EA makes Red Alert 3 CD key blooper

By Robert Purchese Published 4 November, 2008

Comes up with somewhat hilarious solution.

EA has accidentally misprinted CD keys on the manuals for Red Alert 3, leaving many 19 characters instead of 20 characters long.

But worry ye not, because EA has come up with a solution.

"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," explains the EA customer support site, helpfully.

"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."

If not, there's always the support number to phone. This can be found on page 28 of your manual. Oh it's not there? Well there are only 11 digits, but better try the numbers first this time.

Red Alert 3 was released on PC last Friday, and entered the UK all-formats chart at 15 this week.

We rather liked the game - particularly the campaign co-op - as our Red Alert 3 review explains.

Command & Conquer: Red alert 3 will be released for Xbox 360 on 14th November.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • chrisjm #1 3 years ago

    So while a pirate can practise for a few hours, legit buyers spend 2 hours entering upto 40 different keys. SOLD :-|

  • Eraysor #2 3 years ago

    I like the fact that it's actually easier to use a keygen.

  • michaelius #3 3 years ago

    Pity it's another game polutted by EA anti-consumer drm.

  • Skire #4 3 years ago

    haha the solution is f**k**g hilarious

  • Krusty #5 3 years ago

    Genius :p

    EA, just put your games on Steam and forget this DRM crap, then I'll buy it!

  • DFawkes #6 3 years ago

    Why not guess the last 2? Or 3? In fact, get yourself a keygen. In fact, buy a retail copy, but don't install it. Just install a pirate version.

  • jonsaan #7 3 years ago

    For added fun you can attempt to guess the whole thing!

  • hiddenranbir #8 3 years ago

    EA, put your games on IMPULSE.
    Edited by 1 at 04/11/08 @ 10:12

  • gaselite #9 3 years ago

    this. is. brilliant.

  • Fleisch #10 3 years ago

    Steam ftw!

  • mcmonkeyplc #11 3 years ago

    tards!

  • Pirotic #12 3 years ago

    What if they forgot to put the DVD in? would they make you manually type 6gb of hex until it ended up with the game :p

  • warlockuk #13 3 years ago

    It was the same with my Warhammer CD Key - they had IDENTICAL 2s and Zs and there were three other characters that could have been one of three things. It took about 15 attempts to register :)

  • JohnnyWashnGo #14 3 years ago

    God DAMN DRM rubbish.

    I hope each and every person who purchases the game contacts them to waste their time getting the last character so that they can share the pain we feel wasting out time PROVING that we have purchased the game in order to play it.

    Muppets

  • penhalion #15 3 years ago

    This is why consumers are boycotting DRM software. Now do EA finally understand!

  • Bleh #16 3 years ago

    whahahahaha, that's a real EA solution.

  • onezeonx #17 3 years ago

    ill try wiping my penis on it....will work faster

  • Paolo_ray #18 3 years ago

    "What if they forgot to put the DVD in? would they make you manually type 6gb of hex until it ended up with the game :p"

    Hahahahaha!

  • BartonFink #19 3 years ago

    LOL - nice one EA hilarious stuff.

  • [TR] #20 3 years ago

    The problem is we're actually reasonable people and will try this "guess the letter" game instead of returning the damn game for a refund. The same can't be said about EA et al. when it comes to treating customers as actual people with, what's the word... brains?

  • adcworks #21 3 years ago

    what's funny about it? blooper aside, seems like perfectly valid and reasonable way to get around it. sure beats having to take it back or whatever no?

  • Rirekon #22 3 years ago

    Making the customer type in up to 720 characters because they screwed up is not reasonable, for a start that's nearly as long as this article!

  • neilka #23 3 years ago

    720 characters? What alphabet are you using?

  • Hypocee #24 3 years ago

    He's multiplying by the full 20 characters every time, as the Control key is against his religion.

    Preorder bonus: Free 1337 crypto brute-forcing minigame included!

  • chrisjm #25 3 years ago

    '720 characters? What alphabet are you using? '

    if Copy past doesnt work 36 * 20 chars = 720

  • gaselite #26 3 years ago

    what's with all the bitching? can you think of a better solution to an unfortunate accident?

    The way they've put forth the answer is very funny, and it's a mild inconvenience rather than a major hassle.

  • chrisjm #27 3 years ago

    yes but its not a one off, they are treating their paying customers like pirates and pirates are free to be treated 1st class customers as its all striped out anyway for them.

  • Wyrm #28 3 years ago

    'what's with all the bitching? can you think of a better solution to an unfortunate accident?'

    It's just the sheer incompetance of the situation. They make sure the DRM and copy protection is all in place and then do a half arsed job of allowing the paying public access to the software they bought. It illustrates EA's priorities perfectly.

  • Freek #29 3 years ago

    So if this trend continues, will we have to hack the next EA game in order to play it? ;p

  • paketep #30 3 years ago

    EA itself is no more than a fucking blooper.

  • actionfitz #31 3 years ago

    so after swallowing the bitter SecuRom Rootkit pill and forking out for the glorified game rental that is an EA PC game purchase these days...
    you get this?
    lol.
    just wish they would offer usb mouse and keyboard support for the inevitable console version.
    faced with a choice between Piracy and the 'EA consumer experiance', i vote for the 3rd way of sticking to console games, or smearing lambs blood on my front doo rand letting the cash rest in my bank and wait till the angel of DRM passes over.

  • SeesThroughAll #32 3 years ago

    This really sounds like a joke.

  • stephen #33 3 years ago

    FAIL.

  • Sar #34 3 years ago

    FUCK.





    ME.




    /slaps forehead.

    EA you suck. Seriously. This is how you tell your legit customers to fix your fuck ups?

    Bloody hell. Following the whole Spore DRM debacle, then having a jumped up moderator tell your community that a forum ban equals a EA-catalogue wide game ban, then this?

    Jesus H on a fucking stick.

    Here's a thought EA: Just charge people for an email containing a link to a pirate copy of the game. It'd be quicker than gradually driving all your legit customers to warez, which is what the past few "hilarious" months have amounted to.
    Edited by 1 at 04/11/08 @ 19:33

  • Shakey_Jake33 #35 3 years ago

    Oh god guys. Complaining about the DRM is fair enough (such such critisism is deserved for such a hideous system). It's also fair enough to poke fun at the various forum moderator threats, and their suspicious retractions afterwards. But this was clearly a simple misprint, and they've pointed out a rather sensible way people get get around it.

  • dacicus #36 3 years ago

    It was a simple misprint, but EA's support should mail those keys to people who have the misprinted versions. It's not nice putting your customers to guess what key they have. I call that just not caring about your customer. And don't forget that the EA's support phone number is paid and it's not cheap at all. God forbids to phone at EA's support, you'll pay your game again trying to convince them that you have an original game and the problem is at hrie end.