Dear Sports Interactive, stop rewarding the pirates!!!

My copy of Football Manager 2010 arrived in the post today, two days early! I was really excited at the prospect of getting my paws on it during a long, stressful week. So I booted up Steam and tapped in my code, eager to get it all linked up and ready to roll!

Football Manager 2010 has not yet been officially released and cannot be unlocked at this time.

So now I, a perfectly legitimate customer, have to just sit and wait for something I've been really excited over. The thought occurred that the pirates are almost certainly enjoying playing this game for free, right now, with no such restrictions, while we legitimate customers who paid good money are sitting around twiddling our thumbs for a couple of days before it unlocks in its own sweet time.

If anyone can explain how this is (a) fair or (b) good marketing strategy, I'd be most obliged, as right now I'm seriously feeling like I got a bum deal paying for this game... I just hope it's worth the wait when I finally get to play!

you can play without activating through steam just keep the disc in.

Agree completely. They treat paying customers as criminals. I have bought every copy of CM and then FM. Why make me jump through hoops when I've been nothing but a loyal customer? SEGA needs to rethink its strategy.

Don't activate it through steam, just keep the disc in the drive then you do not have to activate it.

So you can play and now you owe SI an apology

My copy of Football Manager 2010 arrived in the post today, two days early! I was really excited at the prospect of getting my paws on it during a long, stressful week. So I booted up Steam and tapped in my code, eager to get it all linked up and ready to roll!

So now I, a perfectly legitimate customer, have to just sit and wait for something I've been really excited over. The thought occurred that the pirates are almost certainly enjoying playing this game for free, right now, with no such restrictions, while we legitimate customers who paid good money are sitting around twiddling our thumbs for a couple of days before it unlocks in its own sweet time.

If anyone can explain how this is (a) fair or (b) good marketing strategy, I'd be most obliged, as right now I'm seriously feeling like I got a bum deal paying for this game... I just hope it's worth the wait when I finally get to play!

You can install it offline, I did and many other people who recieved the game early did.

I agree about the pirates thing. It's sickening when you buy a game you love with your own money and then some pirates are sitting there playing the same game you put your money into for free!

you can play without activating through steam just keep the disc in.

What he said ^

you can play without activating through steam just keep the disc in.

Yep, thats exsactly what im doing now

You are able to play the game now and then activate through Steam tomorrow. Think it is particularly unfair to suggest paying customers are being treated as criminals

I can't install offline. My laptop doesn't have a DVD-compatible drive. That's one of the reasons I use Steam - can't think of many other reasons to use it. from me.

You are able to play the game now and then activate through Steam tomorrow. Think it is particularly unfair to suggest paying customers are being treated as criminals

I agree. What a foolish post by particular individuals!

FFS. So many of these posts. It's ridiculous. Pirates aren't being rewarded and nobody can stop it happening. You have it early, you can play whenever you like, stop moaning about something SI can do nothing about.

You're hardly jumping through hoops are you. You are getting the game EARLY and you can play the game by just keeping the disk in. Id say getting the game 2 days early is pretty good for you're money

There's already a thread for DRM issues etc, please use that if you have anything pertinent to say on the subject.

Thankyou.