DRM still causing FM 2009 headaches

SEGA and Sports Interactive have said Football Manager 2009 still suffers from authentication problems, most of which are the result of new PC DRM software.

"After prolonged issues with pre-release piracy, this year SEGA and Sports Interactive decided to implement a new copy-protection system for Football Manager 2009," says the publisher in a statement.

"The incorporation of Uniloc's copy-protection system for the game has unfortunately caused a number of unexpected difficulties which SEGA would like to explain to any customers who may have experienced problems authenticating their copy of Football Manager 2009 since it launched on Friday November 14th."

The first problem was a printing hiccup with the game manuals, we're told, which resulted in characters looking similar and causing lots of confusion. They must mean characters Zippy and Bungle. [Better jokes please. - Ed]

The second problem was a DDoS attack on the authentication servers, through which the telephone authentication servers also run, thus putting both out of action. Apparently some of these phone lines are still out of order, but online authentication should be okay.

"SEGA and Sports Interactive take pride in producing the very best Football Manager year on year, and regret that this unfortunate situation has arisen," adds the statement.

"SEGA and Sports Interactive would like to unequivocally apologise to any customers who have experienced difficulties in authenticating their game, restate their desire to solve every issue encountered in the process, and enable all customers to be able to play and enjoy Football Manager 2009."

Football Manager 2009 is also available on PSP, and we reckon it's the most complete offering in the series to date. There were, however, rather a lot of teething problems, which rather dulled the performance. Head over to our Football Manager 2009 review for our full analysis.