An free-to-play MMOG game for the PC, Football Superstars will allow players to meet within a utopian soccer-styled virtual world and take part in 3, 5, 7 and 11-a-side football matches. Players will take control of a single footballer avatar and will interact on and off the pitch living the football superstar lifestyle whilst pursuing fame, glory and success, striving to join the best clubs, compete at the highest level and progress within the game through skill and sporting prowess. The player will exist in a persistent football-themed world and be able to join or form and manage their own teams and careers whilst engaging in various leagues, competitions, events and tournaments.

Players will not only have the ability to experience the awesome speed of the PUMA v1.08 Speed Boot but also visit a virtual facsimile of London’s Carnaby Street concept store in-game, to kit their avatar out with the latest PUMA lifestyle apparel.

As if this wasn’t exciting enough, PUMA will assist you in improving your ability as a player in the game via state of the art training academies where you can learn tricks and skills from the pros.

In the game’s PUMA Training Academy, the player can train to increase their skills in order to move up through the leagues and acquire more money to spend on the products and services found in the game’s two huge towns. The Academy’s trainer will be wearing PUMA training kit, as will the player themselves. The Academy will also feature PUMA footballs, PUMA pitch side advertising hoardings, a PUMA pitch logo and a video wall. PUMA branded Dynamic Hoarding Placements enabled by IGA Worldwide’s proprietary Radial ad serving network will also be in situ around the perimeter of the 3, 5 and 7-a-side pitches available for playing matches on.

Andy Law, Head of Business Development at CyberSports, said: “We are delighted to be working with a globally recognised football brand such as PUMA. They are leading the way by providing footballers with everything they need to succeed on the pitch and now they will be doing the same on the virtual pitches of Football Superstars. With a brand like PUMA interactively involved we further blur the divide between reality and our virtual world. Association with PUMA will ensure that Football Superstars will be at the top of the league.”

Richard Callaway, Head of Sport PUMA UK comments; “We are very excited about our new partnership with Football Superstars as it provides us with a unique opportunity to communicate the brand and it’s benefits to a wider audience.”

Giuseppe Bellanca, VP Ad Sales Europe at IGA Worldwide added: “We are proud to facilitate the execution of this campaign, which aligns a leading sports brand with one of the most innovative community-based football games. With the engaging opportunities available within Football Superstars, we believe this is the first of many. This strong integration between both parties will set the standard for other brands looking to get in the game.”

The showpiece of the collaboration will be the creation of PUMA’s flagship store within the game, based on their Carnaby Street concept store in London. The store is being created to scale and will boast an unrivalled level of realism experienced in any virtual world to date it will include a number of PUMA branded items that will offer some level of player enhancement/buff, increasing skills such as strength, stamina, power and speed to aid the player in their quest to be the ultimate Football Superstar.

Once downloaded, players re-create themselves online as a footballer and then have free reign in the state of the art interactive virtual world. Players can play their way from three-a-side up to eleven-a-side matches, gaining attributes and skills in order to specialise in their chosen playing position.

Once the basic skills have been learned on the training pitch, players can choose between unranked casual games, ranked Football Superstars league matches organised by the game and player organised league matches with player manager clubs. All of which will be backed up by extensive web support from developer Monumental Games, which would include downloadable replay videos of every competitive match. All the players – with the exception of the goalkeepers – are controlled by humans, leaving it as close an experience to the real thing as you can get, with the run of play shaped by the twenty human players.

The individuals you play with and against are all of the same skill level as yourself, so your aim as in the real world - is to become a better virtual footballer. You can then play at ever higher levels and enjoy all the financial and lifestyle trappings that will inevitably follow. In simple terms, the better you play the better and more fulfilling your experience in the virtual world will be.

Players are paid for the games they play in Football Superstars currency, of which there are two types-dollars and bonds. The bonds can be bought with real money and used to purchase special privileges and items. Again, following the real world, the higher the level you play the higher your wages, all of which can then be spent in the game’s two vast virtual towns, which have the capacity to host millions of other football fans online at the same time.

Away from the pitch you can socialise in restaurants, bars and clubs and visit shops where you can buy the latest branded football equipment – which aids your progress on the pitch – and designer clothes. You can train in gyms to enhance your physical attributes, which also improves your playing skills, or flirt with the paparazzi in a bid to enhance your fame and status and gain access to the most exclusive clubs and venues.

The result of all this career and lifestyle building is the chance of that big dream transfer, on the pitch glory, off-the-pitch glamour and the opportunity to become the world’s ultimate Football Superstar.

Football Superstars, published by UK Company CyberSports, is due for release in late 2008.