EA Recommends Hilarious Work-Around for Red Alert 3 CD Key Issue
EA Recommends Hilarious Work-Around for Red Alert 3 CD Key Issue
Posted 11/04/2008 at 6:56pm
| 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.
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aarcane
October 06, 2011 at 11:01am
"After you find your last character, you should try again to ensure you've found all keys with the same first 19 characters, then you should repeat for the 18+19th digits, then analyze for a pattern" anyone?
mdpinet
November 11, 2008 at 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?
atomaweapon
November 05, 2008 at 2:02pm
That's not that big a deal guys. A little hokey, but it's a workaround.
Rltyg
November 05, 2008 at 6:08am
Will be when you try and figure out your cd-key. It's all down hill after that.
Cache
November 05, 2008 at 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...
Keith E. Whisman
November 04, 2008 at 9:33pm
See what happens when people find out they are about to get a pink slip?
sirphunkee
November 04, 2008 at 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.
Caboose
November 04, 2008 at 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! =-
ponchato
November 04, 2008 at 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.
thebadest777
November 04, 2008 at 7:19pm
Yes, it is true, my cousin bought a copy and had to guess the last character in the code. FUNNY!!!
drummeralec
November 04, 2008 at 7:19pm
Haha! i just think thats funny. i Like how they say "You should eventually get the right combination"
;p
Budgetperson
November 04, 2008 at 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
Budgetperson
November 04, 2008 at 7:18pm
When I first read the article I thought that's what EA was going to do! :P
-Budgetperson
Keith E. Whisman
November 04, 2008 at 7:16pm
Well there are already cracked versions being shared on the torrent sites... Don't even need a key.
dankers
November 17, 2008 at 11:11pm
Pretty sure they all require a key, keygen is in the crack folder. It just doesn't say so in the NFO
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