You may find that a promo trainer is purposefully making it that way. It sounds as if it is indeed 'working' in the sense that it is effecting a change. If it didn't you would most likely see no effect or the game would crash. Just to make that a bit clearer
Don't get your hopes up for free releases as the engine (if it's the same as previous titles in the series) is notoriously tricky. This game doesn't hit retail in the EU until tomorrow btw.