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Eidos have announced that fans of the football/soccer management title Championship Manager 2010 will be able to pre-order the 2010 release for … well, for however much you’re willing to pay, actually.

The offer went live on the official CM website last week and permits downloads of the game from as little as 1p (although there’s a £2.50 GBP transaction fee, bringing the true minimum price to £2.51 GBP). This offer is good right up until the game launches on 10 September.

“This is the first time an initiative like this has ever been tried in the video games market,” says Roy Meredith, General Manager of developer Beautiful Game Studio. “This is the best Championship Manager the studio has ever made, and we want as many people as possible to try the full new game, as once they try it, we’re convinced they will come back again and again.”

You may recall that there was no 2009 release. The publisher stated that this was to ensure that the developers had the time they needed to develop and improve on the series, but it could have also be due to the fact that part of the original development team ran off and set up rival – and arguably more successful – title Football Manager in 2005. But marketing gimmick or not, there’s no denying that this unprecedented step has got people talking and players downloading a title they may not have considered buying before. Take the Blake household as a case in point; my husband hasn’t bought a Championship Manager title since 2006, preferring instead to do his nerdy sport management stuff with Football Manager and on a console rather than PC, but this has totally won him over. We’ve pre-ordered for a modest £5.00 GBP (£7.50 GBP including the transaction fee). Happy days.

Old school fans will be pleased to know that a special edition box will be available for £29.99 on traditional retail shelves on September 11, complete with additional CM Season Live updates and bonus DVDs. Pay-what-you-want customers will have to fork up another £5.00 GBP to get ahold of the CM Season Live DLC.

What do you think? A one-off marketing ploy or is this something we could see more of in years to come? What do you think would be a fair price to pay?

Source: Gamespot UK