You might argue that you don't have the money to spare, but even that wouldn't be exactly true.
In you have money to pay for a computer and for an internet connection, then I don't see why you can't afford to pay for FM. It might mean that you'd need to skip a couple of nights out or a couple of take away food orders... so?
♦ Football Manager developers deserve your support to continue making this amazing game.
I won't say they actually need it because considering that FM11 generated more than 700K sales (in all platforms) I can see the franchise continue with profit. But still, if they had a 40% increase in sales, I bet they'd grow their studio (which is now relatively small in terms of full time employees) and work on more bold improvements every year.
♦ A good amount from the sales go to support charities such as War Child (helping children affected by war).
War Child protects children living in the world's most dangerous war zones, currently active at Iraq, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
♦ You don’t want to wait for a crack every time a new patch is released.
Alright, you downloaded a pirate copy. You're happy you can play your favorite game for free (even though it might be missing a few languages or even be slightly more buggy than the legit one). Then one day a new official patch gets out and you want to install it. Oh what frustration it is to realize your pirate copy isn't working anymore, and you have to wait for a new crack or just reinstall the game to roll back to the version that was working. It's your choice to avoid that.
♦ FM is backed up by a large and vibrant community that appreciates and rewards effort.
We don't appreciate piracy, because it's illegal and against the rules of the whole FM scene. We appreciate the effort put in by the developers every year and we reward that effort by buying the game. You are not allowed to talk about your pirate copy on any quality FM site, and if you do you'll end up banned. Sounds nasty? Well, piracy is bad and you know it.
♦ You’re actually paying pennies for the amount of time you will enjoy playing the game.
Football Manager is a very addictive game. A lot of people play FM for hundreds of hours every year. Don't you think that amount of hours of gameplay is worth your money? You know the answer.
Why do we care to make an article out of it? Because fmscout.com is now selling Football Manager, which makes it our business too. You will be able to buy the digital download edition of FM from our official store. This means we have a small profit from the sales we generate for the game. More money for us, means more investments back to the site and as a natural result a better place for you in terms of features, new applications and performance. We want to make fmscout.com as awesome as it can be, and we're hoping you'll be helping us in this effort.
Say NO to PIRACY!
Should you have any arguements in support to getting a pirate copy (versus legal copy), feel free to comment and we'll update this article to include your reasoning along with our reply.
![1994-95 Season Throwback Database for FM24 [Complete DB]](assets/downloads/fm24/season-1994-95-throwback-fm24.th.png)
![FM24 Data Tweaks [v5.1 | v7.4] (6th December 2024 Release)](assets/downloads/fm24/fm24-data-tweaks-by-sirtavares.th.png)
Discussion: Why buy Football Manager and not download it free?
18 comments have been posted so far.
Since 2005 the Football Manager game has been raising significant funds for War Child by donating 10p from the sale of each game to the charity. If I can recall, they have raised over 600K so far.
@flatLINE®:
Well, the article had almost 8k views, which means a few thousand people were curious to read it. I can hope that at least 10% of those were already on the verge of changing opinion and this read convinced them to buy the game.
I can't see SI following Blizzard's approach though because it wouldn't be as profitable business as it is now.
@gday113:
Yes, the game has bugs every year actually. But you should know that pirate copies are way more buggy than the original and that since FMRTE was released bug reports multiplied, which is no coincidence.
I'm not suggesting you should buy it on the first day of release, and there is a good amount of people waiting for the January Transfer Update before actually purchasing it because this is usually when most bugs are fixed.
♦ A good amount from the sales go to support charities such as War Child (helping children affected by war).
War Child protects children living in the world's most dangerous war zones, currently active at Iraq, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
I have used pirate bay for CM and started to buy from fm 2006 till now (so a nice collection over here) and I am wondering how much of the HUNDREDS Euro's I shipped to SI are given involuntary (I did not choose to) to War child, I mean dont get me wrong I am deff supporting War child and organisations like that its just that there are kind of obliging me too and I dont want that (being obliged).
So if you put this as a reason to buy it I would say for me its a reason to not buy it next year....cause I choose to buy it to support football manager and to make the game better...for a better world I do other things which are not relevant here.
Does anybody know a percentage?
SI perhaps could pull off a similar thing Blizzard did and place all of the game's content online where players log-in to their accounts and load their game, but SI would then have to issue frequent patches and keep the database protected like Blizzard does/did. Just like with WoW, there would be RIPs of the game but would be older versions. Essentially SI could make a full featured game and then bring all the planned updates/patches with fixes, new features, regular database updates and perhaps some new stuff they could come up with. It would all keep things fresh and worthwhile maybe. The catch however is that those updates, fixes, patches etc. etc. would have to be constant and regular so that those who don't wish to pay for the game would constantly lack 'a lot' of features.
I'm no expert of course but love the game and have been playing CM since it's first installation when I was in my teens back in early 90s and have been paying since FM2009 to support the product (I played pirated before 2009), so I guess it's just a suggestion.
So you then wait to buy the game until all the patches have been release but this is normally by the new year, you may as well wait until the next game is released. I didn't play FM2010 due to this I loved FM09 so much I continued to play until FM2011, which was not as enjoyable to me.
Release games without bugs then more people will see SI are being loyal to their customers, if not then why the hell not download for free? For shame trying to guilt people into buying an unfinished product.
Basically, you'd choose free over paid for anything, even if free would mean additional issues / bugs / annoyances. There is still a line though even if you are that pirate type.
We CHOOSE TO SUPPORT ALL THAT WE ENJOY. If you have a favorite band, you'd buy their new CD. If you have a favorite game, you'd buy the new arrangement. Given that you can afford it of course.
There's no point in making an account just to write this post. If you had read the terms of use, you'd know that asking about a pirated copy or admitting to use one means you get banned, because it's against the rules of SI affiliate scheme.
This is an anti-piracy campaign and you are being disrespectful arrogant smarty pants. You see I'm not remonstrating with you or becoming blue in the face in any other way. I'm actually giving you another chance instead of banning you, so choose your next move carefully if you care to participate in the FM Scout community.
Same idea for music, videos, etc...
"Football Manager developers deserve your support to continue making this amazing game."
Perhaps, but there's no incentive for me to pay £30 out of my own pocket for something that I can easily get for free. You can remonstrate with me until you're blue in the face but this simple fact won't change.
"A good amount from the sales go to support charities such as War Child"
If I want to donate to a charity I will choose to do so, not that I have a problem with any private company doing it, in fact it is commendable, but I can and do donate of my own free will too.
"You don’t want to wait for a crack every time a new patch is released."
I don't really mind, I'm not the impatient type, I often wait months and months for a PC release of titles that come out on consoles long before and I have no problem with doing this.
"FM is backed up by a large and vibrant community that appreciates and rewards effort."
I don't make it known that I'm a pirate on any of the sites, in fact I don't even have accounts (I just signed up with this one to make this post), I just check the articles and forum discussions, and make use of the content that can be downloaded. I'm actually pro-piracy because I'm anti-IP which is a much more important battle than if some developers are getting paid what they deem they should be paid for the content they produce.
"You’re actually paying pennies for the amount of time you will enjoy playing the game."
But when I pirate it I pay NOTHING, nada.
I have actually paid for many SI titles in the past, I still have original copies of several games from the CM era, without people like me they would not be producing FM as it is today. But even still, if I had never bought any of these games, I would have no problem with pirating the games.
Don't you have for example VISA electron debit cards there? And what about PayPal? You could just tie that with your local bank account, no?
Price being around 30 EUR I reckon is cheap enough, considering how many hours people are playing FM throughout the year. But if I couldn't afford that, I'd just keep playing the old game. I wish to buy a new computer but I don't have the money for it, so I'll just keep using my old one until I'll be able to afford it.
SI's approach this year was to avoid pre-release and 0-day piracy. And they succeeded in that. It took pirates 10 days (!) you say, if that's true we're talking about a new record for a late pirate release.
I'm not here to defend whatever SI is doing, as I do think they're not perfect and have made mistakes. The purpose of this article is to condemn piracy as a really bad choice. I strongly believe we always have a choice.
We're selling it for less than 31 EUR though, and there's no unlocking issues with Lithuania as far as I know.
@Zonnegod:
Ordering from FM Scout store is even faster (digital download) and cheaper
It's our first time doing this, so a lot of people still don't know about it though.
So, until Miles (that I truly admire as a person, until recently) starts taking things seriously, not just declare his game uncrackable and forcing his users into that scum called steam, piracy is still on, like it is for any game, and this is a way of making the game aviable, worldwide.
Never challenge a cracker.
[Cont]
That is wrong, sir. What if I live in a country where I cannot pay with my currency ? Some people just decide that my country is not rich enough to have a world-wide credit card, thus I cannot buy the game, even if I wanted to ! And I do want to, but the game isn't even sold here !
[Cont]