Football Manager 2010 Installation and DRM Decision
Hi, some of you may have seen my posts before, but if not, I'm Ben, and I'm the senior global brand manager for Football Manager at SEGA.

During the development of Football Manger 2009 we (both SEGA and SI) were committed to developing and implementing an effective and simple way to combat the piracy that has taken place on each of the Football Manager titles to date. Due to some mistakes on our part, and some malicious external acts, the method chosen to stop piracy resulted in extensive headaches and difficulty in activating and playing Football Manager 2009. This was the last thing we wanted.

As a result of those issues we have been investigating both revised and totally new anti-piracy and activation solutions for Football Manager 2010. We have not been able to find and test a solution that we can guarantee will provide purchasers of Football Manager 2010 with no issues at all.

Therefore customers that buy genuine Football Manager 2010 boxed copies will be able to play the game with no activation. Players using this route will be required to have the DVD in the drive at all times whilst playing.

People choosing to buy digitally from STEAM will receive a version of the game protected by STEAM’s standard activation and DRM and all the benefits and add –ons you get from activating with STEAM, which Miles deals with below. Activating or buying through STEAM means that you do not need to have the DVD in drive when you play following activation.

Consumers buying the PC version through other digital download partners will receive versions of the game protected by Uniloc and including DRM, containing a much improved system over the one used on FM2009 and fixes to all the common errors experienced. There is not a digital download solution that meets our criteria that is not DRM based, so as we still wanted to provide digital download versions of the game, this was the best solution.

Consumers buying the Mac version through digital download will be able to do this via our normal Mac partner, eSellerate.

Long term we remain committed to finding a solution to the piracy that we see every year with Football Manager on the PC / Mac. We will be working with our community throughout the coming year to test and gather opinion on possible solutions with the aim of finding a way of ensuring that everyone that plays Football Manager games in the future pays a fair price for the game, without hindering their enjoyment of it.

Thanks

Ben
So it's now over to me to explain the situation with the installation process of the boxed copies, stat collection and in game advertising for Football Manager 2010.

First off, installation of the PC version.

PC users will have 2 choices when installing the boxed game as Ben mentioned above.

The first is a DVD based copy protection system that requires you to have the DVD in the drive at all times whilst playing. This is something that we hadn't considered previously, as we know a lot of people listen to music when playing our games, but with music being so digitally based in the modern era, we hope it doesn't cause too many issues. With this method, there is no registration required, nor do you have to be online at any time to play the game. This method is not auto-patching, so when patches and updates are released, you will need to download them manually (we will be providing patches and updates via the BitTorrent method and any mirror sites of the file that appear).

The second is via STEAM, which is an online based system. By installing via this method, you need to be online the first time you install the game and can easily set it up to play offline in the future. By using the STEAM route, you will automatically receive any patches or updates that we provide for the game in the future (as long as you are online, of course).

There are also extra benefits this year from installing via STEAM. One of these will be a STEAM exclusive skin, which is an updated version of the FM09 skin (including tree menu) which will be available a few weeks after launch.

The second is achievements. STEAM as a platform have had achievements available for many games over the years, and we will have 60 achievements that are attainable to give you bragging rights over your mates. For those who have played the Xbox 360 releases of Football Manager in the past, you will be well aware of some of them, and I'll be giving the full run down of the achievements in a future blog.

The third is that with STEAM you can play the game on any PC that is connected online by downloading the STEAM client and logging in with your user details, with no need to take the DVD with you.


As STEAM is not available for the Mac, Mac boxed copy users will just have the one method of installing, which will require the DVD to remain in the drive whilst playing the game. Mac patches will be provided in both bittorrent and download form.


We are still partnered with IGA (in game advertising) for at least Football Manager 2010. It will (as introduced in a patch for FM2009) be possible to turn off the hyperlinks on the adverts. You will only be served adverts if you are online whilst playing the game, and the adverts only appear in situ, so are only on the advertising hoardings around the side of the pitch.

With stat collection, we have read the concerns that were brought to our attention when we spoke about this earlier in the year. We have therefore spent some time splitting off the stat collection from the other areas of the game where it was integrated, and there will be an "opt out" option in the games preferences screen.

However, we would really encourage people to allow us to collect the hardware stats that we do. It's made a massive difference to us as a dev team to be able to deliver a better gaming experience to people by being able to see our users hardware information. We're able to concentrate the functionality and compatability testing for the game much better by using these stats, which will mean that the game should play better on any system that was able to play the game last year, and make the game more compatible out of the box with some of the graphics cards that had to download files separate to the game last year to get it up and running.

Cheers

Miles