My journey with the not working cd key so far

[Xaahr]

just read about the cd key problems with older ea games and wanted to try it myself, so i installed crysis. i bought the game on the 21st december 2013 and haven't played it before.
i also got the not working cd key problem. the key is shown in my steam library and i also tried to activate it on origin which also tells me that the key isn't working.

so i contacted the ea support.
after a longer chat where they wanted all the data about the time when and where i bought the game, the cd key and what the problem is they told me that they can't help and that i have to contact the steam support.

the steam support just told me that i have to contact the ea support and that they can't help me.

i know where the problem comes from and ea revoked some keys because of the ea play exploit but this is just not acceptable.
never had ea play and didn't exploit anything just wanted to play a game that i bought years ago.
i could use some third party tools to skip activation but that shouldn't be necessary for a legally bought copy. they still sell the game here that doesn't work for all or at least some customers.

so please anyone wha has the same problem: contact some big gaming news sites about this. this has to be made a lot bigger and not just a side note from weeks ago.
also contact something like consumer protection if you live in germany or if there's something similar in your country

greetings

[Marcus]

I want to say that the game itself works well, although Gog basically does not do anything except PR, but I have Crysis on Gog and it works without any problems. This artificial obstacle with CD-key in Steam is deliberate damage to the game and players from EA.

[UmbralPenumbra]

Having been on Steam for almost 17 years now I highly recommend people buy games somewhere other than Steam when possible. Valve is just a scummy corporation and really EA is no better. The way I see these corporations treat customers it's unlikely I'll ever buy another video game in my life unless it's with someone elses money

Trying to speak out about it will unfortunately do no good, because not enough people care, and these companies are 'too big to fail' now. Steam now is to PC gaming what YouTube is to online videos; a monopoly. No competition = no reason to not be a total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

If these people won't let you play a game you paid for, then pirate it. ♥♥♥♥ them

[retro_Ed]

It is EA (confirmed) which disabled many games CD-keys.
This happened also to me.
I contacted Valve and in the end they offered a full refund to DeadSpace1/2 bundle from year 2013 purchase.

Discussing with EA:s bots was useless.

I`ll give 10/10 to Valves customer support. EA 0/10
p.s. I refused refunding because games CD-keys was activated at certain point.

[ikilleddave]

How did you contact steam support? they seem to just be a dead end, I'm going to contact trading standards in my country because this is disgusting behaviour by both companies.

[Cyber Nyran]

I dont normalyl have a problem with STEAM. Epic store is a way worse at least for what i play games for mostly offline. Try re installing the game and deleting paul.dll and GL and see if that works and maybe eve try a couple of compatability modes, like WIndows 7

[Cyber Nyran]

maybe also buy it on GOG. No DRM and it will work.

[Ceejay]

Originally posted by Cyber Nyran:

maybe also buy it on GOG. No DRM and it will work.

That is only if the drm is the issue, there are also posts of GOG's forums having issues. The thing is its an old game, incompatibilities are going to happen, its a case of trying some fixes and see if they get round it.

Though if its a cd key issue, this is purely down to EA, and people need to speed to EA, in the past Ive spoken to them twice had great Customer Service even if you have to jump through a few hoops to get to the end. (admittedly the last time I has to speak to them was about 8-9 years ago, it may have changed)

[Cyber Nyran]

Originally posted by Ceejay:

Originally posted by Cyber Nyran:

maybe also buy it on GOG. No DRM and it will work.

That is only if the drm is the issue, there are also posts of GOG's forums having issues. The thing is its an old game, incompatibilities are going to happen, its a case of trying some fixes and see if they get round it.

Though if its a cd key issue, this is purely down to EA, and people need to speed to EA, in the past Ive spoken to them twice had great Customer Service even if you have to jump through a few hoops to get to the end. (admittedly the last time I has to speak to them was about 8-9 years ago, it may have changed)

it was actually working fine for me until the LAST Windows 10 update. Now its not working anymore lol. So if i bought it on EA Origin would it work though? is this a Windows 10 issue?

[Ceejay]

Originally posted by Cyber Nyran:

Originally posted by Ceejay:

That is only if the drm is the issue, there are also posts of GOG's forums having issues. The thing is its an old game, incompatibilities are going to happen, its a case of trying some fixes and see if they get round it.

Though if its a cd key issue, this is purely down to EA, and people need to speed to EA, in the past Ive spoken to them twice had great Customer Service even if you have to jump through a few hoops to get to the end. (admittedly the last time I has to speak to them was about 8-9 years ago, it may have changed)

it was actually working fine for me until the LAST Windows 10 update. Now its not working anymore lol. So if i bought it on EA Origin would it work though? is this a Windows 10 issue?

Honestly I cannot answer that as mine works so not had to look into fixes etc. If it was working till the last update, its not likely a drm issue, so not sure the gog version would work either. (if you had the drm issue, it would never had worked essentially)

Try a full reinstall then go through some of the fixes. They should get you up and running again (its a pain I know).

You could try your key on origin and see if it accepts is as some keys were multiplatform. However I would not just buy it again (well unless you have money to burn).

[Cyber Nyran]

Originally posted by Ceejay:

Originally posted by Cyber Nyran:

it was actually working fine for me until the LAST Windows 10 update. Now its not working anymore lol. So if i bought it on EA Origin would it work though? is this a Windows 10 issue?

Honestly I cannot answer that as mine works so not had to look into fixes etc. If it was working till the last update, its not likely a drm issue, so not sure the gog version would work either. (if you had the drm issue, it would never had worked essentially)

Try a full reinstall then go through some of the fixes. They should get you up and running again (its a pain I know).

You could try your key on origin and see if it accepts is as some keys were multiplatform. However I would not just buy it again (well unless you have money to burn).

i had to do the crazy swap the Crysis Warhead 64 folder and change it to the BIN 32 folder etc. Now it all works. Crysis and Warhead.

[Мафия]

me lo acabo de comprar nuevito y pasa lo mismi

[Xaahr]

contacted EA again.
still won't help, aber i sent them screenshots of my steam page of crysis with all the infos what time i bought the game for what price etc.

they wan't a copy of the confirmation mail from when i bought the game.
this was 2013....as if i would keep mails from that long ago

i use c1launcher with 64bit executables from the gog version now. at least this works.

[Ceejay]

Originally posted by Xaahr:

contacted EA again.
still won't help, aber i sent them screenshots of my steam page of crysis with all the infos what time i bought the game for what price etc.

they wan't a copy of the confirmation mail from when i bought the game.
this was 2013....as if i would keep mails from that long ago

i use c1launcher with 64bit executables from the gog version now. at least this works.

Woah that is rather harsh, how can they expect you to keep that? Its been a while since I had to contact them to be fair, but they were not that dismissive with me. They just basically reset my install number straight away. With another issue, we did go back and forth a few times over a couple of days, but eventually resolved the issue.

Sounds like their customer service has gone downhill somewhat.

[Cyber Nyran]

Originally posted by Xaahr:

contacted EA again.
still won't help, aber i sent them screenshots of my steam page of crysis with all the infos what time i bought the game for what price etc.

they wan't a copy of the confirmation mail from when i bought the game.
this was 2013....as if i would keep mails from that long ago

i use c1launcher with 64bit executables from the gog version now. at least this works.

better off to just do this crazy fix. because it actually does work. Why developers cant just make a WIndows 10 patch , how long could it possibly take to make a Windows 10 patch?

This First Method Requires That You "Own" Crysis Warhead.
About half an hour ago I purchased Crysis(Steam), Crysis 2(Origin), Crysis Warhead(Steam), and Crysis 3(Origin). I have yet to test my Origin downloads but neither Steam version would launch. I was getting really upset as I had purchased these games from a Third Party Source. No matter what patches I tried to download or anything of that sort fixed Crysis. So I tried launching Crysis Warhead, same freaking error! Checked the files in Warhead and was surprised to see a "Bin64" folder! I Immediately double clicked on the 64bit application and the game launched! Praise Gaiben! After closing the game and attempting to launch it again via steam it wouldn't so...

METHOD 1)

For Crysis Warhead:
1) Download Both Crysis & Crysis Warhead
2) Open the folder where Crysis Warhead is installed
3) You'll see a Bin32 folder and a Bin64 folder
4) Delete the Bin32 folder
5) Rename the Bin64 folder to Bin32
6) Open the new Bin32 folder
7) Delete the "Crysis" application
8) Rename the "Crysis64" application to just "Crysis"
9) Crysis Warhead Now Works!

For Crysis:
1) Right click and copy that new Bin32 folder you made for Crysis Warhead
2) Paste it into the Crysis install file (replace the old "Bin32" file with the new one from Crysis Warhead.
3) Crysis Now Works!

METHOD 2)

I Haven't Tested This But This Should (But It's NOT Guaranteed) To Work

1) Go here: http://www.crytek.com/games/crysis/overview/download
2) Download "Crysis Patch 1.2"
3) Run it
4) Let us know if that worked lol

You're Welcome, feel free to comment on my profile or add me if you need any additional help.

Wanted to point out, that this method does work, but when you launch Crysis and start a new game, it will play the cenimatic and the screen will go black, you will have to hit the ~ key to open a command prompt, type con_restricted 0 then hit enter, then type map island and hit enter. at this point the game should start loading. (you only need to do this for starting new games, not any loads.)
hope this helps.

[puddle427]

this can fix it but it is a huge problem https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2381405788