A demo for the latest Football Manager game, Football Manager 2012, has surfaced from the depths of the developer cave to the high seas of Steam.
The demo is available for both the PC and Mac, and is downloadable from the Steam service on both platforms right now, allowing players to experience the first half of the 2011/2012 football season. The demo also allows players to keep their save games from the demo once the game releases for real and carry on with their saved progress.
The demo’s features include QuickStart leagues for England, Scotland, France, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Australia, but, as revealed last month, the demo is for Steam users only and requires you to authenticate through Steam services before playing the free sport managerial goodness inside.
The same also goes for full versions on disc, which now require Steam to be downloaded and installed via the internet firstly and also to be activated and played through Steam. However, you can still play Football Manager 2012 offline through Steam’s offline mode.
The inclusion of the notorious DRM approach being transferred to the latest edition of Football Manager has sparked many fires of rage within the gaming community. Whether this was due to the game being consistently pirated ever since it was first released remains to be seen, but still, DRM can be a pain in the butt for those who sadly lack an internet connection in their home and have no resources to attempt to find a workaround.
A Sega representative had this to say: “Make no mistake, if a quarter of the people that usually pirate the game switch to purchasing Football Manager 2012, the sales of the game worldwide would more than double,”
“This would lead to increased development budgets and more benefits for all of you who do buy the game.”
“We’ve taken this decision because we believe that the steps the consumer has to take are not excessive, and that as a one-time only measure with no tracking or reporting it is not too intrusive. Having worked with Steam for a few years now we also believe that their system is ever improving and gives Football Manager players a good service of free auto-updating, achievements and other great benefits without cost or hassle.”
Do Football Manager players like Steam anyway? Or is it kind of a pain…? Tell us on the comment section below or alternatively via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.