FM runs slowly enough at the best of times, without forcing people to run more software in the background. If I'm buying a game that is predominantly for offline use, I don't expect to have to register with a third party - completely unrelated to the game itself - in order to run the damn thing.
Rather than pleading poverty (which is nonsense, in the year to March 2010, SI made a profit of more than £2m, which is nearly 30% of its turnover and an increase from £300k), perhaps they should attempt to discover why so many people pirate their games, other than the obvious "I want stuff for free" brigade.