SEGA apologises for FM 2009 problems

By Robert Purchese Published 14 November, 2008

Solution to key activation hiccup soon.

SEGA has said sorry to people having trouble activating Football Manager 2009 keys online, and is "confident that the issue will be solved today".

"SEGA is aware that there have been some problems with the activation of Football Manager 2009 today. This has been due to a combination of issues relating to the printing of keycodes and the huge demand for the game," reads a SEGA statement.

"A solution is in place and is starting to clear the problem, we are confident that the issue will be solved today. The chances of successful authentication are increasing hourly. At this point consumers still experiencing difficulties are advised to leave a 10 minute gap between authentication attempts.

"SEGA apologises for the disappointment caused by the problems with activating the game and asks for Football Manager fans to remain patient," adds SEGA.

Football Manager 2009 launches today on PC and PSP, and is the fullest, most complete instalment in the series. There are, however, some teething issues, but Sports Interactive is already rolling out patches to amend these.

Head over to our Football Manager 2009 review to find out more.

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 (42) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • Golgo #1 3 years ago

    Three cheers for broken product at full price!!!

  • TurboBailey #2 3 years ago

    hip hip

  • Chufty #3 3 years ago

    Is it me or are vast swathes of the games industry launching incomplete or broken games at the moment? What happened to QA?

  • rowsdower #4 3 years ago

    They should take a page out of EA's book and make people guess the codekeys. Footie fans are used to deciphering archaic lists of incomprehensible numbers so I'm sure plucking a unique key out of thing air wouldn't be a challenge.

  • DoctorZoidberg #5 3 years ago

    It is an absolute fucking joke. I've spent nearly an hour to get it to work now. First the CD key was a big pile of shit, with NO difference between 0's and O's... Then it went into a fuck load of steam bollocks that I didn't have (or want) Now it won't fucking authenticate!

    This has totally put me of anything by these retards. I've receipt in hand and going back to the shop tomorrow. Its absolutly fucking disgusting.

    They can apolagize all they want, but they can fuck right off.
    Edited by 1 at 14/11/08 @ 18:13

  • byron_hinson #6 3 years ago

    Don't tell me I can't install this on my pc AND my mac!

  • DoctorZoidberg #7 3 years ago

    And why is this in the Playstaion 3 section FFS

  • swede #8 3 years ago

    It's not the product thats broken. It's the security, the DRM. The sooner PC publishers get out of this business of online activation (with stupid activation limits) the better. It has been proven that it does FUCK ALL to combat piracy, and only serves to piss the geniune paying customer right off. Imagine if, when buying a DVD, you firstly had to type in a stupid code to watch it, be online to authenticate yourself, go through the whole process again if you wanted to watch it again on another player, and then find out that if you wanted to watch it on a fourth player that you had to phone some stupid call centre fucker up to beg to watch it on one more player!

    Ironically, all this time, publishers have said that piracy is killing the PC game industry. If they carry on like this with their draconian ways, THEY will kill the PC gaming industry. People will simply buy inferior, more expensive console versions and developers will simply have no financial justification to develop for the PC anymore.

  • SlipstreamDrifter #9 3 years ago

    As usual those few that are willing to support the developers and publishers get bum phukked, while the large amount who dont want to pay bum phuk the devs and publishers, its the circle of death.

  • DoctorZoidberg #10 3 years ago

    I don't give a fuck if its jesus's fault, They released a broken product and its shiter than a hundred elephants raping a monkey.

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #11 3 years ago

    That poor monkey!

  • Andee #12 3 years ago

    Was just about to make a trip to the supermarket to pick this up, but now having second thoughts. Might be best to wait till everything is sorted, hopefully via a patch to remove this drm nonsense.

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #13 3 years ago

    We told them so. All over the forums, all over the net, leading up to launch. We told them... don't put this stuff on our favourite game. I swore I'd not buy it, I caved in this morning because I love that game more than any other.

    Thanks, guys. Thanks for taking your most loyal fans at their word, thanks for the respect you've afforded us, thanks for the day off work I've now wasted.

    You told them so, but they didn't believe you, because you were bullshitting and a weakling. Have you learned a lesson? I'm betting no.

  • spacenugget #14 3 years ago

    DRM that stands for digital rights management no??
    Im pretty sure passing my cash over the counter gives me the right to use the product in anyway I see fit, once Im not selling it for profit, copying it, or using it for the wrong purpose.
    I just want to fu*king play the game!!!
    We need the return of the SNES and Megadrice days... you bought a cart. and that was it. One hard, real life product that was gone if you sold it or broke it. Piracy would just be the dodgy guys at markets I never trusted anyway instead of this shite.

  • byron_hinson #15 3 years ago

    Oh well - back to Football Manager Live!

  • Aliemx #16 3 years ago

    I am totally fucked off! i spent 3 hours tryin to install this game before coming across such article! i did everything.. and even the help number in the booklet keeps goin to engaged.. maybe i shuld try fifa manager from now on after beein a devoted servant to da football manager/championship manager series.. ANNOYED!

  • TheMoonRat #17 3 years ago

    This whole "autentication" that some games have had now, like Bioshock, Mass Effect, Spore.... well, has a single one gone smoothly? Ever? It always ends up as one big mess that takes days to sort out.

  • spacenugget #18 3 years ago

    Link

  • oreillymj #19 3 years ago

    What's with Jap developers and all their codes?

    First Konami with MGS4, now Sega.

  • andijames #20 3 years ago

    @Spacenuget

    You may not be wrong there! The next consoles may be cartridge based again. With memory getting so cheap you could easily what a couple of GB on a card and play the game from that alone.

    We shall see

    PS: Lets not hope for the turok 64 days where games are 70 quid thou!

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #21 3 years ago

    Well, next time I make a last-minute decision to put my hopes before my cynicism

    You've met the videogames industry before, right?

  • Law07 #22 3 years ago

    LOL people slightly overreacting here, everyone knows to wait about a week after a PC game comes out to actually PLAY it.

    And also why is this in the PS3 section? It doesn't fail all the time.
    Edited by 1 at 14/11/08 @ 22:21

  • Clive_Dunn #23 3 years ago

    Christ Stuart, salt and vinegar with that rather large chip ?

  • Jesus: Action Figure #24 3 years ago

    There's a letter in today's MCV from Sega about how this Uniloc DRM system is supposed to safeguard sales, and by not letting you authenticate it before the official release date, it theoretically stops retailers selling the game early.

    It even states at the end "By partnering with Uniloc, we are not only taking steps to review and upgrade our copy protection, but this approach also means that there will be no benefit to the consumer to source unofficial product ahead of the street date."

    Personally I've never enjoyed these types of games, but that's down to personal choice. Also, I play consoles these days so this doesn't affect me. But I've heard so many complaints off mates about DRM stuff it's not funny. One actually said he'd have been better off pirating the game, and he is the most anti-piracy bloke I've ever known.

    So, yeah, good job all.

  • Loser #25 3 years ago

    @spacenugget

    "Im pretty sure passing my cash over the counter gives me the right to use the product in anyway I see fit"

    You're kidding right? have you ever read an EULA?

  • BTBAM #26 3 years ago

    Okay, I'm not going to waste my time with this. I've been buying CM and FM since the glory days of 1997 - 2002, and this is the first time I've typed in 'Football Manager 2009' into thepiratebay. I don't know if I'm going to actually download it, but it appears to be out now on torrent sites so maybe this time my hand will be forced. I'd hate to, though. I may just not bother with it. The interminable wait during matches when going to 'tactics' put me off during the demo.

  • iBiZi #27 3 years ago

    Let the patches begin =P

  • FixedInfinity #28 3 years ago

    @ Chufty
    "Is it me or are vast swathes of the games industry launching incomplete or broken games at the moment? What happened to QA?"

    Shareholders happened.

  • menage #29 3 years ago

    Quality control has really gone out the window this year hasn't it.

  • Zomoniac #30 3 years ago

    Recall all your products. Remove all DRM. Re-release. I will be downloading a dodgy version of FM2009, having bought the last 15 versions of CM/FM, because I don't want any DRM/Spyware/Adware/whatever on my computer as punishment for paying money. When they release a DRM-free version, I'll buy it.

  • T-Bag #31 3 years ago

    Once again a pirated version works better than the retail version. When will these companies ever learn, or will they go out of business before they do. They were banging on about stopping day 1 piracy on their forums but it was on usenet early yesterday evening while people who bought it still couldn't play!

    I buy FM every year but not this time due to this ridiculous activation nonsense. Plus you can activate it 5 times or whatever so you can just get a code of one of your mates who has bought it ! good thinking!

  • Hicksy #32 3 years ago

    The irony is even if you are one of the lucky few who get through this authentication mess (i managed it with the in-box code) then the primary selling point of the 3D engine is an ABSOLUTE MESS. I turned it back to 2D after 3 games. SI games you have well and truly screwed this one up big time...

  • Dire #33 3 years ago

    I work in retail and I can't even describe the amount of hate I have for SI & SEGA at the moment. utter cocks.

  • MikkyX #34 3 years ago

    What I found most amusing about it all was the press release / forum post in which the DRM was announced, which basically amounted to:

    "We've seen all the complaints and controversy surrounding the DRM used in games like Spore, Red Alert, Bioshock and Mass Effect.....

    .....so we're going to do exactly the same thing!"

    Then all this crap on launch day - almost makes me glad I got it off Steam!

  • FarFromSane #35 3 years ago

    I was going to by this today but after reading all of this i've decided not to bother, this will be the first cm/fm i've not bought. I've bought every signle one of them released since the amiga days

  • Jigglybean #36 3 years ago

    Segas quality has been extremely poor of late.

  • Droidy #37 3 years ago

    When was the last time FM or the previous CM was released complete and not needing huge patches? Apart from all of the DRM issues, there seems to be the usual bug ridden game on release day every year - are they now perhaps under too much pressure to release an updated version every year?
    I am not sure how SI/ Sega get away with this year in year out.

  • Jigglybean #38 3 years ago

    I dont think Sega are getting away with it. The last FM only shifted 100,000 copies and I wont be buying this version. The demo was shocking and some of the bugs that date back to older versions are still there.

  • Droidy #39 3 years ago

    100,000 copies..... what were the previous years figures do you have any idea?

  • clean515 #40 3 years ago

    Nice rating

    http://ww w.amazon.co.uk/Football-Manager...

  • Buenos_Estente #41 3 years ago

    What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
    97% buy the item featured on this page:
    Football Manager 2009 (PC/Mac) (122)
    £25.99

    Only seems to be putting off 3 percent of the blighters tho!

  • Pulsar_t #42 3 years ago

    Segas quality has been extremely poor of late.

    As of late? So I guess Yakuza 2, Valkyria Chronicles, Thunder Force VI, Condemned 2: Bloodshot, Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan!, The Club, Universe at War: Earth Assault, Fantasy Zone Complete Collection, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood and Sonic Unleashed are all crap eh? They could publish better games, but every publisher sells crap. Sega happens to have a tolerable ratio of said crap. They're hardly at Midway or Atari levels.