all new features including, for the first time ever, a full 3D view of the world famous Football Managerâ„¢ match engine.