EA Games: Guess Your CD Key
Oops, you bought Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 and you realize your product key is only 19 characters long when it should be 20 – or maybe your key is not there at all?
Electronic Arts (EA) has apparently misprinted the serial numbers needed for activation. The proper code should be 20 characters long, but it accidentally printed codes 19 characters long. The good news is that it managed to accidentally drop the last character in the string.
EA is working cooperatively with its customers by offering replacement codes if you are willing to photograph your current serial number and email it in. If you are not able, or unwilling, to photograph your serial and mail it, EA suggests you try ‘guessing’ the last character of your product code since there are only 36 possible entries to try – 0 to 9 and A to Z. This is what EA originally suggested on their support page.
“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. 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.”
The above quote has since been removed, but still available through Google’s cache feature. The EA support page now reads the following:
“If you are trying to install Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 and the code is only 19 characters long, then it is missing the last letter or number. This was due to a misprint on a small number of manuals and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. In order to get a replacement code, please click the "Contact Us" link on the left side of the page to send an e-mail to our team. If you would like you can also contact us by phone using the number found on page 28 of your manual.”
Even though guessing 36 characters is not a big task, it poses a huge problem. What if your original key was to end with ‘8’ and someone else had the same key, but ending in ‘0’. Oops! This is probably part of the reason why EA has removed their original suggestion from their site. Nonetheless, accidents happen, and this similar issue has happened with other games before as well – as long as the people responsible are holding up to their commitment, it is all good.
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solution! Don't play or buy EA games until they learn how to work with serial numbers. This includes losing the virus they install with their games to enforce a 5 install limit after you paid $50.
No wonder they report 300 million lost recently.
lol i like EA's solution
i paid for crysis from ea and I cant even play it, says I need to wait for a different install to expire but every time ive installed its on my only computer. Now i have to use a cracked exe to play the game i paid for AND the cracked exe doesnt work with the newest version in 64bit. I will never buy a game off ea's online service again.
Hahaha.... EA Games really botched this release..
Oh, do you know what would really be messed up? If EA Games limited the amount of times you can guess the CD key, as a way to limit piracy, so by the time you get to the letter 'G', it's over. lol
Just another reason I no longer buy EA games for PC.
Just another reason I no longer buy EA games for PC.
wait... you mean we haven't run them out of business yet? well damn!
I don't understand what the problem is with keys ending in 8 or 0.
EA sure tries hard to please us - they've even turned the installation process into a game!
That situation would never occur I cannot see a GUID ever coming up wtih the same exact 18 first digits...
Yet another slice of BS EA has to put its paying customers through all for the sake of fruitlessly stopping piracy. Yes, even a CD-key is a retarded form of piracy prevention that does nothing but inconvenience paying customers. There's no reason they can't just put the game's data on the disc and let you install with no input from you. CD-keys are one of the oldest forms of piracy prevention and obviously we all see what good that has done in stopping piracy. The only thing it effectively does is annoyingly make paying customers type it in for every install. Useless.
amateurs!
Yet another slice of BS EA has to put its paying customers through all for the sake of fruitlessly stopping piracy. Yes, even a CD-key is a retarded form of piracy prevention that does nothing but inconvenience paying customers. There's no reason they can't just put the game's data on the disc and let you install with no input from you. CD-keys are one of the oldest forms of piracy prevention and obviously we all see what good that has done in stopping piracy. The only thing it effectively does is annoyingly make paying customers type it in for every install. Useless.
Account creation for online play? Which is probably the only way to defeat piracy and remove the need for DRM - compelling online play/support via an account linked to a CD, such as Diablo I/II, UT200x, Starcraft etc managed to do.
[citation][noyes because only EA meses up. idiots.ending in 8 or 0.[/citation]
god dam comment box.
Like I was saying, because only EA screws up... Really sad when people are too fucking lazy to put a 0-9 or a-z at the end. Really it isn't that hard at all. I can link to posts that had people's games not come with any keys period.
This isn't just EA doing this. Oh and the EA bashing is just as retarded as the Vista bashing. But hey, if you are navie enough to think only EA doesn't support games after a while, have bugs in their games, then go ahead and continue to be a dumbass.
Really pathetic when people are so dumb to think only EA has problems. How about Soulstrom? There are major game breaking bugs that have yet to be fixed. Fallout 3 with all of it's problems, hell I use to crash every 5 minutes until I fixed the problem myself by deleting a codec....
And there are plenty of other games just like that. Guess you are going to boycott them as well, well if you do you might has well just throw away all your consoles and rip out your graphics card as all companies have this problem.
It's pretty unlikely that "0" would be a valid last digit if "8" was also valid... these codes generally are going to create a checksum inside the application and it would be a pretty weak checksum indeed if it didn't have enough bits to allow a single character to change in the key and still work.
ok so now EA has entered the cracker jacks of all gaming...
a game within a game. Guess the letter or number and find a magic toy surprise inside.
Can you say --- RUSHED?
When you or I don't do our job it's incompetence. When a game manufacturer doesn't it's a honest mistake. Give the Q/A guy a golden parachute.
yOU PEOPLE ARE ACTING AS IF SO MANY GAMES ARE LIKE THIS. ITS NOT YOU FOOLS.
Another reason why I stopped pre-ordering games.
And I thought the delay for HL2 was bad.
What we need is a mass boycott on EA games for 3 months. After that they WILL be reasonable. ...then they shall suckle our loins.
so, if you want to get a red alert 3 cd key for free, try guessing for one. there's only about 13367494538843734067838845976576 possible combinations
There are actually about 6.87194767 × (10^46) combinations. Good luck finding one that works
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/11/5/
Just a question, would it be possible, at least for the older games (C&C Generals)etc to search through the files and find the code?
Just a question, would it be possible, at least for the older games (C&C Generals)etc to search through the files and find the code?
Use regedit and you'll find it. For Vista 64, the Zero Hour location is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\EA GAMES\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour\ergc
Not entirely sure where the original Generals key is. Other OSs will be slightly different.
Wait, if you mean on the CD (which you probably do now that I remember what this story is about), then I have no idea if it can be found. Probably not, at least not easily.