Posted 11/04/08 at 08:56:49 PM by Nathan Grayson

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.
Links:
[1] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/vahn16_0
[2] http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=281996
[3] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/command_conquer
[4] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/998_you_dont_care_about_drm_just_ask_electronic_arts
[5] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/electronic_arts_ceo_creativity_can_pay_off_but_were_still_not_sure_about_publishing_brutal_legend