EA Recommends Hilarious Work-Around for Red Alert 3 CD Key Issue
Posted 11/04/08 at 08:56:49 PM by Nathan Grayson
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Amidst all the panicked hubbub of the holiday season, EA slipped Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 into stores last week -- or at least, most of it. Not included in many unlucky game boxes was a mega-crucial 0.0001% of the game experience: the last digit of the Red Alert 3's CD Key. Uh-oh.
Fret not, however, if you're planning to commandeer and consume a copy of the game, because EA's brightest minds have put their synapses into overdrive in order to whip up a work-around.
"There is currently a work-around that may allow you to bypass this issue. Since you have the first 19 characters of the code already, you can basically try guessing the last character," said a note on EA's customer support site.
Yes, they're serious.
"To do this, simply enter your existing code, and then for the last character, try the letters A-Z, and then the numbers 0-9. You should eventually get the right combination, and be able to play the game."
EA: Its head isn't in the game. Seriously, there's no excuse for such shoddy work from one of gaming's biggest publishers. Get your act together, guys.
Is it just me or does it
Submitted by mdpinet on Tue, 11/11/2008 - 4:09am
Is it just me or does it seem companies are releasing more and more games before they should? Don't they have people that check these type of things before the product is sent out?
That's not that big a deal
Submitted by atomaweapon on Wed, 11/05/2008 - 2:02pm
That's not that big a deal guys. A little hokey, but it's a workaround.
Submitted by Rltyg on Wed, 11/05/2008 - 6:08am
Will be when you try and figure out your cd-key. It's all down hill after that.
A thought...
Submitted by Cache on Wed, 11/05/2008 - 4:43am
Couldn't this be considered as EA allowing people to essentially hack their game? I mean, from a legal standpoint, that's essentially what they have told people to do...
See what happens when people
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 9:33pm
See what happens when people find out they are about to get a pink slip?
They've obviously already
Submitted by sirphunkee on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 9:02pm
They've obviously already realized how full of fail that plan was...they've already changed the posts on the site to just advise customers to contact them via e-mail to request a whole new key.
Not just the key
Submitted by Caboose on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 8:20pm
It wasn't just the missing product key. Their activation servers were also overloaded.It took me 2-days before I could finally play online. And did anyone notice that there were 3 patches released, in 2-days? WTF is up with that?!
Does Red Alert 3 take the cake as worst game launch ever?
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Could be one of the reasons
Submitted by b3ar on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 7:58pm
Could be one of the reasons they're laying off 600 staff at EA.
The wording...
Submitted by ponchato on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 7:34pm
It's great.
"You can basically try guessing the last character." Hahaha wow, the way it's said, especially by EA, it's hilarious.
Submitted by thebadest777 on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 7:19pm
Yes, it is true, my cousin bought a copy and had to guess the last character in the code. FUNNY!!!
Haha! i just think thats
Submitted by drummeralec on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 7:19pm
Haha! i just think thats funny. i Like how they say "You should eventually get the right combination"
;p
Submitted by Budgetperson on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 7:17pm
That is an "interesting" way for EA to address the issue. Just guess! I'm sure lots of people have just done that already.. And there really isn't a better solution, except giving everybody new CD Keys. Of course, EA should have been careful, you have to have the exact details. I mean leaving out the product key is pretty sloppy...
-Budgetperson
www.randomtech.co.cc
It would probably be easier
Submitted by lyric on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 7:16pm
It would probably be easier to download a crack.
Submitted by Budgetperson on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 7:18pm
When I first read the article I thought that's what EA was going to do! :P
-Budgetperson
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 7:16pm
Well there are already cracked versions being shared on the torrent sites... Don't even need a key.
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