SI, Jacobson & co are a disgrace!!!

Well done the whole team at SI.

First off, you tried to make the game untouchable. To players who received it early, and to pirates. What you've done is made the game unplayable.

People who spent their hard earned on this are having just as much trouble trying to play it as the piracys. Is this an MMO game? No. A game of this nature, single player etc does NOT need steam. And besides, when we pay for a game with our money, who are you/they to tell us and dictate to us how many times we can install a game?

And what are Miles and the team doing about all these problems? Well, while you're wrestling with the installation system, they are on TalkSport!! Hey, atleast they show where their priorities lay.

It'll be the same thing next year. A video blog on YouTube with Jacobson in it, explaining what they've done and how they've countered certain problems from the last version. We hear it every single year, and every single year we get the same problems.

I've been an avid and addicted fan of the FM series and actually thought last years version was great. But on 14/11/08 FM died a very embarrassing and humiliating death.

I wonder will there be a few P45's rolling around after this?!

Must say that I have been impressed with steam but this softanchor crap is a joke! Just hope I get to play soon as we know the game will be great!!

SI didn't design the activation software on steam/softwanker (before this I have had not problems with steam). I think it's fair to assume SI, Jacobson and co are just as ****ed of as you are. They could even have grounds to sue for failure to fulfil terms of their contract. They didn't want this to happen.

I appreciate people are ****ed off here. I can tell you that we're in constant touch with Uniloc and the guys at Valve concerning the problems and we're all working on ensuring the issues are cleared up very quickly.

Marc can you answer my question?

I managed to get my keycode verified through Soft Anchor, then I played the game fine for a bit then exited and saved it. Now when I double click on the desktop icon to open it again Steam opens Soft Anchor and ask for my keycode again! I put it in and it said 'your game is already activated'

How do I play it again then?

And its 3.45pm and still not fixed...

I appreciate people are ****ed off here. I can tell you that we're in constant touch with Uniloc and the guys at Valve concerning the problems and we're all working on ensuring the issues are cleared up very quickly.

So, when will all of this be fixed? Are we talking minutes or hours? People have been waiting for MANY HOURS and the only thing You tell us is "we are working on it". I expect some more information right now. Should I wait here at my computer or can I do other boring stuff!?!?

here here! I am also an avid fan of the series, but this is just a joke!

Once all this mess gets sorted, anyone who has purchased the game on/ before it has done, should be offered a full refund, by either SI, Steam/ Sega, or SoftAnchor.

It's going to take something of this kind, or a cut price FM2010, for me to carry on buying future games.... they're going to lose more fans than pirates can make copies of the game

SI didn't design the activation software on steam/softwanker (before this I have had not problems with steam). I think it's fair to assume SI, Jacobson and co are just as ****ed of as you are. They could even have grounds to sue for failure to fulfil terms of their contract. They didn't want this to happen.

here here! I am also an avid fan of the series, but this is just a joke!

Once all this mess gets sorted, anyone who has purchased the game on/ before it has done, should be offered a full refund, by either SI, Steam/ Sega, or SoftAnchor.

It's going to take something of this kind, or a cut price FM2010, for me to carry on buying future games.... they're going to lose more fans than pirates can make copies of the game

SI didn't design the activation software on steam/softwanker (before this I have had not problems with steam). I think it's fair to assume SI, Jacobson and co are just as ****ed of as you are. They could even have grounds to sue for failure to fulfil terms of their contract. They didn't want this to happen.

It's not just SI's fault it's a joint fault of all involved in the release process SI/SEGA/STEAM. Their job together was to make sure that this did not happen as a preparation to for the game launch at which they have failed.

If SI did not want for this to happen then they should not have used the activation process simple as that, have they learned nothing on EA's blunders like Spore and it's DRM.

atleast theres a possible chance you pc lot can play it.. us mac users can't do anything without a patch!!!

It's very reminiscent of Half Life 2 release, that too was an unmitigated disaster. My genuine, heart found commiserations to those without internet connections or a phone, it is those who will be really affected by this shambles of a system.

If I did something like this at my place of work I would be sacked.

I hope the same applies here - I'm livid.

It doesn't matter whose fault it is. The point is, consumer watchdogs will be all over this and they should be offering next year's game at half price to everyone who's suffered.

It's not just SI's fault it's a joint fault of all involved in the release process SI/SEGA/STEAM. Their job together was to make sure that this did not happen as a preparation to for the game launch at which they have failed.

If SI did not want for this to happen then they should not have used the activation process simple as that, have they learned nothing on EA's blunders like Spore and it's DRM.

SI did not want problems with activation. The only fault on the part of SI could perhaps be that they didn't investigate or fully test it alongside the 3rd party companies Steam/SoftWanchor. As much as you would like to, you cannot blame them for wanting to protect against piracy.

As far as I know the spore/securom issues are different. It's different software and a different company, how were they to know that it would fail. They probably were going to go with Securom but steered clear after issues surfaced.

They paid for this software expecting it to have very few issues and at the same time protect from piracy. In the end they've cost SI their reputation and money. If you think they wanted this outcome, you are sadly mistaken my friend. The powers that be at SI wouldn't be tenting their fingers saying "excellent", they would be ****ed, asking for answers from everyone involved.

Marc can you answer my question?

I managed to get my keycode verified through Soft Anchor, then I played the game fine for a bit then exited and saved it. Now when I double click on the desktop icon to open it again Steam opens Soft Anchor and ask for my keycode again! I put it in and it said 'your game is already activated'

How do I play it again then?

Care to explain why you choose the moniker "Big Jock Knew"?

This is the fault of SI because they have failed to do their due diligence on the 3rd parties responsible for activation. This is an embarassing failure SI as a company and was the result of you turning your backs on the people that support the game.

Can you answer this - I can understand that mistakes happen from time to time but, if all games incorporated DRM measures such as these, what would that do for piracy? Do you seriously think it would decrease it?

This is a cataclysmic failure on all fronts.

And people running the OS (mac) that was luckily exempt from this stupid measure are now also effectively unable to play the game because SI haven't got the time to get the patch out, because they are too busy trying to solve their pc activation problems.

It was supposed to be imminent this morning. Are we any closer or are the mac users going to have to wait till the start of next week, being second in line?

May I say that at least they are communicating on their forums about issues, unlike other companies who produce sport games for the PC.

congrats si, i guess no pirates are playing.. But neither are the people out 50 $ from paying for the game. Dont wanna go on a rant here, but pretty p off, having bought the game and looking so much fwr to playing it today. Chose your affiliates with care!

The empathy with some people is unreal. I've read many posts with people saying "SI/SEGA are sorting it out, won't be long now. Just be patient." But...why should they? They've forked out £30 for a game that is inaccessible and when it is accessible, it'll be filled with bugs. As per ususal. An official complaint would be an acceptable and justified way to go about things.

My brother in law is a solicitor and he's informed me legal action COULD be taken on SI/SEGA for numerous things regarding the release, mainly the incorrect minimum specs which falsely advertises the game. He did say however, it probably wouldn't be worth it.

I appreciate people are ****ed off here. I can tell you that we're in constant touch with Uniloc and the guys at Valve concerning the problems and we're all working on ensuring the issues are cleared up very quickly.

The question is why did no one see this coming, I predicted a load of ****ed off people, the servers going down, people unable to play the game weeks before the release date.

All this to delay the pirates by a few days. Now all youve done is stop 28% of current customers buying the game (judging by the poll) plus there will be a knock on effect when all these people with problems wont buy the game next year and I bet not one single pirate has bought the game because of the delay.

Not exactly good business sense, is it? Invasive DRM does not work.

I appreciate people are ****ed off here. I can tell you that we're in constant touch with Uniloc and the guys at Valve concerning the problems and we're all working on ensuring the issues are cleared up very quickly.

This is a complete and utter f***ing farce. We have paid for this game and cannot play it, when we could have just as easily (more easily in fact) have pirated it and had none of the activiation issues that we are currently experiencing.

I am now getting an error suggesting that the unlock request cannot be processed and that I should visit sigames.com to get a new key. I take it this means that my installation is now screwed up after so many authorisation attempts?

Its funny because we all warned this would happen in the epic DRM , in which we were assured that it wouldnt be an issue.

So once again legitimate paying consumers get shafted by some shitty DRM system that isnt up to the demands of a big gaming release, surely SI looked at some of the other big releases that needed online activation to play, the exact same thing happened.

No excuse, you guys screwed the pootch on this one

The worse thing is there still advertising the game for people to buy lool!!

There's hundreds of threads like that.

Do You really think if You make another one, it makes something better?

No, it only slows down their process of fixing it all.

There's hundreds of threads like that.

Do You really think if You make another one, it makes something better?

No, it only slows down their process of fixing it all.

what a bag of crap this is, heads must roll....

SORT IT OUT SI!!! :@

This whole thing is a f'ing joke!!!! - if it isn't broken why fix it!!!! - you lot at si / sega and wherever you work shouldn't have jobs no longer as people have been waiting a long time for this..... You say it's fixed but softanchor is still saying i'm not connected to the internet... How the hell do you think i'm on here writing this messge!!!!

what a bag of crap this is, heads must roll....

SORT IT OUT SI!!! :@

IMO this situation is like football: how many times have we seen great players playing badly or a crap team playing like brazil?

I support SI, Miles and all the others (apart Steam), wishing them to sort it out - like they always do.

I'm not happy, but good things always take their time

SI did not want problems with activation. The only fault on the part of SI could perhaps be that they didn't investigate or fully test it alongside the 3rd party companies Steam/SoftWanchor. As much as you would like to, you cannot blame them for wanting to protect against piracy.

As far as I know the spore/securom issues are different. It's different software and a different company, how were they to know that it would fail. They probably were going to go with Securom but steered clear after issues surfaced.

They paid for this software expecting it to have very few issues and at the same time protect from piracy. In the end they've cost SI their reputation and money. If you think they wanted this outcome, you are sadly mistaken my friend. The powers that be at SI wouldn't be tenting their fingers saying "excellent", they would be ****ed, asking for answers from everyone involved.

No one is saying they wanted to cause problems. Why would they? That's silly.

This is simply negligence on their part. Negligence that ended up inconveniencing the customers. Poor decision making on SI's part is not the responsibility of paying customers. SI's expectations on how good the software would be and how much they paid for it isn't really anyone's concern other than their own - customers paid for a product and they want it to work. It's pretty simple.

And I'm aware that SI are very apologetic for this, and it should be solved sooner rather than later, however, apologies don't make up for the money people spent on the product that the box speaks of. Customers have every right to be angry at SI.

I've been a regular reading of these forums over the years. I'm also a consistant SI customer. when CM and FM first went there seperate ways i went with FM and never looked back..

but why do this?

its beyond a joke, i pre-ordered this game months in advance, fortunately I had a day off uni today so i decided to sit in and play the game when it arrives. But no.

Instead i've spent between 12 and now (roughly twenty to five) trying to install this ****ing thing.

I hope heads roll for this, its riddiclious.

I bet not one single pirate has bought the game because of the delay.

Actually I have seen quite a large number who have. Shame about the balls-up with the activation servers though.

I'm still enjoying playing with the demo too much to be in a hurry to activate, think I'll wait till the rush has died down

I appreciate people are ****ed off here. I can tell you that we're in constant touch with Uniloc and the guys at Valve concerning the problems and we're all working on ensuring the issues are cleared up very quickly.

marc its calo and leo here we helped you a while back on network play when too many players on shortlist crashed the game -

we are fans from domark days - BUT!!!!

we wish to let you know that we will be returning this game to game .com demanding a refund as we are disgusted

you finally made something worse than microsoft

why the hell did you realease it like this

well done and good bye

I;ve been attempting to install this for four bloody hours. It's unnacceptable. If I was guilty of this level of gross negligence in my job, I'd be court martialled and probably spend time in prison let alone lose my job.

Marc can you answer my question?

I managed to get my keycode verified through Soft Anchor, then I played the game fine for a bit then exited and saved it. Now when I double click on the desktop icon to open it again Steam opens Soft Anchor and ask for my keycode again! I put it in and it said 'your game is already activated'

How do I play it again then?

Same problem here!! Doing my head in, what an absolute joke!! I managed to get into the game once, then it kept crashing on "match" right before "team talk" , so not even played a damn match yet!! And now, i can't ecen get that far as it tells me i need to activate it on that Soft Anchor thing, then it says my key is in use....duh! No sh*t Sherlock!! I know it's activated....I activated it!!

Hello. Just a quickie, erm... uh-huh (throat clearing)...Grow up you pathetic bunch. I can't believe the language being used on here, anyone would think that a school exploded or something. Lets have a closer look:

Cataclysm: "a momentous and violent event marked by overwhelming upheaval and demolition". An appropriate desciption of not being able to play a computer game.

Livid: "Extremely angry; furious" An understandable reaction to not being able to play a computer game for a few hours.

Ok, so somebody has let somebody down meaning the game is unavailable but the level of vitriole by some people on here is ridiculous. Take a deep breath, step outside and listen to the birds chirping. Then come back in make a brew, have a conversation with someone and realise that hey... it's only a game, It'll probably be fixed tomorrow. Save your anger for really important things like Wigan beating your United team 3-0 at your ground with Bramble getting two of them

So many people over reacting.

how the **** can you say you're trying to fix it "very quickly"?

it has been nearly 17 hours since release. I've never had to do this with any other game, yes people pirate but they will always find a way!!

Lots of tension in here - i guess the problem will be sorted out asap, why dont people chill out, have a brew and crack one out or something!

And anyway FM died for me and many others after FM06! After this the game became to complex and the engine and player rating changed and FM 06 will always be the last game b4 it died. As far as im concerned there has been no Fm games after this and I will never buy another copy of any future fm games.

There should be an FM 06 Pact/zone/section where we can talk about the last decent version of FM. Maybe I should make one up. I will search if there one but I doubt it! FM 06 ahhhhhh, no bugs probs or issues!!! Just brill realistic play and so enjoyable!! Everyone enjoy the stresses of future fm games lool.

If Si had any sense they would bring me in as head game tester/editor and sort this game out and go back to basics!!! (As I lived in Islington as well where the game was designed and I also bought the very 1st version back in 92 Sept 1st!!! I will never forget those days lol!) Since FM 06 to many features have been brought in and ruined the game we all loved and I always knew 3d would be a disaster although u can turn that option off but I have heard the game is still delayed on match days due to 3D?

Anyway Im off to play FM 06, anyone joining me lol? In League one with Barnet after 2 succesful promotions and I havnt bought a player apart from free youth players and players who have never played pro football or who had played for Barnet in the past, so got my own little game rules to go by which make it really enjoyable!

And anyway FM died for me and many others after FM06! After this the game became to complex and the engine and player rating changed and FM 06 will always be the last game b4 it died. As far as im concerned there has been no Fm games after this and I will never buy another copy of any future fm games.

There should be an FM 06 Pact/zone/section where we can talk about the last decent version of FM. Maybe I should make one up. I will search if there one but I doubt it! FM 06 ahhhhhh, no bugs probs or issues!!! Just brill realistic play and so enjoyable!! Everyone enjoy the stresses of future fm games lool.

If Si had any sense they would bring me in as head game tester/editor and sort this game out and go back to basics!!! (As I lived in Islington as well where the game was designed and I also bought the very 1st version back in 92 Sept 1st!!! I will never forget those days lol!) Since FM 06 to many features have been brought in and ruined the game we all loved and I always knew 3d would be a disaster although u can turn that option off but I have heard the game is still delayed on match days due to 3D?

Anyway Im off to play FM 06, anyone joining me lol? In League one with Barnet after 2 succesful promotions and I havnt bought a player apart from free youth players and players who have never played pro football or who had played for Barnet in the past, so got my own little game rules to go by which make it really enjoyable!

So many people over reacting.

On this occasion I don't think people are over reacting. They are understandably very annoyed at not being able to just plug in and play something within a few minutes. I can forgive a slight delay in sorting this i.e. an hour maybe but this has been all day. It is beyond a joke now. This makes the release of CM4 look like a competent one.

What's going on here today???????

Am I the only person who got up this morning, went to the shops, bought the game, came home, installed it, applied the patch and entered my code with no problems at all????

How do we put an icon on our desktop instead of everytime we want too play it, we have too open steam?

Hello. Just a quickie, erm... uh-huh (throat clearing)...Grow up you pathetic bunch. I can't believe the language being used on here, anyone would think that a school exploded or something. Lets have a closer look:

Cataclysm: "a momentous and violent event marked by overwhelming upheaval and demolition". An appropriate desciption of not being able to play a computer game.

Livid: "Extremely angry; furious" An understandable reaction to not being able to play a computer game for a few hours.

Ok, so somebody has let somebody down meaning the game is unavailable but the level of vitriole by some people on here is ridiculous. Take a deep breath, step outside and listen to the birds chirping. Then come back in make a brew, have a conversation with someone and realise that hey... it's only a game, It'll probably be fixed tomorrow. Save your anger for really important things like Wigan beating your United team 3-0 at your ground with Bramble getting two of them

^quality post.

Okay I've got home from Uni and installed the game. Now I try to athenticate using SoftAnchor and it keeps saying unable to access the internet. Not very happy about it tbh

Is purchasing a game and not being able to play overreacting? Really? Cause that's a legal matter; you buy a good and can't enjoy it.