Final Whistle — press kit
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Updated 2026-09-06

Top-down football in the tradition of Kick Off and Sensible World of Soccer: aftertouch, one or two buttons, 860 teams.

FACT SHEET
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Title          Final Whistle
Developer      Cristiano Ruisi (Magic Studio) — one person, Italy
Publisher      Self-published
Platforms      Xbox Store and Microsoft Store (Windows) at launch. Steam and Nintendo Switch (1 and 2) to follow.
Status         Finished. Release date not announced yet.
Price          To be announced
Genre          Top-down football, arcade sports
Players        1 to 4, same screen
Languages      English, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French
Engine         Unity
Game page      https://www.magicstudio.eu/games/final-whistle/
Press contact  admin@magicstudio.eu
Community      https://discord.gg/Vv4FkUTE7m

SHORT — 50 WORDS
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Final Whistle is a top-down football game for Xbox and Windows, built by one person in the spirit of the 16-bit classics. The pitch seen from above, a ball that is never glued to your feet, and a shot you can still bend after you have hit it. 860 teams, 20,640 players, four people on the same screen.

LONG — 170 WORDS
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If you grew up on top-down football — Kick Off and Kick Off 2 on the Amiga, Sensible World of Soccer, Microprose Soccer — you already know how Final Whistle plays. One button does everything, and the game reads which one you meant; switch to two and you call your own game. Lean on the stick after the shot and the ball bends in the air. Every throw-in, corner, free kick and penalty is yours to take: nothing is played for you.

What the classics did not have is the size. 860 teams and 20,640 players across 39 club leagues and six continents, the national sides, 42 teams lifted straight out of history in the kit of their season, and twenty template teams to make into your own. Eleven attributes and 17 formations, all editable inside the game.

Play a friendly, a penalty shoot-out, a league of four to twenty-four teams or a cup with groups and two legs — up to four people on the same screen. It is not a remake, and it has no connection with any of those games: it is a new football game that plays the way those played.

FEATURES
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* Aftertouch — bend the ball after you have hit it, the way the classics did.
* One or two buttons — the game reads what you meant, or you call your own game.
* Nothing played for you — every throw-in, corner, free kick and penalty is yours.
* 860 teams, 20,640 players — 39 club leagues, the national sides, 42 historical teams, 20 template teams to fill in.
* Four on the same screen — each with a controller and a colour, together or against each other.
* A match or a whole season — friendlies, penalty shoot-outs, leagues of 4 to 24 teams, cups with groups and two legs, eight save slots.
* Editable inside the game — teams, players and all 17 formations; the originals are never lost.
* Around the ninety minutes — five surfaces, rain, snow and wind, replay of the last ten seconds, six languages, up to 4K.
* Goal replays you can share — every goal is saved for you; from the pause menu you share it and get a link and a QR code to scan with your phone. Whoever gets the link watches the goal right in the browser, with nothing to download or install.
* A replay archive — every replay you share also joins the archive, where you can watch and vote on other players' goals; from the browser you can download one as a video or a GIF, ready to send anywhere.

NUMBERS
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Teams                860      (20 of them empty templates to fill in)
Players              20,640   (24 to a team)
Club leagues         39       (national sides and historical groups counted apart)
Historical teams     42       (each in the kit of its season)
Formations           17       (all editable in the game)
Attributes a player  11       (plus height and weight)
On one screen        4        (one controller each)
Languages            6        (it, en, de, es, pt, fr)

THE DEVELOPER
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Final Whistle was written by one person, alongside a day job, and it is finished: the match, the seasons, the database and the in-game editor are all there. What is left is publishing it. It is the sixth title from Magic Studio, after pool, top-down racing and a race control app for Scalextric slot cars.

DEMO
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There is a Windows demo for press and creators on itch.io. The page is password-protected because the game is not public yet: the link and the password travel together in the email. If you have landed here without one, write to admin@magicstudio.eu and you will get both.
https://magicstudioeu.itch.io/final-whistle

LINKS
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Press kit        https://www.magicstudio.eu/games/final-whistle/press/
Game page        https://www.magicstudio.eu/games/final-whistle/
Discord          https://discord.gg/Vv4FkUTE7m
Contact          admin@magicstudio.eu

Everything in this kit may be used freely in coverage of the game.
