Purchased on Steam, Doesn't work and I have no Product Key to register!?!

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[Frank_VSTEP]

Ok gents,

I just checked this with Paradox and they are aware of this issue and they are trying to fix it ASAP. It is an unfortunate surprise to us at VSTEP as well, but I'm confident that the folk at Paradox & STEAM will get it solved and they will get your game working with STEAM. I cannot do much more but ask you politely for some patience...

Rest assured we are aware and are following this up with them as well...

[pranox]

cmon whats up with people this wil be fixed soon so stop complaining like a spoild brat. mine is not working eder but i dont complain i will just simply try it again in some hours... so what are you guys problem you can't wait a bit you are just starting to complain as fast as you can. i'm sure this problem is gone by some hours.

[sonarman]

Sadly it does seem Ship Sim is suffering from "Silent Hunter 5 Syndrome" paying customers denied the right to play boxed products due to moronic DRM schemes on one hand whilst the game has obviously been shipped far too early full of bugs just to meet it's scheduled date. The day one patch is evidence of this judging by the large number of key issues it addresses. This is sadly now an industry wide state of affairs caused not by dedicated developers like VStep & the SH5 guys at Ubisoft Romania (who I do think both strive to provide a quality product) but by publishers out of touch with their customers and in the pockets of the shareholders.  

We as customers are also in a large way to blame for this ourselves buying into the myth/lies of digital distribution now we have more expensive games, no printed manuals, poor support (steam 3-4 days for a response!) and games we can't play because a company is too lazy/busy to flick an activation switch.  Oh yeah it's a really big improvement over boxed product! No wonder the simulation genre is dead on its feet.

[Rac0r]

Sadly it does seem Ship Sim is suffering from "Silent Hunter 5 Syndrome" paying customers denied the right to play boxed products due to moronic DRM schemes on one hand whilst the game has obviously been shipped far too early full of bugs just to meet it's scheduled date. The day one patch is evidence of this judging by the large number of key issues it addresses. This is sadly now an industry wide state of affairs caused not by dedicated developers like VStep (who I do think strive to provide a quality product) but by publishers out of touch with their customers and in the pockets of the shareholders.  

We as customers are also in a large way to blame for this oursevles buying into the myth/lies of digital distribution now we have more expensive games, no printed manuals, poor support (steam 3-4 days for a response!) and games we can't play because a company is too lazy/busy to flick an activation switch.  Oh yeah it's a really big improvement over boxed product! No wonder the simulation genre is dead on its feet.

Yeah, the way it's going these days, stuff like http://www.onlive.com will be the future. I fear the day.

[cherbert]

Seems it has been pulled from Steam as of this moment. Also.. I only paid £24.99. I thought it sounded a bit cheap at the time - I wonder if this was a mistake since the description was also wrongly talking about some puzzle game. Then suddenly it was gone from the Steam store.

If it was wrongly priced then its a bit of a result! ;-)

[Miller85]

I tried registering earlier to try and get some advice but after 12 hours or so it seems that the forum doesn't like Yahoo! addresses - or at least it didn't earlier... Used my main address and voila, it works fine!

Anyway. I'm one of those sorts of people who loves 'stuff' like ships but without ever really getting involved with reading or learning about them; I'd never thought about getting a ship simulator before but I confess the recent trailers of SSE made the idea quite appealing.

I read quite a few bits on the forum over the past couple of days (mostly to see if anywhere around the Moray or Cromarty Firth regions were modelled (but couldn't find out)) and decided to take the plunge. A few people mentioned using www.coolshop.co.uk to buy from so on Thursday evening I placed an order for the digital download version.

This morning I successfully downloaded and installed SSE but was prompted to enter my serial key. My account info with coolshop.co.uk had a "Installation key" heading but there was no key listed so I couldn't complete the installation. Could someone elaborate on "what should be happening"? I contacted coolshop.co.uk and they replied (within 3 minutes!) that I need to contact Vstep to see about acquiring a key. I contacted Vstep and they told me there was an error with Steam and that the games would be activated later.

Well that's great and all but I never mentioned Steam in my email to them so I have no idea what is going on.

Should coolshop.co.uk have been given registration keys by Vstep, which they then distribute to the customer? That seems logical to me but I'm not sure what to do now; if the retailer says to contact the developer and the developer says to wait for Steam to fix it (even though I haven't used Steam to purchase SSE)...

I don't mean to hijack the thread completely but I think my question's on the same lines as what other people have been wondering, hoping someone can help.

Thanks

[Frank_VSTEP]

Ok gents,

I just checked this with Paradox and they are aware of this issue and they are trying to fix it ASAP. It is an unfortunate surprise to us at VSTEP as well, but I'm confident that the folk at Paradox & STEAM will get it solved and they will get your game working with STEAM. I cannot do much more but ask you politely for some patience...

Rest assured we are aware and are following this up with them as well...

Ok, latest update is that STEAM boxed versions should have no problem activating through STEAM. There is only a problem with STEAM download versions (so versions that have been downloaded from the STEAM digital download store). They (Paradox/STEAM) are fixing this asap. I guess that is why they pulled the download.


Update: STEAM boxed versions still seem to have trouble activating. We have notified Paradox/STEAM about it, they are still looking into the matter.

[Frank_VSTEP]

I tried registering earlier to try and get some advice but after 12 hours or so it seems that the forum doesn't like Yahoo! addresses - or at least it didn't earlier... Used my main address and voila, it works fine!

Anyway. I'm one of those sorts of people who loves 'stuff' like ships but without ever really getting involved with reading or learning about them; I'd never thought about getting a ship simulator before but I confess the recent trailers of SSE made the idea quite appealing.

I read quite a few bits on the forum over the past couple of days (mostly to see if anywhere around the Moray or Cromarty Firth regions were modelled (but couldn't find out)) and decided to take the plunge. A few people mentioned using www.coolshop.co.uk to buy from so on Thursday evening I placed an order for the digital download version.

This morning I successfully downloaded and installed SSE but was prompted to enter my serial key. My account info with coolshop.co.uk had a "Installation key" heading but there was no key listed so I couldn't complete the installation. Could someone elaborate on "what should be happening"? I contacted coolshop.co.uk and they replied (within 3 minutes!) that I need to contact Vstep to see about acquiring a key. I contacted Vstep and they told me there was an error with Steam and that the games would be activated later.

Well that's great and all but I never mentioned Steam in my email to them so I have no idea what is going on.

Should coolshop.co.uk have been given registration keys by Vstep, which they then distribute to the customer? That seems logical to me but I'm not sure what to do now; if the retailer says to contact the developer and the developer says to wait for Steam to fix it (even though I haven't used Steam to purchase SSE)...

I don't mean to hijack the thread completely but I think my question's on the same lines as what other people have been wondering, hoping someone can help.

Thanks

It is not correct that you should contact us for a key. Coolshop should give you a key if they are the reseller. They are responsible for their products sold and should include a key. We have not given them keys, they have been given keys by Paradox.

[Rac0r]

Ok, latest update is that STEAM boxed versions will have no problem activating through STEAM. There is only a problem with STEAM download versions (so versions that have been downloaded from the STEAM digital download store). They (Paradox/STEAM) are fixing this asap. I guess that is why they pulled the download.

So the boxed versions will work ? As in the future ? They don't right now.

[Frank_VSTEP]

So the boxed versions will work ? As in the future ? They don't right now.

Ok, good to know, thanks. I will communicate back to them...and have them check again...

[Miller85]

It is not correct that you should contact us for a key. Coolshop should give you a key if they are the reseller. They are responsible for their products sold and should include a key. We have not given them keys, they have been given keys by Paradox.

Thank you Frank, I appreciate your quick reply. I'll send an email back to Coolshop and quote this, if you don't mind - I must admit the situation had left me a little confused

Thanks,

[Douglas123]

Frank i have one question what about people that bought and downloaded the game BEFORE the product was pulled off the steam store will they have to rebuy the game or will it automatically update?

[sonarman]

Let's pause for one minute & notice the time it's hitting 1am in the UK & that means it's 2am in the Netherlands and a senior VStep guy like Frank is still here that shows something about him & his company they are not to blame here and are trying to put things right, if only things were like that in the Seattle HQ of the mighty Steam empire.

[Douglas123]

I agree I just hope that for people that bought the game before it was pulled automatically update and dont have to re buy ship sim extremes

[Frank_VSTEP]

Frank i have one question what about people that bought and downloaded the game BEFORE the product was pulled off the steam store will they have to rebuy the game or will it automatically update?

I honestly don't know, but my guess is that your download will start working as soon as STEAM fixes this error with key validation. Anyway, if you have paid for it, then you will undoubtedly get a working version.

I agree I just hope that for people that bought the game before it was pulled automatically update and dont have to re buy ship sim extremes

And to reassure you, I'm pretty sure that you will not have to pay again!

[Douglas123]

Ok what a relief its just cause ive Downloaded and installed it and i can play it just starts up and says ur language is not supported so i think once they fix my game will update.

[gpurp]

I just installed from steam after a few tries.  It seemed as if SSE was removed for a while and you could not purchase it.  I also noticed text referring to another game on the SSE page.  Strange.  Anyway I was finally able to purchase and download an hour ago.  Upon first launch there's a message about a first time initialization and now all I see is a small SSE banner and a popup for MWDRCC.dll that has and OK button that won't allow me to click.  That is as far as I'm getting.

Vista Home Premium x32 SP1
4GB RAM
AMD Phenom II x3 720
ATI Radeon HD 4200 -> yeah I know

[sonarman]

So the boxed versions will work ? As in the future ? They don't right now.

My Paradox UK DVD boxed retail version is also not working its giving an "invalid product code" message I have tried logging in logging out of my steam account etc all to no avail.

[Frank_VSTEP]

My Paradox UK DVD boxed retail version is also not working its giving an "invalid product code" message I have tried logging in logging out of my steam account etc all to no avail.

Ok Sonarman, it's noted and I have updated my previous announcement. Thanks for reporting.  

[haldir323]

I also have this problem after I bought this game on steam. When I try to play, the farthest I get is to a screen during initial loading of the game where a pop up box appears with this text: "License check Error: Your language setting is not supported."

I also noticed, like was previously mentioned by another poster, that the description on the page where this game was bought on STEAM seemed to be referenceing another game about puzzles. I did not notice this until after I purchased unfortunately. Now that page does not seem to exist on steam. It links you back to the steam home url when you click on the "store page" for this game on steam.

I have submited a ticket with steam about this and I am not here to really complain but more to see if anyone else had this problem. I take some solace in the fact that I am not the only one but at the same time I'm disappointed.

Here's hoping for a quick fix.

[Douglas123]

I get the language problem as well they are fixing it as we speak by tomorrow we can wake up get on the comp then play Hopefully but they will fix it, thats why they took it down.

[george2234]

Overall a shame that the release of what should have been a fine game has been marred in this fashion. Very unprofessional to say the least.

[RMS Gigantic]

Overall a shame that the release of what should have been a fine game has been marred in this fashion. Very unprofessional to say the least.

It's the first time a Ship Simulator title has been released on Steam. You can never expect these sorts of things to go without their initial errors. The important thing is that they always get sorted out.

[Rac0r]

It's the first time a Ship Simulator title has been released on Steam. You can never expect these sorts of things to go without their initial errors. The important thing is that they always get sorted out.

Actually, you can. Professionals test stuff like that in advance just for that reason. Btw. new day - still doesn't work. This is getting ridiculous. The game has been rated down to one star at amazon.de. That's also where I'll be sending it back to on Monday if this incompetence continues.

[rogerl]

I have a boxed Steam version (Paradox) and there is an activation code on the back of the manual. But entering that activation code on Steam says "Invalid Product Code"

The same code works fine as a Valid Ship Sim Extreme registration code on these forums