DRM still causing FM 2009 headaches

By Robert Purchese Published 19 November, 2008

Authentication problems persist.

SEGA and Sports Interactive have said Football Manager 2009 still suffers from authentication problems, most of which are the result of new PC DRM software.

"After prolonged issues with pre-release piracy, this year SEGA and Sports Interactive decided to implement a new copy-protection system for Football Manager 2009," says the publisher in a statement.

"The incorporation of Uniloc's copy-protection system for the game has unfortunately caused a number of unexpected difficulties which SEGA would like to explain to any customers who may have experienced problems authenticating their copy of Football Manager 2009 since it launched on Friday November 14th."

The first problem was a printing hiccup with the game manuals, we're told, which resulted in characters looking similar and causing lots of confusion. They must mean characters Zippy and Bungle. [Better jokes please. - Ed]

The second problem was a DDoS attack on the authentication servers, through which the telephone authentication servers also run, thus putting both out of action. Apparently some of these phone lines are still out of order, but online authentication should be okay.

"SEGA and Sports Interactive take pride in producing the very best Football Manager year on year, and regret that this unfortunate situation has arisen," adds the statement.

"SEGA and Sports Interactive would like to unequivocally apologise to any customers who have experienced difficulties in authenticating their game, restate their desire to solve every issue encountered in the process, and enable all customers to be able to play and enjoy Football Manager 2009."

Football Manager 2009 is also available on PSP, and we reckon it's the most complete offering in the series to date. There were, however, rather a lot of teething problems, which rather dulled the performance. Head over to our Football Manager 2009 review for our full analysis.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 3 years ago

    Translation "We got fed up of pirates, so decided the people who were dedicated and honest enough to wait and buy the real thing should be royally screwed by DRM. And not one of the many ways of DRM that is unintrusive, but one that makes the game not work.
    Because, without an easy way to find the pirates, we attack the closest thing - customers!"

    I'll pass, you evil, shallow bastards.

  • DoctorZoidberg #2 3 years ago

    I play this on my iMac now. I didn't have to do any authentication or anything like that. Didn't even need to enter the hideous key on the back of the manual.

    On launch day I spent nearly an hour installing steam and trying to get it to work (edit : on my laptop), 5 mins on the mac for the install, then I was off.

    Why is the DRM thing or Steam not needed on mac. anyone know?
    Edited by 1 at 19/11/08 @ 14:33

  • MrFlump #3 3 years ago

    Couldn't authenticate my original copy that I bought.

    Got so frustrated by this i ended up searching the interwebs for a crack file for it so that I could actually play the game I paid for! Ironically, if it weren't for the pirates, i wouldn't be playing my original copy of this game.

    Just ditch the DRM. If companies release good quality software, people will buy it. If they keep chruning out dross and screwing up legitimate users with DRM issues then its hardly surprising that there is an issue with piracy on PC software.

  • PinkSpider #4 3 years ago

    Steam = drm but not arse raping drm doesent it? It's all protected and that but it also runs like a dream and has it's benefits (Steam that is).

    Also; an hour on PC?! Why. Even on my old rubbish pc it took a few minutes.

  • realworld666 Verified Lead Programmer, Fuzzy-Frog Games #5 3 years ago

    FM 2009 "has less of a chance" at Christmas No.1

  • DoctorZoidberg #6 3 years ago

    Also; an hour on PC?! Why. Even on my old rubbish pc it took a few minutes.

    Well I had to install steam which I never had, then it had to install, then it told me I had to update it (which took at least 30 minutes as it kept stopping saying steam was too busy) then I had to authenticate it, which It kept saying I was not connected to the net (which I was).

    That was more than enough to put me off. If it didn't work quickly on mac I would have taken it back.

    Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I want my games to work quickly, and properly with no faffing about. Is that to much to ask?
    Edited by 1 at 19/11/08 @ 14:46

  • rowsdower #7 3 years ago

    Ah DRM, is there anything you can't do?

    Oh yeah. Work.

  • Darren #8 3 years ago

    Normally DRM doesn't bother me but I was trying out Colin McRae DiRT on my PC with my new graphics card and I noticed that the game asked if it could install some StarForce protection drivers or whatnot to verify the disc. All appeared to be fine until I noticed error messages appearing in my Event log coinciding with each reboot and the appearance of a KernelFaultCheck in my startup programmes. Deleting it made no difference, it reappeared the next time I booted my PC up.

    Anyway, it turned out that it was the drivers that DiRT had installed that were causing the issues because one of the files was causing a serious error and crashing (even though it had no obvious effect on my PC). Reinstalling the game and repatching it to v1.22 failed to resolve it so I ended up using SC DELETE xxxxxx to remove each of the driver services and then running the StarForce uninstaller to remove them completely from my system. I then downloaded the v1.2 NoDVD crack for the game and my PC and game has been running fine ever since.

    It's this kind of thing that annoys people and drives them to piracy... I can well understand exactly *why* people hate DRM...

  • TheMoonRat #9 3 years ago

    I read on their forums that although they knew they couldn't stop pirates eventually; they at least wanted for paying customers to be able to play the game first, before the pirates.

    How ironic then, that it's actually the pirates who have been able to play it before many punters; they may not have been able to crack it as quick or before release, but these problems have meant these "headaches" are for paying customers only

  • Mike83 #10 3 years ago

    I like that they've not managed to fix the problems before the pirate version leaked.

    I had no problems authenticating mine though, thankfully.

  • NinjaWilliams #11 3 years ago

    At least FIFA Manager dont' have any of these probs, prolly superior too! lol

  • michaelius #12 3 years ago

    Haha another epic fail for DRM companies :)

  • Fleisch #13 3 years ago

    ...sigh.....just buy it through steam and stop messing about.

  • space_ace #14 3 years ago

    tards

  • TheMoonRat #15 3 years ago

    @Fleisch - Just buy it through steam? You end up paying £10 more (£35 after conversion and VAT) than if you buy it from online (shopto its £25)! Not paying 40% more for a game when I actually get less (no resale value, and no box and cd)

  • Chufty #16 3 years ago

    I really don't think the industry will sustain this new generation DRM culture. The negative stories are constantly in the specialist press and have even spilled over into the mainstream press, and it's really starting to reflect badly on the publishers.

    It's only a matter of time before they give in.

  • TheMoonRat #17 3 years ago

    @dream: yes it's digital distrubution. It's popular because it's DRM thats pretty fair. If you delete a game from your hard drive, you can redownload it at anytime for no added cost. You can goto as many pc's you like and download it there at no added cost; games are attatched to your username. No cd-checks, automatic patching are great too, and it usually works pretty well. Of course there are problems if your net goes down for some games, and there is no way to sell on games that you buy. And with all prices being in dollars and without VAT, buying straight from online can be expensive. Both Left 4 Dead and Football Manager 2009 are a full £10 cheaper buying a boxed copy from an online retailer.
    Edited by 1 at 19/11/08 @ 16:56

  • Azazel #18 3 years ago

    Steam is great.

  • PinkSpider #19 3 years ago

    "Isn't it basically a digital download system whereby you do not posses a physical copy of the game?!"

    With friends stuff and community tools.

    And if you lose your disk it does not matter. Also; when you get a new PC you can just install it and your games magically reinstall themselves :D

  • skillian #20 3 years ago

    Steam's popularity proves that people don't just moan about DRM for no reason, like some commenters on EG seem to think.

    When it's done right, we are happy to participate, but when it messes up again like here, we also have every right to complain without people like those at EA saying the protestors are 95% pirates.

    The whole situation is fucked up, and reminds me of the way the music business dealt with their piracy concerns. They are only now shaking the fog from their brains after 10 years of attacking the situation in the worst way possible.

  • JayArr #21 3 years ago

    Anyone else noticed that Miles Jacobson tends to comment on Eurogamer articles on the FM series, but hasn't been doing so now that the entries are all about how they've been screwing up?

    Similarly, SI have conveniently missed the last scheduled podcast release. The next one should be out this Friday, but I'd be surprised it it was.

  • dsmx #22 3 years ago

    So once again another company proves that pirates get the better version of a PC game because they can actually play it. Seriously though every DRM system aside from steam is a huge failure while steam is just a minor failure, surely it's time to stop DRM it plainly doesn't work and only serves to annoy people who purchase the game legitimately.

  • Sevens #23 3 years ago

    '"SEGA and Sports Interactive would like to unequivocally apologise to any customers who have experienced difficulties in authenticating their game, restate their desire to solve every issue encountered in the process, and enable all customers to be able to play and enjoy Football Manager 2009."'

    Customers, right. Pirates probably don't have that problem. Well, except those on the super tanker, perhaps.

  • Krun #24 3 years ago

    And so once again they break the retail product and make the pirate version more attractive. (slaps forehead and raises eyebrows in over dramatic way, indicating idiocy)

  • CableNut #25 3 years ago

    Anyone else noticed that Miles Jacobson tends to comment on Eurogamer articles on the FM series, but hasn't been doing so now that the entries are all about how they've been screwing up?

    Similarly, SI have conveniently missed the last scheduled podcast release. The next one should be out this Friday, but I'd be surprised it it was.

    This is due to the game just being released and Miles having to do a ton of interviews.
    I know he aint about at the minute and know he had to catch a plane today to go do some PR work.
    This could also be the reason the podcast has missed a week ;)

  • MikkyX #26 3 years ago

    Doesn't FM usually leap straight in at number 1 regardless of what else is out that week? I appreciate CoD: WaW and WotLK are stiff competition but this is Britain, we LOVE footy and it still only made number 3? DRM hurting sales or just the other two games selling stupidly well?

  • WJF #27 3 years ago

    "every DRM system aside from steam is a huge failure while steam is just a minor failure"

    Why is Steam a minor failure? I thought it was doing pretty well...

  • MikkyX #28 3 years ago

    Not when it first launched it wasn't - Steam had almost the sort of problems that are plaguing DRMed games now - authentication servers were going offline, or up and down and up and down and generally it was a bit of a headache, which was repeated when approximately every person who has Steam installed tried to play Half Life 2 about 2 seconds after it came out.

    Minor glitches aside, it's a much, MUCH better system than the mess we're all talking about here and have previously discussed with the likes of Spore. It's just a shame that exchange rates and publishers inflating the prices occasionally make Steam more expensive than boxed retail.

  • dsmx #29 3 years ago

    I was referring to the steam DRM at stopping piracy, because while steam is a good service the DRM it does use doesn't stop piracy as you can hold of any steam game on torrent sites, however steam may of converted a few people away from piracy due to it's nature at being nice to use and generally works most of the time. Now all valve have to do is say to any publisher putting games on steam can only use steam copy protection and steam will become a lot better.