NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2007

[NobBe Nobbs]

FUCK.

FUCK.

FUCK.

MOTHERFUCK.

Also, it's Chelios and Hasek. Who deserves their number retired more than they do?

[Guest PotatoClassic]

Where the fuck is this game being pirated?

(Not asking where I can get it...just saying I've looked pretty hard and it doesn't seem to be anywhere...no, not even Scandinavian sites...)

[Toe]

That really sucks balls. I really enjoy this game, and it really bites that this will be the last version for a good while.

[SeanDMan]

Piracy has nothing to do with it.

[oldskool]

If it was pirated...somebody would have had to crack eLicense. eLicense is damn near impossible to crack by nature...I smell somebody blaming piracy for poor sales.

[CKN]

Piracy has nothing to do with it.

[Guest Grapehead]

Ya.. pirating is a lame excuse, because I haven't found a (reportedly) working file on any torrent sites. Even went through a few forums people were discussing it, and nobody had a solution to the concept of pirating this game. Either way, that's really bad news that their sales were down, and that we won't see anymore EHM.

[SeanDMan]

I just read the post on the SI forums about this. I laughed so hard I almost wet myself. NHL: EHM the first and the second sells well in Scandinavia and badly everywhere else, perhaps because they were largely incomplete software products which paled in comparison to Sports Interactive's other projects. Because the game is unpopular in North America, they decide to switch to a digital download-only model, because everybody loves digital download-only models and younger people/people without credit cards like, for instance, that guy who posted just before me apparently don't exist.

Oh, and they release a game with about one point six zillion deal-closing bugs and that's so bad they literally have to release a patch the day after it came out, which I had never heard of before.

For some mysterious reason, nobody buys this buggy game that young gamers (although who's ever heard of a young gamer?) can't get their hands on. The braintrust at Sports Interactive consider this, and apparently decide that the only possible problem is that their software is cracked (not cracked as in broken, although it's that too). This stands in contrast to the first NHL: EHMs and Football Manager and every other software product ever made by anybody ever, which have never ever been cracked in the entire history of mankind, and where people frolick through the daisies with their legitimate copies that they were all too happy to magically get a credit card to buy.

But hey, at least it only took them about seven months to fix what may or may not be the last utterly unplayable bug.

That's why NHL EHM died kids. Don't support piracy, unless the software in question is buggy and half assed because it was always looked at as nothing more then a secondary franchise.

[oldskool]

Ah, at least somebody gets it.

eLicenses are nearly uncrackable because keycodes aren't generated until a sale is completed; it isn't like there's 10,000 options out there that are coded in as "OK, this code came with the game"; the codes are only generated after a sale, and then the code is activated through the internet. There's nothing to "crack"; the only way to "crack" it would be to somehow create your own eLicense code for the game, put it on the eLicense server as a freshly generated code and then activate it.

[Toe]

Despite the bugs (which I never actually experienced) and the fact that the game obviously does not get as much work put into as the Football Manager series, I really enjoyed EHM 07 and am kind of sad to see that they may not make another.

[IAceI]

Network games are gay. Gay.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Yeah, to expand on what Luke here was getting at, we're trying to run a network game with each other and no matter who starts the game the person joining is never able to join.

[NobBe Nobbs]

I was lucky enough only to experience one bug, but considering it meant I couldn't get past a certain date in 2009 as Los Angeles in a game where I'd won the Stanley Cup in my first season, I was pissed.

[SeanDMan]

I was lucky enough only to experience one bug, but considering it meant I couldn't get past a certain date in 2009 as Los Angeles in a game where I'd won the Stanley Cup in my first season, I was pissed.

The same thing happened to me, only I was 3 months into an NHL:EHM Diary I was writing. I was superpissed.

[Toe]

Speaking of superpissed, has anyone here dealth with the horribly inconsistancy of Robert Esche? I went from 2nd in the east to 6th because Esche will just fuck up every other game it seems.

[SeanDMan]

I was reading the SI forums and they've begun deleting posts adressing the real reason the game failed.

Quite amusing.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Sean, it's not often I comment about your quick thinking, or clear and concise destruction of other people and what they say. But, there was a reason I gave you EHM for a reason, and that is, I love you!

[SeanDMan]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention.

I was curious about the story of piracy ruining the sales, but I found that is false.

It's simple, NHL EHM has not been cracked to this day. Sure, there is 2 crack existing, but they only remove the Try and Buy window. When you hit the 6 months in the game(I tried an auto-simulate), it still ask to purchase the demo, even with the crack.

Yeah, there is a lot of copy of NHL EHM on pirate sites and torrent sites, but they are all copy of the demo without the try and buy screen. The game has not been fully cracked yet.

I don't say this to promote pirating, but just to say that piracy is not a cause of the poor sales because no illegal copy exists!

From Doublefruit. Anyone who looked for an illegal version of EHM 07 will back this; I found 8 copies of the same non-functional crack. EHM 07 has not been cracked. Saying that piracy killed it is just a lie.

Its interesting that SEGA has been almost completely silent on the EHM boards for quite some time, and now that the game is shut down, a rep is here in full force doing damage control.

I bought EHM 2007. I bought EHM 2005. And, having a background in business, I know business B.S. speak when I hear it.

My honest opinion?? SEGA's cutting its losses on a medicore-selling game, and hitting the road.

Fine. Business is Business. I can understand that- hell, I can even agree with it, from a business POV. If I was a small-market company like SI, cutting loose a poor-performer that's dragging down my profits makes sense.

But, c'mon, SI is owned by SEGA, and SEGA is going to blame internet priacy?? Folks, this is SEGA, multi-million (or perhaps Billion??) dollar international.....check that, GLOBAL corporation . And EHM is a niche-market game built around a hard-core fanbase base of, what, 10,0000 people?? If that??

The loses that you're speaking of, for EHM's 3 man crew, the liscensing costs, etc. is like someone hitting a tank with a decently large rock- It might go bang, and make some noise, but overall it does basically no damage.

Its convenient to blame piracy for this- hell, its in fashion right now for anyone associated with a low-selling product in the electronic media to do so- but anyone could see this waq coming; SI gets bought out by SEGA, the game is released with serious flaws, takes serious flak from its fan-base, and suddenly its axed.

I know a hose-job when I see one.

From Cantum.

I think to be honest this is a slightly poor excuse for a game that simply failed. I played it and didn't particularly like it, and I suspect others did the same. Hockey isn't something that will sell in the UK and SI doesn't have the reputation in the US to sell US sports, so strategically it was a mistake.

I'd say Football Manager probably had more copies pirated than EHM but the difference is that more people chose to buy FM because of brand familiarity and sport familiarity.

Another problem is that it's based on a sport we're not familiar with in the UK. The interface doesn't do much to help us, there's no manual presumably with the download, and thus your user base is restricted to the hard core people only.

Also, the choice of technology partner for the downloads was a mistake. For starters there have already been issues with having to put out alternate versions of patches on FM which has caused trouble, and all the rigmarole that entails, but also, when problems have happened, they have been less than helpful as testified by SI themselves. Why on earth did they not use Steam? It's established and many small games companies are putting games out on it with limited amounts of piracy occurring. Plus one patch fits all. If it's good for them, and for larger firms like Valve themselves, why not for SI Games? It might even open up new audiences.

So, in conclusion, yes the pirates didn't help, but poor technology and crap marketing probably didn't do much better either.

From Seagulls Forever.

Poor marketting killed EHM. Don't let anyone tell you anything different.

[IAceI]

Oh there definately isn't a working cracked version.

I love desiredtoe.

[IAceI]

Does anyone else's team seem to suffer total collapses?

4-2 up against the Stars doing into the 3rd, from 49:14 to 57:34 they score 4. We do this constantly, we have good leads, are playing well and then suddenly we shut off and the other team scores constantly.

It's quite gay.