On 1/2/2010 I purchased a copy of C&C: Red Alert 3 from Steam. For $10 I could not pass it up. Maybe I should have done a little more research…..
My main reason for purchasing it was for the Online Co-Op campaign.
The first thing I did after watching the intro (Which was awesome by the way) I attempted to get connected to a multiplayer game. Much to my surprise, I get an “Invalid CD-Key” error.
My first thoughts are that I need to enter a CD-Key somewhere and I managed to skip that step. After 20 minutes of searching online, emails and in the game, I realized that the CD-Key is only found by checking your registry.
I checked the support forums on Steam and found that I am not the only one that had an issue and it looks like this has popped up before. Based on what I found online, I needed to contact Steam support. Since I had never done this, I had to setup ANOTHER account with Valve to submit a support ticket. One of the questions that the support ticket asks for is the CD-Key (Which I do not have unless I want to dig through my registry).
I am currently running Windows 7 64-bit which made a couple of the guides I found online incorrect. So after some searching, I found my CD-Key at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\Electronic Arts\Red Alert 3\ergc
I am now ready to finally submit a support ticket. I copy and paste the CD-Key into the field and upon submitting the form I get “Invalid CD-Key”!!!! This is from Steam….(Or at least the support system) that I get this message. At this point I am just short of furious. I find it amazing that a game I bought a couple hours ago has an “Invalid CD-Key”! I decide to leave that field blank and then add the CD-Key to the message of the body.
So now begins my journey to find the one CD-Key to rule them all!
Stay tuned for updates as I traverse the realm of Customer Support and Digital Distribution. May god have mercy on my soul!
Update #1: Still no word from Steam support so I decided to do more digging. I found a link to an EA forum that states to reach out to Customer Service. http://forums.commandandconquer.com/jforum/posts/list/29390.page
I am waiting for their live chat customer service to answer. Will update shortly.
Update #2: Just got off the live chat and they are stating that I need to uninstall and reinstall. I figure…what the hell….might as well give it a shot.
Update #3: After some investigating, I found that the retail version has a 20 character key. I found a 32 character key. Maybe this is the problem? Not the problem.
Update #4: I uninstalled and reinstalled the game…..no dice. Surfing forums looking for a possible fix. Looks like I will have to wait until the experts get in tomorrow.
Update #5: I was looking at the wrong CD-Key. It is a 20 digit code not a 32 digit code. The 32 Digit code is the product id. Still no update from Steam, EA, or Valve.
Update #6: I sent a PM to EA_Panoptico on their support forums to see if I can get some more info…..I will keep everyone updated.
Final Update: After 48 hours of waiting, the issue was finally corrected. It looks like it was an issue between the game and the Gamespy servers.