My Letter to Relic Entertainment
by Michael Camilleri
Since I frequently get reactions to things I write about on this blog (much to my surprise) I thought in light of my failure to get a response from Relic Entertainment I’d write them a letter and publish it here. Letters don’t usually have titles but if mine did it would be called, ‘Hi, I want to play the game I bought from you with real money.’
Dear Relic,
I would like to be able to play my game. It is called Company of Heroes. I purchased it from you via Steam on 22 July 2007 at 7:54 am. I know the exact date and time I purchased it because I still have the email receipt that Steam sent me.
Unfortunately for me, you do not seem to know this. When I tried to play my game on the weekend of the 24th/25th I was taken to a new Relic Online login screen that I had not previously seen. After attempting to register an account with your service I was told that my serial number had already been used and my account was now banned. This confused me since I do not have an account with Relic Online and had never previously entered my serial number while playing your game.
Your service suggested that if there was a problem I contact coh-abuse@relic.com. Since there was a problem I did contact coh-abuse@relic.com. This was on the morning of Sunday 25 January 2009 my time (Saturday your time). I had not received a response on Sunday. Or Monday. Or Tuesday. It is now Wednesday and I still have not received a response (more than 80 hours later). I have written to you again asking that my inquiry be answered. This too has not had a response.
I would like to be able to play my game. I purchased it from you with real money and I am angry that this does not seem to matter to you. I have enjoyed your games in the past and was thinking about purchasing future games from you. I am now reconsidering this decision.
Please let me play my game. (I cannot believe I just had to ask that.)
Kind Regards,
Michael Camilleri
Comments
Still no answer. Sent an email to THQ today. Hopefully they reply to people that have paid them money.
THQ has responded to me. I’m going to send them my CD key when I get home and hopefully that will help move the process forward. I also emailed Valve (who responded within about an hour). They suggested a list of things to try and I’ll give that a go, too.
Haven’t heard anything from Relic.
The problem has been solved! By me!
After uninstalling the game, cleaning the registry, installing the game, verifying the game, cleaning the registry again and then everything once more just for fun I finally discovered the problem. A small file in my saved games directory entitled Local.ini had a banned CD key in it. Why did it have a banned CD key in it? I have no idea. I have never played a pirated game of Company of Heroes so it’s a mystery what would have caused the problem. Deleting the file immediately solved the problem. If someone had have told me that it would have been the end of all of this in about 30 seconds.
Oh, and it’s now been about a week and no response from Relic at all. Thanks for nothing, guys.
[...] I’ve written about what happened next (or didn’t happen, as the case may be) so I won’t repeat it [...]
100 thanks to u! solve my problem, thank for posting this useful material. now i can play my game.
No worries, ivan. Glad it helped solve the problem for you :)