Quinburger,

If your still having issues sending the pics, send them to me at [email protected], as well.

[email protected] helped me with my ICO registration issues...

They were fast, too!

nvm

I am having the same issues, just bought it, and while the cd-key is valid for the download page, it won't let me register it to my StarDock account. It's quite frustrating. I've just emailed support about it, and included scans of the outside cover, inside cover, inside of the box (with reg. code), and a screencap of the StarDock registration failure, showing the same key entered. I got this from a GameStop in Orchard Park, NY (just outside of Buffalo).

Help? ^^
-[GPA] Nemesis

I've got a similar problem; but I've received the game (bought online) as a gift. I've downloaded it finally when the rego thingo accepted a combination of code and email (about 6 tries), and now I cannot activate it for some reason. Now I have a gift I cannot use, but wait for the god of "customer service" with its sorely restricted availability.

I have to tell you stardock guys, I've seen better systems. And I'm a bit pissed about your claims how user friendly this is compared to normal CD protection methods, because it is not. It's in fact a far worse solution with a totally un-friendly stardock application extra on top of it.

There are always going to be a few people with issues in any system, unfortunately. For most people it all works smoothly and without issue. SDC itself is also going to be replaced very soon with a much more robust and user-friendly system.

As to your issue with activation, contact [email protected] about it and they'll be able to get you fixed up.

I also can't register, with a game bought from Gamestop. I'd dearly like to get the patch to fix Vista flashing screens. So you advise me to just contact [email protected]? Thanks!

I had similar trouble myself, and realized i typed a o instead of 0. When i corrected this i still got the invalid serial message. it took about 10 attempts for me to realize that when i made the first mistake, it erased the paassword i chose for registration. As soon as i retyped the password it accepted the serial.

Here is an odd problem.
I just recently bought Sins from Best Buy and it will not autoload for some reason so I took the game back and got another one and it also fail to autoload on my Dell 4600 series, I took that disk back and best buy tried it out and it failed somewhat on their computer too. I am stumped, I tested my cd drive several times with recent games and old ones as well and they all installed perfectly.
What am I doing wrong?  

You may have an antivirus program that is blocking the launcher (McAffee in particular for one). In any case, you can simply open the disc in explorer and run setup.exe manually if the launcher won't fire up on its own.

Well I can see one thing happening very soon.

If they don't start supporting the CD Key issue.
Its going to be free everywere on the internet, if a person can't register there key, why keep it secret?

Lets hope it never gets to this stage! But I fear it approaching shortly!

P.S. - I have yet to get my CD Key to work fresh out of the box. My friends want to buy the game, but won't until my key is registerable. We all want to lan this game!

This really sucks. My serial number is invalid and from everything I'm reading on here, sounds like I'm not going to be able to play online either.

Simply contact support and they'll get you working, as everyone else has done.

Well, I might as well thow my name into the hat with this exact same problem. Got the game from Gamestop here in Newark Ohio, and I go to register, and gives me the invalid serial number. I was shocked, so I tried multiple times changing zeros to O's and yeah, same thing. I sent an email to the support, but I did not check here first to add the pictures of the box and serial key sticker.

I think what's going on here, is that somewhere through the chain before it's getting to the retail store, that someone is repacking the game, or that multiple serial keys that are exactly the same are being distributed by accident to multiple games. What I mean is, there could be many games with the exact same serial key. I could understand this problem, because I've had games back in the day that had the same serial key as another person.

I'd have to stress to everyone that seems right p-o'd that you need to show some restraint and patience, because we are not the only ones facing this problem. Their system is distributing serial keys that are exactly the same to multiple people without even realizing it's doing it, or it's a person doing it. You can't blame the retailer's (best buy, eb, gamestop) because they have zero control over how the serial keys get distributed, and do not put serial keys on any games. The only place I believe does that, is where the game is being packaged. So, if they use an automated system to generate serial keys, they really need to check that for a bug, or a printing error.

Anyway, just send an email, like we've all done, so that you get into the support queue, then just follow whatever they ask of you so that you get it resolved. If you already are getting support and there isn't a result for you yet, continue to be patient because they are having to deal with (potentially) millions of people that have this exact same problem. So, chill out, and try and play another game to take yer mind off this. That's all I can really say about it. I have the same problem, and I'm just a joe shmoe.

I'm currently plowing through all the account email right now that occured over the Easter vaction. We are still having some support troubles with our providers. Good news there is that we are going to locally host the support software so this will not occur in future.

Some serial numbers seem to be having troubles. Many of them seem to be the ones purchased from Game Stop and EB Games. If you write into support we can always verify the purchase and take steps to just make it work on our end. The only thing we cannot help with is if someone sold you a used serial number. However we evaluate every single case as not all of them are cut and dry. So no matter what email support and we will do all that we can to help.

Please be patient as we are burning the midnight oil and don't want anyone waiting longer than they have to.

Hey Seabass, I know your busy and all, or any other Support that happenst to be reading this, but I sent my email on monday (and the impatient iche has struck =( ) and I was wondering if the covertops email was seen in the multitudes of other emails lol. I got mine from EB. Just thought I'd post since I hadn't seen anything in my email since your post. No big though, just wanted to see what was what.

I think that the problem is someone repacking along the way with copies coming into Gamestop and EB Games, as CoverTops25 said. I know this is not what everyone wants to hear, but a problem like this really does not seem to be Stardocks fault. I'm sure they will help us out but everyone needs to be a little patient. Just practice against the computer a little and hone your skills until support can reply back to you with some info.

Cover I'm sorry but a reply was sent out to you and I neglected to post here saying so. If you need anything please let us know either here or through that responce.

As to the EB Games thing I did want to mention this. While I have nothing on the company personally I have been dealing with serial issues from them since I got here. Long before Sins, and long before Stardock was doing the publishing.

We will assist you as best as we can with any serial issues you might run into. However please keep in mind that we publish, it passes through 1,000 hands, then gets sold to you through a last set of hands. There is plenty of ways to mess any part of that up.

I assume that this is all because of the fact that I cannot register and get updates, but when I try to log on I get I get the error message that I have the "Wrong Version of Ironclad Online Detected". Just wondering if anyone else is getting this message as well (in addition to the plethora of Serial Number invalid messages). Oh and as a side note support did just get back to me and had me try some things with Stardock central which did not work so now I have to send them my login.txt file to be looked at. They got back to me in I would say 4 days or so. I think any of you who are saying that its taking far too long may have been sending duplicate e-mails and getting yourselves sent to the bottom of the list. Make sure you just send one e-mail and then wait for a response.

Yes, that simply means you're running an outdated version. ICO only supports the latest version of the game.

yeah for the next, patch, you guys just need to add the words...."Old version detected. Please update to play online" That will solve so many problems.

2 things that I've heard, etc.
1 someone said that you could put any old serial into the game and that it would work.. I don't get that the serial wouldn't have built in checksums, but if someone uses someone elses serial before they've bought it, it just stands to reason that later they will get bumped from it, and it'll make the poor customer service peoples have to work twice as hard.
2 the update is not self evident as to that that is what it is

Sins of a Solar Empire Bonuspack (v1.03)
Released: March 12, 2008 Size: 16.5 MB

This isn't a bonus pack, it's the update you can also dl the update from a couple of different 3rd party download sites.
If the rumors are true and you can put any old number in the serial to make it work, please don't.. it just clogs up the whole system.. if you think about buying a copy from ebay, you should consider if it is worth the hassles that having a previously used serial entails..

Registering the game with us (to get updates) or creating an account on ICO does require an actual valid serial, not just any old input.

Ha ha wouldn't that be nice. If your serial number doesn't work, just make one up and Stardock will put it through the system for you. I'd love to know who told you that one. By the way as an update I just got another e-mail from support asking for some pictures of my serial and box. I e-mailed them out just now. That was less than 24 hour turn around. Anyone who keeps on saying that support isn't getting back to them is either sending duplicate e-mails or being a jerk in their e-mails and getting ignored. Just send one e-mail at a time and be polite and support will get back to you relatively quickly (especially considering how bogged down they are with e-mails).

as far s who said it.. it was several people in the ico chatroom where you connect to to get games.. the forst person said they just bumped their serial by one digit, and the most recent one said he used like 12434342342345234323333 or something silly like that.. they are probably lieing, but why?? also, assuming that the chat room is logged, why would they talk about it right in there.. makes no sense