I'm having the same problem. Picked up the game from Fry's Electronics in Tempe, AZ today and after installing it (box and CD's were sealed) I can't register. I've sent an e-mail to Stardock support but it's a holiday weekend, which likely means I'm SOL until next week. Dammit.

For those in this situation who have not already done so, please send your serial in an email to [email protected] so that it can be looked up. That is the only way to tell for sure whether or not a serial has been previously used to register a game.

Please be aware that Fry's is perfectly happy to re-seal boxes that have been returned to them, and they have no way to tell whether or not the serial has been used. Just because it looks all shiny and new does not mean that this is in fact the case. Try asking them whether or not they can guarantee that anyone else has ever seen the inside of that box, and watch their eyes . . . and then demand an actual new box.

I'm not sure what else I can suggest. Serials do not get linked with an email address until they are used. They can only be used when someone opens up the box, reads the serial number, and enters it into one of our online registration forms. If the serial is already registered, it means someone else has done the above before you. That person is the legal owner of the game's license.

If Norway is as strict as you say on used merchandise, then it should not be a problem to go back to the store and demand a copy that has not been sold and used beforehand.

I agree that it is unfortunate. However, from our point of view, the net result is that two people end up having copies of the game, but we only get paid for one (or, since it is a retail copy of the game published by Paradox in Europe, a really tiny fraction of one which was probably eaten up by the time it took me to write this message).

The ultimate solution is likely to be that we will simply avoid doing CD releases for as many games as possible and just sell them online. We are selling licenses to games. The fact that those games and the serials currently have to be distributed by stores on physical media is an inconvenience that both we and our customers could do without. It creates many needless problems.

The packaging should say that. We will have to talk to Paradox about that.

As mentioned above, only selling online is the ideal approach, although I have to admit that it is not one we are likely to achieve in the short term.

Speaking as a developer, not as a sales expert or support guy (which I'm not), I'd have thought our agreement would be more likely to be that they must not accept returns, because they could never guarantee that the software had not been used. Once a user has been sold a box with a serial in, that should be it. Either that or we would have to setup some kind of "unused serial verification" system, or a method for authorized retailers to de-register serials (I can see all sorts of bad possibilities there . . .)

There is a grace period - and quite a liberal one. You have the game. You can play it just fine - and even get a patch level that both fixes problems and adds features. You just can't play the very latest updated version until you have a valid, unused serial. Our policy has always been that the initial purchaser of the game is the owner, because they are the one who "signs the contract" by using the serial, and that if a retailer mistakenly accepts a return, then they have to fix it. That is part of the cut that the get (and it's a big one). If this is a problem, I would suggest that you contact the official gripeline, which is read by management.

Frankly I'd prefer the solution to be to give you the email of the person who originally registered the serial and then let you go from there as you wish, but I suspect that gets into privacy of information implications.

Our general policy is to assume people are telling the truth.  But since you bought it in Norway, this is really a Paradox issue.  Stardock is only the developer of the game. This is really a matter for Paradox to resolve.

When something like this pops up, why can't the old serial be revoked and a new one issued?

Just require the new customer to fax / mail a copy of their receipt.

Problem solved?

I am sorry, but we are finger pointing because Paradox are the ones who are paid to support you, through the direct revenue that they get from sales of the game. They get their slice in part because it is their job to deal with problems in their area of distribution. Paradox are the ones who have relationships with the stores there, and if anyone can investigate a problem with reusing boxes, then it is them. It is not in any way easy or prudent for us to talk to a store halfway across the world which we have no relationship with and which doesn't know who we are, about a single box of a game.

If you had bought directly from us it would be a different matter, as we have more control over the billing and serial allocation. Similarly, for American distribution, we are the publisher and can talk to our distributors. In Europe, though, once we deliver the gold master and the list of serials, it is up to Paradox as publisher to ensure that you have a satisfactory experience. That is what a publisher does.

We have undertaken to them to provide software updates and technical support to the first person who registers that serial. That is the extent of our responsibility. You may be able to get an additional serial from Paradox, and they can then try and recover the costs from the retailer involved. That is their responsibility, which is why we are telling you to talk to them.

The license for an individual serial is not transferable; check the EULA.txt file - indeed, check the licensing agreement for just about any software product, game or otherwise. It is not possible for you to legally own a copy of a game with a serial that was previously registered by another person. It was never possible to for the original owner to transfer it in the first place, unless they had written permission from us to do so, in which case their account would have been delinked from that serial number. Game stores like to ignore that fact because it is bad for them to have to say "sorry, you cannot return this game because you used it", but those are the conditions under which the software was originally licensed.

We do not call our patches patches precisely because that is not what they are - they are updates, which may include both features and bug fixes, but tend to include more of the former and less of the latter as time goes on. I'm sure there are a few bugs fixed in 1.2 that are not fixed in 1.0X. However, I'm not sure where you're going with the security concern, as the only net contact that happens is an outgoing web connection to Stardock to transfer game results for the metaverse.

Uberturkey: We than have to deal with the people who make up receipts, and the old user email addresses that are no longer reachable (but then we get complaints a month later that "my updates stopped working"). Licenses are not transferable precisely because it is a hassle that is not worth our time to solve. If it were a $500 software product, maybe. It is not. I suspect I pay more for my lunch than than we get from a European sales, and I'm not a big eater, nor is food expensive here.

Uberturkey: That could get them into trouble as well (Though it is no different than denying the fully featured product from a legal licensee in the first place which this debate is about)

The sorry fact is that unless you are willing to enter into a induvidual contract with each buyer there are no good ways to prevent some unlicensed users. (And even then it is almost impossible). This is essentially a cost of doing buisness.

My gripe is with companies who in their efforts to limit such practices are willing to victimice their paying customers. Pirates will propably not have any problems getting hold of cracked updates, so they will actually get a fully functional products, while those of us who want to have a legal license end up getting the short end of the stick. This is actually the real consequence of stardocks policy. (What pirate would bother faking a CD and receipt, when they can just download the whole thing of the net, updates and all)

Frogboy: From my point of view and, I have no customer relationship with paradox. I bought the game from a store, then it turned out that I needed to get the actual license from you. I don't see how finger-pointing helps resolve the matter. If you have bookeeping issues in dealing with serial numbers sold through distributors then I suggest you resolve those internally. You have taken it upon yourselves to validate my legally bought license (and make no mistake, I do own a license. (Unless you can claim the reseller is not authorised to sell licenses, which I doubt)), you have not held up your part of the contract (And this is your issue, paradox do not to my knowledge validate your serial numbers).

I'm just pointing out the fact - in Europe, Paradox is the publisher. We are not involved at any level with the manufacturing, distribution or selling of the game in Norway. We *developed* the game. We provide updates to the game that require the serial # that Paradox put in the box and sent to Norway.  I am not sure what you expect Stardock to do. Stardock is not invovled in any part of the "contract" you speak of. 

To use an analogy, if you buy a book and the cover on the book is ripped, it is not up to the author of the book to make good on that. The party responsible would be first the store and if that fails, the publisher of the book.   There is no connection between you and us other than us providing the free service to obtain updates to the game which requires a valid serial # that was provided in the box by Paradox. 

My suggestion to you would be to return the game and ask for a refund. That is what I would do in your situation. Failing that, contact Paradox (whose contact info should be in the box) and ask them to make good.

To my knowledge the problem they had was just in the first run where they didn't realize that the content serials were just for content. There was another problem where our own manufacturing partner mixed up the serial files and content serials were used for both content and the CD, but I believe that only affected our area of distribution (and it's one we've been fixing - I've handled a few cases on IRC myself). These things happen, but we know when they happen and can deal with them.

Has anyone had a satisfactory response to this issue?

I recently bought a copy of Gal Civ 2 at Game in the UK and attempted to register it. Can't. Support claim that the CD key is already registered. However the key is printed on the CD, which in turn was inside the sealed, cellophane wrapped case and thus could not be read before it was opened.

Looking at previous posts, I don't hold out much hope of resolving this as it appears previous complaints have degenerated into a finger pointing exercise!