EHM The Blue Line

Eastside Hockey Manager 2007 is no longer on sale at eLicense. The Mac version was withdrawn from sale some time ago and now the PC version has also been withdrawn. When installing the Try'n'Buy Demo, the "Purchase" button will no longer allow you to purchase the game.

This is really sad news as it means that those who show an interest in EHM 2007 in the future will only be able to play the six month time limited Try'n'Buy Demo. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done about this. It is my understanding that owing to the inevitable legal issues relating to the game (e.g. the licensing from the leagues, etc) it is not possible for EHM to be sold via another digital download method or indeed even for the arrangement with eLicense to be renewed.

For those of you that already own the game, you can continue to activate/reactivate your licenses. So you'll still be able to reactivate your license if you have to reinstall.

For those of you that don't already own EHM 2007, at this stage all I can suggest is that you consider taking part in an EHM 2005 online league: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... 4&p=102997

As far as The Blue Line is concerned, we'll continue to support the Eastside Hockey Manager series and any others looking to develop a new hockey game as best we can. There is still a very active community here and there are plenty of people working with Manimal to update the EHM 2007 rosters for the 2011/12 season.

Uh, really? I'm glad that I managed to purchase it in time

Now SI could make it opensource or freeware in order to allow new users to continue playing after 6 months. Maybe even the possibility to change the start date. That'd be great.

This is terrible news!

I highly doubt EHM will ever become opensource because so much of the game engine is related to othe r SI titles.

I believe we all knew that this day would come at some point after the development was ceased back in '07.

This is terrible news for those that have not purchased the game. I'm so glad that I have and have kept my purchase information safe so I can always switch computers with it if I need to.

This sure is sad news. It's most unfortunate knowing that the community can't grow anymore. After it was discontinued, at least people could still find, buy, and play the game... but now, the doors are closed.

For this reason, I'd really love to see EHM 2007 (maybe even 2005 and 2004) become freeware. OOTP releases select older versions as freeware, so I can't imagine why EHM couldn't. Maybe licensing would get in the way, I don't know.

Either way, it's a shame to know that EHM is now officially closed to the world .

Maybe this would be a good time to mention the original EHM. It's certainly no EHM 2007, but it's a classic, and it's what got the whole EHM thing going. I'm sure a lot of us EHM vets have pulled many all-nighters for this game. You can download it here: http://ehm.fhockey.com/EHM%20game.php

That sucks really bad. Thank god I got my computer last summer instead of this year. At least we are still here and we will stay here.

That stinks. Glad I got this game when I did, but at the same time it's sad that no one else will get to play it

Truly a great game, it's really a shame.

Very sad.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

I'm against the idea of making it freeware/sharware. But what I've suggested several time over on the SI boards is strip it down, make it all fictional and allow for the date to be edited and sell it at a reduced rate.

wildiowafan wrote:I'm against the idea of making it freeware/sharware. But what I've suggested several time over on the SI boards is strip it down, make it all fictional and allow for the date to be edited and sell it at a reduced rate.

I'd buy a new copy of the game if they "faked" the databases and made the start date editable.

That won't happen. For them to shut down the game sales, means hardly anyone was buying. I just got it again a couple of weeks ago, as lost everything including my key a couple months ago moving. Glad I got in when I did.

I may very well have been the LAST person to buy the game.

But yeah, this sucks. Hopefully some day something new is done and comes out as an improved version. Unfortunately though I just do not see this being made freeware, or it being stripped down to a version without licensing. Nor will the start date thing be changed. Too much work to put into a game that is basically "dead"...to the company that was producing and selling it.

It will never die here though. thankfully.

batdad wrote:That won't happen. For them to shut down the game sales, means hardly anyone was buying.

True. But a new product would probably attrack people who didn't want to buy EHM because of the old version, database and the date the game was starting. The sales though would not be high enough for the game to "restart" well.

batdad wrote:That won't happen. For them to shut down the game sales, means hardly anyone was buying.

From my conversation with Riz, I think it was down to legal issues with regards to licensing etc. Perhaps SI had some contract with eLicense to sell the product for a certain length of time and it couldn't be renewed without further licenses from NHL, etc. That's just my guess though.

batdad wrote:Unfortunately though I just do not see this being made freeware, or it being stripped down to a version without licensing. Nor will the start date thing be changed. Too much work to put into a game that is basically "dead"...to the company that was producing and selling it.

I totally agree with this. I'd love to see some sort of "faked" freeware version without the licensed logos, graphics, etc - but I doubt it'll happen. Football Manager is where the money is for SI. Why bother spending man hours making an old game freeware when they could be spending that time and effort on FM.

batdad wrote:It will never die here though. thankfully.

Absolutely. We've been here for over seven years now and I have no intention of letting the site and community go stale. It's incredible how active the EHM community is (given that EHM was put on hiatus back in January 2007) and I'm confident we can continue this both by supporting EHM 2007 and other projects such as Dabo's game and there's also websimhockey.com (more details of this project will be provided in the very near future).

This is really disappointing news:( I have owned this game for a little over a week and i am completely hooked. I have already put at least three all nighters into this game and hope to put many more in. I can understand why SI would do this but as a fan of this game and Hockey in general, i am disappointed.

Ah, seems that we have the last buyer in jcheney479.

YZG wrote:Aw rubbish! Batdad was maybe the last one to buy, and I'm maybe the first one screwed up because I too lost my game (when my old computer died several months ago) and kinda neglected to buy it back. Aww well. Serves me right, I guess.

If you contact eLicense with your original email address, etc then they should be able to sort out your license. Licenses already purchased should continue to work.

A couple of posts in this thread were veering ever so slightly off topic and is probably a topic unto itself. Thus I've split it into its own thread: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... 76#p125376

archibalduk wrote:

YZG wrote:Aw rubbish! Batdad was maybe the last one to buy, and I'm maybe the first one screwed up because I too lost my game (when my old computer died several months ago) and kinda neglected to buy it back. Aww well. Serves me right, I guess.

If you contact eLicense with your original email address, etc then they should be able to sort out your license. Licenses already purchased should continue to work.

This is correct as I contacted elicense myself 2 days ago as I had bought a new PC and when I tried to enter my code I was getting the error message code 11, where you have used up all the uses of your license. A quick email to elicense and roughly 24 hours later I had a new code.

That's great if eLicense still gives support, then - kinda thought they too would give it up. I'll write them. Thanks guys

- YZG

I thought (but could be wrong) that eLicense provided lifetime support. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Will do. So far no answer, but their offices may just be closed on weekends.

- YZG

YZG wrote:Will do. So far no answer, but their offices may just be closed on weekends.

- YZG

They take about 24 to 48 hours to reply in general. You should get a receipt and a ticket number within a few hours though.

Anybody has a liscence they would like to share? I lost my code in my pc and now I have a mac and want to play EHM 2007