Another day, another piece of drama surrounding the Age of Conan launch. The official EU Age of Conan forums (still open only to subscribers of the game, even for reading) are currently erupting in a massive storm of good old "nerd rage".

It turns out that some (but not all) product keys found in the more expensive Collector's Edition (european version) are not working.

No definite pattern has emerged yet, but the problem appears widespread with 17 pages of complaints so far - and this is only from people who were in the Early Access - those with shiny CE boxes but no Early Access are still locked out of the forums if their product key turns out to be a dud.

To make matters worse, Funcom has continued their tradition of offering customer support only via email. So the only potential solutions at this point are both pretty bad - either return the copy for a refund and get a normal version (assuming the retailer even accepts the game back), or toss an email to the Funcom support and hope you get a reply someday soon...

In addition to the product key woes, there are reports that some of the limited and numbered Collector's Edition copies are missing the number. Either the holographic sticker is missing, or there is a sticker, but no number. Eidos and Funcom are apparently having some quality control issues with the physical product...

Normal edition seems to be unaffected at this time. No official word yet on either issue from Funcom, but I'm sure there is mad scurrying going on at their Norwegian headquarters... before the restless natives turn up at their offices with torches and pitchforks.

Comments

	valtterieranen 2008-05-23 #1 I think we can stop comparing AoC's launch troubles to WoW now.
	Jarnis 2008-05-23 #2 Well, "oops, we printed ton of boxes with non-working product keys" qualifies as "Epic Fail at Launching A MMO" in my books. But I must say, to AoC:s credit: The servers are up, there is plenty of capacity it seems, and everything is mostly working. Well, Mail system, Auction system and bank are offline as there was some exploit with the Trader npcs (they are now turned off), and there is one zone that crashes your system with a massive memory leak if you go there - but thankfully that's like level 25+ stuff anyway... But other than that, yeah it's mostly working. Of course who knows how many thousand CE buyers are screaming outside as they can't register their accounts...
	Unregistered 2008-05-23 #3 Unfortunately I am one of the dickheads that bought CE just to realise that the ingame item-rewards aren't what was promised and now after finaly receiving my copy and taking monday off I can't play. Bunch of idiots
	Jarnis 2008-05-23 #4 Supposedly if you now log in to the account creation site and try to create a brand new account with the non-working key (*not* upgrade early access), it gives you instructions how to get your key replaced.
	amv1981 2008-05-23 #5 Got home with my CE just to realise key's not valid.. Funny thing is that they want you to send in your acitvation key to get it replaced... in the manual they state they will never ask for your key... of course as this one does not work I guess it's the only option but I still find it funny. Let me also add that I am angry! *arghhh* /A
	Unregistered 2008-05-24 #6 For me is even funnier. The collector's edition doesn't content any game manual, so there's no key for me to create an account. Thinking about go back to WoW.
	Unregistered 2008-05-24 #7 "For me is even funnier. The collector's edition doesn't content any game manual, so there's no key for me to create an account. Thinking about go back to WoW." As far as I know, the CD key should be in the holographic sticker on the back of the main box, although mine didn't and if there is one it may well be a dud.
	Unregistered 2008-05-24 #8 Utter bullshit, bought the retail game from finland (basic vanilla version) and it's not working. One thing to remind us to keep sucking those torrents even harder. If 50€ game bought straight from the store doesn't work...This game doesn't deserve players.
	Unregistered 2008-05-24 #9 Quote: Originally Posted by Unregistered "For me is even funnier. The collector's edition doesn't content any game manual, so there's no key for me to create an account. Thinking about go back to WoW." As far as I know, the CD key should be in the holographic sticker on the back of the main box, although mine didn't and if there is one it may well be a dud. No. The sticker has the "x of xxxxx" numbering. Key is at the back of the manual.
	nikk15 2008-05-25 #10 CE working fine here
	Unregistered 2008-05-27 #11 This is utter bullshit, I didn't pay 90€ to not be able to play the game. I'll give them a day if I havn't got my cd-key by then....
	Unregistered 2008-06-04 #12 Omg I dont know what to do I have sent an email and they replied saying that my key was not on their LIST!! PLZ HELP ME!
	Jarnis 2008-06-04 #13 Quote: Originally Posted by Unregistered Omg I dont know what to do I have sent an email and they replied saying that my key was not on their LIST!! PLZ HELP ME! All you can do is complain to Funcom support or return the game where you bought it from - probably with printouts of emails proving that Funcom is unwilling to help you.
	Unregistered 2008-07-05 #14 Im still waiting for my f***ing CD key from them.I mean the **** mail.Man I never went threw this crap wen I was starting WoW.Man I hate WoW.
	robertglysen 2008-07-05 #15 Well, I WAS hovering over the buy button at play.com not 5 mins ago, ahh well, back to wow, til they sort it out.