We the consumers..

....who pay your wages, who support your company and development of future games, who display loyalty year after year, who recommend your products to friends and family, who spend our hard earned money on your product are mightily p***ed off.

There has been issues every year with the new game, and to an extent I can understand why this would be – I mean a game with so much detail is bound to get some things wrong. And the past releases have always been playable until the holy grail of the first patch arrives. It is saying something though that even before a game/the demo is released people are discussing when the first patch will be out there, that is how used we are to having to de-bug the game.

When I saw the youtube blurb about the new game I was amazed at just how much they would be putting into the game this year – excited and scared – I was scared at just how much this could go wrong. But not in my wildest nightmares did I think it could go this wrong. People not even getting to play the game, let alone find faults within the game – but not even install it on the first place. Basic errors that should never have happened – servers needing an update!, min specs required being given incorrectly and the printers making the activation code unreadable!

Then we were told a patch is available for the problems we (who are being used increasingly as games testers for SI/Sega/) are then told its only going to work with the full game – NOT the demo – WHY? Frightened we might see through the patch before we actually buy the game and wait a bit to see if you get the problems fixed? I want to have a demo of the game you insist is the bug free game before I invest my cash on the full version.

Despite of my reservations – I went ahead today and got a very good value retail copy from Asda. I wish I hadn’t bothered – I’m still here hours later waiting to play the game/product I paid my money for.

The goodwill of your consumers only will go far – we have put up with problems in the past because of the quality of your product in the end – but the issues of this release are far and beyond what you can expect us to put up with. You owe us guys, you really do, you need to make a gesture of goodwill to your consumers. A gesture such as giving us a period of free access to the online game perhaps?

This is an abosulute disgrace. I am totally disgusted. I have spent my hard earned cash on this game to find out i can't even play it because it won't even activate. I want answers for this. I have hard enough. I will keep trying to activate like an idiot out of nothing else but sheer desperation.

I Totally Agree With You

I Don't Think A Free Trial To FML Is Right Though, Just Get The Problem Sorted ASAP !!!

People Are Wasting There FRIDAY NIGHT Waiting To Play A Game They Paid Good Money To Play

I Expected To Get Home Today At 1.15pm And Enjoy The First Day Of FM, But Instead I Have To Wait 4 Hours And 45 Minutes For The Activation, And I'm STILL WAITING !!!

Hurry !!!

I'm the same James got back the same time and I'm furious I've even been to Tesco to try and get a refund but they wont take it back, say they've had loads! What a disgrace, will SI refund my petrol at least?

This is an abosulute disgrace. I am totally disgusted. I have spent my hard earned cash on this game to find out i can't even play it because it won't even activate. I want answers for this. I have hard enough. I will keep trying to activate like an idiot out of nothing else but sheer desperation.

Agree i've defended this game through the years but after playing the demo, i thought sod it just stick to 08 as the demo was not up to much, but saw myself once more buying the game.

Now four hours later I cannot still not play it through no fault of my own and this is an utter disgrace and could for me see the end of Football Manager as unless I get to play this shortly the game will be taken back and i'll never buy this game again.

SI should be ashamed of themselves as they have just earned god knows how much money today for a product that does not work and dont give a monkeys about the reasons why, this is a disgrace.

arrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhh!!! i want play fm, ive been waiting hours and getting more and more agitated now. im laughing but its angry laughter!!!

Right, I'm making about 80 punds an hour, took half day (4h) off for this, who at SI can I email to get my 320 pounds?

The thing that makes it worse is that there is no statement from someone high up in the organisation to tell 'us' (the customer) what is going on and what is being done to fix it.

Is it a case of they do not know what is wrong?

They wanted to annoy the piracy, but they have only annoyed their loyal customers. :confused:

I booked the day off to play this, payed £27 to play this, downloaded STEAM which is the most pointless piece of software on my laptop ever, to play this...... Im not happy

This should have been sorted before release day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apparantly the pirates have got it working now and lots of legal customers haven't, really good idea this new security system.

They suck, cant even get a server back up. They are working on this for more then 6 hours already. GG

It's a case of "lets get as much money as we can", SI have hardly been creative over the years.

Funny thing is, the pirates on on the verge of cracking this game and will no doubt be playing it before the paying customers. What a funny world we live in.

in an effort to rake in even more money from people who would download the game, they have lost themselves thousands in revenue with unhappy customers and bad word of mouth. *slow hand clap*

I Totally Agree With You

I Don't Think A Free Trial To FML Is Right Though, Just Get The Problem Sorted ASAP !!!

People Are Wasting There FRIDAY NIGHT Waiting To Play A Game They Paid Good Money To Play

I Expected To Get Home Today At 1.15pm And Enjoy The First Day Of FM, But Instead I Have To Wait 4 Hours And 45 Minutes For The Activation, And I'm STILL WAITING !!!

Hurry !!!

wow it must have taken you a while to capitalize every word.

a very good point though, they couldnt anticipate todays problems having known the release date for months- how would they ever handle sorting out free fm live trials? by the time they'd issued the trial, it would have expired!

We have already handed our money over , so are no longer of any great concern to SEGA and SI

According to SI/Sega we are just some muppets that will buy the game no matter how many bugs they release it with (injuries...) and how much **** DRM they take into the game so we cant even play it, SI went from a great company to just another EA.

i hate to inform you guys, but after searching through some quite well known torrent pages, i managed to get working cracks disableing both activation and dvd protection. the crime is yet again one step in front of the law

The goodwill and loyalty to the brand that you guys (SI) got after the split from Eidos, has in my eyes, gone. The problems and mishaps regarding player development and transfers from FM08 made me think twice about pre-ordering the game this year (something I have done since the days of CM02/03). Having seen the mayhem today, I feel I made the right decision. I'm glad a patch was made available to fix the errors that were in the Beta, and fair play to you, that is something you are fairly on the ball about and quite publicly open about. However, today I've had countless texts and calls from friends who have purchased the FM09 only to be confronted with problems, most of whom are not tech-savvy. I'm sure quite a few people will have similar problems, but will not be voicing it on here, but on school playgrounds and offices, and pubs, the same places I might add that I (and I know several other forumistas) spread the word about the split and name change a few years back. There needs to be a thorough look and debrief about what went wrong this year, as the next version could be a defining moment in the series, will the people disenfranchised with the game come back, If they don't will there be sufficient word of mouth in favour of your game following the FM09 release problems.

I end with a plea, do not turn into other games developers and put a release date first, you might not be doing that, but the increasing frequency of problems in the out of the box version of the game, give me the impression that you may well be moving slowly in that direction.

The goodwill and loyalty to the brand that you guys (SI) got after the split from Eidos, has in my eyes, gone. The problems and mishaps regarding player development and transfers from FM08 made me think twice about pre-ordering the game this year (something I have done since the days of CM02/03). Having seen the mayhem today, I feel I made the right decision. I'm glad a patch was made available to fix the errors that were in the Beta, and fair play to you, that is something you are fairly on the ball about and quite publicly open about. However, today I've had countless texts and calls from friends who have purchased the FM09 only to be confronted with problems, most of whom are not tech-savvy. I'm sure quite a few people will have similar problems, but will not be voicing it on here, but on school playgrounds and offices, and pubs, the same places I might add that I (and I know several other forumistas) spread the word about the split and name change a few years back. There needs to be a thorough look and debrief about what went wrong this year, as the next version could be a defining moment in the series, will the people disenfranchised with the game come back, If they don't will there be sufficient word of mouth in favour of your game following the FM09 release problems.

I end with a plea, do not turn into other games developers and put a release date first, you might not be doing that, but the increasing frequency of problems in the out of the box version of the game, give me the impression that you may well be moving slowly in that direction.

Get a grip people.

SI are no doubt unhappy about the problems but all this 'demanding apologies' and 'payment' is absurd. Yes, it is frustrating not to be able to play, yes, it is unfortunate, and yes, things could have been handled better. But if this is the single worse thing that has happened to you in your life (or even today) then count your lucky stars. It is a game that you will very soon be experiencing hours and hours of pleasure from. Let's please try and keep a little perspective.

By the way, I just thought I'd let everyone know that the game has been cracked and being played by pirates. :/

It had everything to go wrong, so it went wrong - I call that predictable.

This friday all europe is playing a new game thanks to sega and SI that's called Activation Game.

Unfortunatly I gave 49,99 to play FM 2009...

Playing from the first version I keep buying the on game on the first day and get fustrated.

I'm missing the old CM times when two brothers made the game I loved most.

Why since SI went to SEGA everything goes wrong year after year.

Sincerily hope this year I will learn the lesson.

this evening has been a big help to piracy the only playing the game right now.

ive been trying since 11 am to activate the game i for one will not buy this game again as long as they insist on activating it this way i will do what they have tried to stop buy a cracked copy of the bloody game never thought i would say or do something like that but 9 hours is f...ing embarrasing si

I'm kinda shocked by all the difficulties so many people are having! I purchased my boxed version this morning, got home. installed and activated it (patch included) within 10-15 mins and haven't experienced a single as regards to anything!

I'm not trying to pee off all of you having problems but I think this years release has been the best in a long time. Surely it can't just be me who's had no problems and is 100% satisfied?

me too 1000000000% happy

Another win for the pirates despite SI's best efforts, why don't they spend their time removing all the bugs?!?!

the only thing i can not understand is, why you guys didn"t get the crack. it was on and working since tha afternoon. it cancels the activation (also dvd protection, but that is king of useless for us). it saves a great deal of troubles. you could re-install and activate later, when all issues were fixed

I'm kinda shocked by all the difficulties so many people are having! I purchased my boxed version this morning, got home. installed and activated it (patch included) within 10-15 mins and haven't experienced a single as regards to anything!

I'm not trying to pee off all of you having problems but I think this years release has been the best in a long time. Surely it can't just be me who's had no problems and is 100% satisfied?

Same with me mate only my gaming experience ended when I was called into work to be told I might not have a job come mid December.

i think perhaps si should figure it out, recall the copies and send us out a game that works and doesn't need some silly steam(ing pile of ****) thing to play the game, also, why should i have to search through folders and setup divx manually and then download stuff from windows (it'd take me 3hrs for some reason), surely it should've been sorted or put on the disk in't first place

sorry if im ranting a bit there, but it's been a **** few days, guitar hero didnt arrive when it was supposed to so i thought i'd get footy manager to fill the time till it did, oh t'dear

the only thing i can not understand is, why you guys didn"t get the crack. it was on and working since tha afternoon. it cancels the activation (also dvd protection, but that is king of useless for us). it saves a great deal of troubles. you could re-install and activate later, when all issues were fixed

I went on and did that in the end but that is so pathetic that we legal customers of this game have to go and find cracks to download for the game to work, unacceptable.

totally agree with everything you have said....

SI GAMES - WE WANT ANSWERS!!!

As you can imagine, yesterday was rather hectic for SI and many of the problems were truly unforseen circumstances. The team are working on the issues as we speak and more and more people are activating their game. There were several sepearte issues that compounded the problems, all out of SI hands.

My tip to everyone is take a deep breath, count to 10, and before making a post like this in anger and frustration, make sure you have a good look around the this forum and try all the different ways people have had success in activating the game.

Thank you for your patience.