How to save money on Battlefield 2042 Pre-orders

If you’re looking to pre-order the hot new title – Battlefield 2042 – and get it for the best price possible, our guide will help you achieve just that!

Whether you’re looking to buy Battlefield 2042 on your PC or Xbox, this guide will show you how to save more than 50% off the normal prices! Best of all, your code comes as an instant digital download.

Best ways to find discounts on Battlefield 2042:

  1. Find out if you qualify for the EA Access Trial, if you do, you may be able to get some free play-time!
  2. Watch out for any public alpha / beta playtests of Battlefield 2042. You can ‘test’ the game and as such, play for free!
  3. Buy Battlefield 2042 from a retailer that offers pre-order bonuses, such as CJS CD Keys to maximise benefits
  4. Compare prices across retailers to see which one has the best deal (from our research, CJS CD Keys has Battlefield 2042 at the best price online, according to Google Shopping, across all platforms!
  5. Consider getting it digitally as opposed to in store so you can get it cheaper and faster.
  6. Although more risky, pre-ordering will actually save you more money, because retailers usually offer much cheaper
    pricing on pre-orders and then increase the price after the game has been released.

From our research we found that the cheapest place to grab Battlefield 2042 is on CJS-CDKeys.com.

As a digital retailer, CJS CD Keys offers Battlefield 2042 on all platforms including PC, Xbox, and PS4.

This means instead of receiving something physical in the mail, you receive a digital activation code instantly after payment. Use this code to activate your game as a full download!

CJS CD Keys’ amazing prices with free digital delivery have made them one of our favourite online retailers for video games, and we know that once you’ve had your first experience shopping there it’ll become yours too!

To find out more and see their latest pricing, you can check the links below:

Battlefield 2042 (Xbox One) Digital Download Key – this version only works for Xbox One, but is much cheaper!
Battlefield 2042 (Xbox Series X / S) Digital Download Key – this version has all the Xbox Series X enhancements!
Battlefield 2042 PC Key (works on Steam) – This is for if you’re a PC Gamer!

How to save EVEN MORE money if you’re an Xbox gamer:

If that wasn’t enough, you can save even more money by using a VPN to activate your key. If you want to save even more money, why not try our VPN activated keys?  All you have to do is activate the game using a VPN, which takes just 5 minutes using our instructions below.

Activating with a VPN will save you 50%!

Our “VPN activated codes” are game keys sourced from the cheapest regions possible, such as Brazil or Argentina.  Although they’re usually region locked to a certain country, You can use a VPN to make your PC appear from that region, allowing the code to be activated to your own Xbox account, regardless of what country you’re from. 

Here’s an example of how it works:

1.  You purchase our ‘VPN activated’ key, you receive your key, and it’s designated as a key for “Brazil Region”.

2.  Follow our free guide to use a free Brazil VPN to activate your game.  The VPN will make your computer appear as if you reside in Brazil, by changing your connection to a Brazil IP address.

3.  Activate your game on the Xbox website while your Brazil VPN is turned on.

4.  Once activated, you can turn off the VPN and the game will work anywhere in the world, just as if you had bought the game from your local region!

5.  Congratulations! You probably just saved 30% off the price!  All keys we sell are guaranteed with lifetime warranty.

If you don’t want to use a VPN, simply buy a key for your own region when adding to the cart above.

If you’re interested in more details about our VPN activated keys, please read our guide on how to activate VPN codes.

After the purchase of your game, you get instant access to your code which will be instantly sent to your email as soon as payment is completed!

Buy Windows 10 CD Key Cheap – just £8.92 with instant email delivery

We have genuine Windows 10 CD Keys / Windows 10 serials at just £8.62 / €9.70 with instant delivery!

Download Windows 10 and activate at this amazing discount right now! Best price for Windows 10 CD Keys cheap, with instant email delivery!

Check out our product page below:

https://www.cjs-cdkeys.com/products/Windows-10-Professional-CD-Key-%28Digital-Download%29.html

Buy windows 10 cd key serial

Windows 10 CD Key

With over 30,000 reviews on TrustPilot, we can say with confidence that you should treat CJS CD Keys as your go-to destination for all things related to CD Keys & Serials!

XCOM 2 Steam Key promotion at CJS CD Keys

CJS CD Keys | XCOM 2 Steam Key Promotion

40% off XCOM 2 Steam Keys! Standard and Deluxe available.

CJS CD Keys currently have the BEST price on XCOM 2, Pre-order your CD Key for Steam NOW at just £25.99 / €34.09 / $38.10! The stock is due to arrive today 4th February! Please check our product page for live stock status. By the time you read this email, we may well have the games already in stock available for instant delivery!

We also offer DELUXE EDITION!

Xcom 2 CD Key Steam

Pre-order Bonus add-ons:

In addition to the standard edition of the game, you can also get pre-order BONUS DLC included with your game! Please check the product page for more details.

Digital Deluxe Edition:

Pre-order XCOM 2 Steam Keys at CJS CD Keys and you can get the DIGITAL DELUXE Edition!

The XCOM 2 Digital Deluxe Edition CD Key for Steam includes the full base game, XCOM 2 Reinforcement Pack, and the digital soundtrack.

The game isn’t released until 5th February, but we will have the CD Keys available TODAY 4th February, so you can receive your key and start pre-loading in time for the release of the game!

Remember, we are the ONLY CD Key store in the world that is TRULY automated, with NO wait times between paying and receiving your key. (PROOF HERE)

Best Price! Guaranteed!

This really is the BEST price you’ll find online, and you can start pre-loading the game immediately after receiving your key using Steam, the awesome distribution platform made by Valve Corporation!

Careful of our competitors, they aren’t so trustworthy!

Without naming any names, remember to be very wary that many shops may offer a price cheaper than us, when in fact they are more EXPENSIVE!

On CJS CD Keys, the price you see is always the price you pay. Other shops often offer a cheaper price, only to add on scam ‘payment processing fees’ or ‘payment shield fees’ which bump up the price to WELL over the price of CJS! So no matter what fake ‘prices’ you see on competing websites, you can rest assured that the price you see on CJS CD Keys is the cheapest price. No fake ‘payment processing fees’, just a simple price on the product page which DOES NOT CHANGE!

ASK YOURSELF. Why would a trustworthy store get you to pay EXTRA ‘shield’ fee to be guaranteed of a working key?

Here at CJS, we believe that customers should get what they pay for. We do not charge any extra ‘protection shield’ fee to our customers.

 

While other shops will simply scam you and leave you out of pocket if you don’t pay the ‘payment shield’ fee, CJS CD Keys support team will look after you and make sure you receive a working key or a full refund no matter what.

Limited time only!

The prices you see are valid ONLY WHILE STOCKS LAST. It is very likely that the market prices for this game will RISE during the release period due to high demand so we recommend pre-ordering as early as possible to secure your order. Best of all, if you pre-order now you will be one of the first to receive the keys, meaning you can start pre-loading the game well in time for release!!

xcom 2 steam key

Did you know, you can get a chance to WIN FREE FALLOUT 4 by becoming a fan on Facebook!

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK FOR 5% OFF

Fallout 4
Best Price!

Steam Compatible

Instant Delivery!

£18.99

€24.91

BUY NOW

COD: Black Ops 3

Steam Compatible

Instant Delivery!

Nuketown available

£20.99

€27.53

BUY NOW

Rise of the Tomb Raider
For Steam

Best Price!

Instant Delivery!

£27.99

€36.71

BUY NOW

Xbox Live 12 Month
BEST PRICE

Instant Delivery

£28.50

€37.38

BUY NOW

Over the last 5 years, CJS CD Keys has established itself as one of the leading CD Key providers on the internet. Here’s how…

Since our website launch in November 2009, we have remained dedicated to providing the best pricing and fastest possible service for instant downloads.

We are a world leader in game key distribution, selling Steam Keys, CD Keys, Ultraviolet Movie Codes, FIFA Coins, Playstation 4 Game Downloads, Xbox Live Subscriptions, and many other digital download keys!

We have become well known for our instant delivery service, thanks to our in-house developed Autokey system, which automatically distributes the unique activation codes to our customers instantly after their payment. Simply purchase your game, activate the key, and start downloading! It’s that simple.

Key Facts:

Copyright © 2015 CJS CD Keys. All Rights Reserved.
www.CJS-CDKeys.com | [email protected]

This email was sent to you because we want to give you the best deals possible on the latest games.
CLICK HERE
to un-subscribe from our mailing list. But you may miss out on some awesome deals! 🙂

Batman: Arkham Knight Steam Key MEGA OFFER: 50% OFF – £17.50 / €24.45 – Premium Edition available!

50% off Batman: Arkham Knight!

CJS CD Keys currently have the BEST price on Batman: Arkham Knight, Pre-order your CD Key for Steam NOW at just £17.50 / €24.45 / $27.79 and you will get delivery INSTANTLY after payment!

That’s right – even though the game isn’t released yet, you will receive your CD Key instantly which you can activate on Steam to begin pre-loading the game right now!

Premium Edition Also Available!

We also offer Batman Arkham Knight Premium Edition, which includes the Base Game + Season Pass for just £22.50 / €31.44 / $35.73. This really is the BEST price you’ll find online, and best of all, you can start pre-loading the game immediately after receiving your key!

 

Batman: Arkham Knight Steam Key PREORDER NOW at BEST PRICE

We highly recommend the Premium Edition due to the awesome discount you can get when compared with buying the Season Pass for Batman Arkham Knight Separately!

What Does Premium Edition Include?

In addition to the base game itself, the Premium Edition of Batman Arkham Knight includes a free copy of the Season Pass for the game!

The season pass for Batman: Arkham Knight delivers new content every month for 6 months, featuring new story missions, more supervillains invading Gotham City, new legendary Batmobiles, advanced challenge maps, alternative character skins, and new drivable race tracks.

Will it always be this cheap?!

The prices you see are valid ONLY WHILE STOCKS LAST. It is very likely that the market prices for this game will RISE during the release period so we recommend pre-ordering as early as possible to secure your order. Best of all, if you pre-order now you can start pre-loading the game INSTANTLY after payment, since we have the keys in stock now!

Preloading means you can download the game now, so that the game files will immediately decrypt upon release date so that you can play at the instant the game releases, without waiting for the hefty download to finish!

Other Deals:

We also offer Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward from just £16.99 / €23.74! CHECK IT OUT!

final fantasy heavensward cd key

Guild Wars 2 Special Offer:

INCREDIBLE offer for Guild Wars 2 Heroic Edition – Just £17.99 / €24.89 with INSTANT delivery! If ever there was a time to buy this game, it’s NOW!

Better still, you can get a further 5% off by becoming a fan on Facebook!

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK FOR 5% OFF

Grand Theft Auto V

Digital Download Key

Instant Delivery!

£29.87

€41.76

BUY NOW

Battlefield Hardline

Compatible with Origin

Instant Delivery

£20.99

€29.33

BUY NOW

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Compatible with GOG

Instant Delivery

£19.99

€27.93

BUY NOW

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

Compatible with Steam

Pre-order Now

Instant Beta Access

£28.99

€40.50

BUY NOW

Over the last 5 years, CJS CD Keys has established itself as one of the leading CD Key providers on the internet. Here’s how…

Since our website launch in November 2009, we have remained dedicated to providing the best pricing and fastest possible service for instant downloads.

We are a world leader in game key distribution, selling Steam Keys, CD Keys, Ultraviolet Movie Codes, FIFA Coins, Playstation 4 Game Downloads, Xbox Live Subscriptions, and many other digital download keys!

We have become well known for our instant delivery service, thanks to our in-house developed Autokey system, which automatically distributes the unique activation codes to our customers instantly after their payment. Simply purchase your game, activate the key, and start downloading! It’s that simple.

Key Facts:

Lords Of The Fallen Steam Key: £22.50 / €28.53 including Limited Edition Bonus

 

CJS CD Keys | Lords Of The Fallen Limited Edition Steam Key Promotion

CJS CD Keys currently have the BEST price on Lords Of The Fallen Limited Edition, Pre-order your Steam Key NOW at just £22.50 / €28.50 and you will get all pre-order bonuses!

 

Lords Of The Fallen Limited Edition PREORDER NOW at BEST PRICE

What’s more, you can get a further 5% off by becoming a fan on Facebook!

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK FOR 5% OFF

CV: Beyond Earth

Compatible with Steam

Instant Delivery

Day 1 Edition

£25.99

€32.99

CLICK TO BUY NOW

BL: The Pre-Sequel

Compatible with Steam

Instant Delivery

Includes bonus DLC!

£28.50

€35.99

CLICK TO BUY NOW

Middle-Earth: Mordor

Compatible with Steam

Instant Delivery

£18.50

€23.47

CLICK TO BUY NOW

COD: Advanced Warfare

Compatible with Steam

Day Zero Edition

Delivery on Release

£29.99

€37.99

CLICK TO BUY NOW

Over the last 5 years, CJS CD Keys has established itself as one of the leading CD Key providers on the internet. Here’s how…

Since our website launch in November 2009, we have remained dedicated to providing the best possible prices and fastest possible service for instant downloads.

We are a world leader in game key distribution, selling Steam Keys, Origin Keys, Ultraviolet Movie Codes, Battle.net Keys, and many other digital download keys!

We have become well known for our instant delivery service, thanks to our in-house developed Autokey system, which automatically distributes the unique activation codes to our customers instantly after their payment. Simply buy the game, activate the key, and start downloading! It’s that simple.

Key Facts:

Copyright © 2014 CJS Sales & Services LTD. All Rights Reserved.
www.CJS-CDKeys.com | [email protected]

This email was sent to you because we want to give you the best deals possible on the latest games.
Click here to un-subscribe from our mailing list. But you may miss out on some awesome deals! 🙂

 

Sniper Elite 3 CD Keys revoked by Rebellion – We Smell A Rat!

The CEO of Rebellion?

CJS would like to Re-iterate that our keys were fortunately NOT affected by this scandal. None of the Sniper Elite 3 CD Keys sold by CJS-CDKeys.com were affected, and we still have them in stock ready for instant delivery. We are reporting on it in this blog post as we think it is wrong that a company should accuse 60+ retailers in our sub sector of the industry of being illegitimate.

One of the biggest scams to hit the game industry is unfolding as I type this article.   You may already be aware of it. Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Sniper Elite Steam 3 CD Keys have been Illegally revoked and de-activated, by the game’s own developer, Rebellion.  CJS CD Keys are lucky enough that we have not been affected by this problem. If we ever are, we will always provide customers with a full refund or a fully working key, but so far, so good.  What’s not okay though, is that Rebellion appears to be trying to frame innocent retailers for their own doings, but we seek to find out the truth about the goings on.

What happened?

On 27th June, thousands, *It has since been confirmed to be around 7000* of CD Keys for Sniper Elite 3 were revoked from customer’s Steam accounts without warning and without a legitimate reason. Affected customers and indeed, the affected retailers who sold the keys, had purchased the keys legitimately, only to see the game disappear from their Steam game library.

How many retailers were affected by the problem?

The situation is currently unfolding, but it appears that over 60+ retailers have been affected by the scam.  An interesting point is that the issue is not unique to companies dedicated to selling CD Keys.  There are also many reports that customers who purchased from official outlets such as GreenManGaming were also affected by the scam.  The only keys which were NOT revoked appear to be keys sourced from boxed copies of the game, and keys bought directly on Steam.

Why did it happen?

Immediately after the keys were banned, Rebellion tried to cover themselves by posting the following statement on the Steam Forums: (it has since been edited to suit their side of the story).

“We have been saddened to learn that some fans have been caught out by companies selling unlicensed or stolen Sniper Elite 3 Steam keys. If you have been affected by this we encourage you to contact the seller in question and seek a refund immediately.”

Just a few hours ago, this statement recommended that customers get a refund from their retailer and purchase the game directly on Steam at full retail price.  They have since edited this out in response to the major backlash from customers who paid in good-faith. They also added the following statement, which we believe is a white lie at best:

“As a developer Rebellion are happy for you to purchase the game anywhere you see fit and support price competition in the PC market – we have in no way targeted any specific vendors (who may have also thought these keys were legitimate), just this one set of keys.”

If rebellion were happy for the games to be purchased anywhere, then why did they previously recommend that customers only buy directly on Steam? (They since removed this comment).  How could ‘just one set of keys’ reach 60+ retailers? The affected retailers are based in countries all over the world, who buy from various distributors around the world. Some even buy directly from the relevant regional publisher, if they are a large shop with sufficient purchasing power.

Unfortunately, we find it rather hard to believe that a single set of ‘stolen’ keys managed to reach official distributors and publisher offices all around the world.  We believe that this statement:

“As a developer Rebellion are happy for you to purchase the game anywhere you see fit”

is an absolute fabrication.  We beleive Rebellion banned these keys for the exact opposite reason.  While the term ‘unauthorised reseller’ bounces about the internet, the truth is that there is no such thing.  Under the first-sale doctrine, the copyright ownership of a license key ends after the first sale (I.E from publisher to distributor).  See here for full details.  This means that all legal entities (even members of the public) have a legal right to re-sell their license keys as they see fit.  The developer has absolutely no legal right to stop keys being re-sold.  The only requirement in law for re-selling virtual software / digital goods is that the original copy of the virtual item must be destroyed once copied over to someone. (This makes more sense when considering the re-selling of a digital copy of your legally purchased music, for example).   Of course, with Steam’s DRM system, the key can only be used once, so deleting access to the ‘original copy’ is not an issue.

Unfortunately Rebellion want to encourage the public to purchase their game at the full retail price, directly from Steam, in order that they can maximise profits. We have reason to believe that the banning of keys sold outside of Steam goes against numerous antitrust, anti-competition, and anti-monopoly laws.

While many game developers (and Steam themselves) will legitimately try to encourage users to stay away from re-sellers and buy directly on Steam at the full retail price, what Rebellion has done today is absolutely immoral. They have banned legitimately purchased keys, legally owned by multiple online retailers and gamers worldwide, and covered their tracks by claiming that the keys were ‘stolen’.

What can we do?

If you are a gamer and you have purchased from a retailer only to see your key revoked, we would love to hear from you in the comments section.   Most retailers should give you a full refund or replacement on the key as a goodwill gesture. In the meantime the retailers affected by this scam will no doubt take it upon themselves to clear their names, claim back the money on the illegitimately revoked keys, and make sure that Rebellion are punished for this immoral act.

We (CJS CD Keys) are lucky enough that we have not been affected by this issue.  If you purchase Sniper Elite 3 from CJS CD Keys you will not be affected as we have tested our keys and they are in fully working order.  In addition, CJS CD Keys have a policy where customers will always receive a fully working key (forever) or a full refund, so you know you have full support if you ever did run into trouble for some reason.  CJS would never deal in ‘stolen’ goods, and we know for a fact that many of the affected retailers also would never do such a thing.  Indeed, it’s quite difficult to believe that thousands of game keys were ‘stolen’ and magically reached numerous distributors worldwide in the space of a day.  It’s rather obvious who is the guilty party here.

We also found an interesting comment from PC Media PTE LTD, an official seller of games, similar to ourselves, which was posted on the controversial steam thread:

“Ok, this kind of thing has to stop.

I understand where Rebellion are coming from in regards to prices being too low and regional based restrictions being bypassed but this is a free internet where people have the choice to do what they like with something they just purchased.

What you are doing here is against the fair trade act 1973 and will be dealt with to the full extent possible in terms of claiming any losses and damages from Rebellion. All of our suppliers are officially licensed distributors yet you have the audacity to claim we are all fraudulent buyers and that everyone can only buy it from steam for it to be legitimate.

This is a complete fabrication and has no legal standing whatsoever. Every person or consumer has a right to purchase your game wherever they see fit of that company is buying your games legitimately and you cannot punish us or any other seller for selling your game if this is the case.

This is possibly the most underhanded tactic i have ever seen from a publisher and you deserve to be punished for it.

Regards

BuyDlPlay.Com/OnlineKeyStore.com
CEO PC Media PTE LTD

Which retailers have been affected by the scam?

We are currently aware that over 60+ online retailers have been affected by the scam.  There are numerous reports on the Steam forums of GreenManGaming customers have been affected too, so it seems that this problem is not unique to CD Key retailers. It’s rather clear that Rebellion are trying to monopolise on the digital sales of their game, while framing legitimate retailers and claiming the keys as ‘stolen’ to try and cover their tracks.

SHARE this article on Steam Forums by using this exact link to get around Steam’s rather unfair censorship filter:
https://www.facebook.com/CJSCDKEYS/posts/10152500845959250

Update 30th June 2014:

It appears that Rebellion have attempted to backtrack again on their post by providing a short list of companies which they sell directly to, seemingly trying to imply that anyone not on the list is not legitimate.

There is a slight flaw in this though…   CD Key shops do NOT tend to buy keys direct from the developers. They buy the games in physical boxed form, from authorised distributors.    Do you see Amazon, Game, Shopto, and every other single independent boxed video game company worldwide in their list?  No.   That’s because they are only listing companies which they have direct contracts with.. They are excluding the long list of companies which buy boxed copies from the publisher or distributor… and that includes most of the 60+ digital key retailers.

The truth is, CD Key shops do NOT tend to buy in digital form. They buy physical boxed copies and convert them into digital keys.

The supply chain for physical boxed copies goes something like this:    Rebellion ->  Publisher -> 100+ Distributors (in various countries) ->  Retailers (Amazon, GAME, CJS CD Keys, EBGames, etc).  Some of the bigger retailers can sometimes buy directly from the Publisher if they have sufficient buying power.

While the likes of Amazon ship out the boxed version of the game, CD Key stores open the boxes and sell them digitally. That is the sole difference.  The growth in the market over the last years has enabled CD Key sellers go a step further, and have the official distributors scan the codes on behalf of the CD Key shops, saving on unnecessary shipping.   The distributors can be anywhere in the world, since keys can be delivered within seconds.   The result?  Cheap games, sold digitally.

Price comparison:

Steam: £39.99

Amazon: £25.44

CJS:  £20.99

As you can see, while our keys may seem impossibly cheap to the average digital gamer, they are actually not so unbelievably cheap, when compared to their physical counterparts.

While the situation unfolds on the Steam forums, we will post relevant screenshots here, to try and bring together the evidence. Please click the images to see them larger:

Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 20.58.05

Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 20.57.42

Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 20.56.35

Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 20.55.55

Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 20.54.36

Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 21.05.18 Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 21.06.33 Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 21.07.27 Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 21.07.51 Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 21.09.38 Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 21.10.40

CJS CD Keys expands Bitcoin acceptance by accepting DogeCoin, Litecoin and more!

CJS CD Keys has just introduced another ‘first’ for the CD Key industry.

If you want to know where to buy games with your Dogecoins, Litecoins, Redcoins, and almost any other form of crypto-currency coins, then look no further. While CJS CD Keys have accepted Bitcoin for some time now, we’ve now expanded our acceptance to Dogecoin, Litecoins, Redcoins, and more!

We are pleased to announce that CJS CD Keys now accept payments via the following Crypto-currencies:

BTC / DOGE / LTC / 42 / ANC / ADT

Buy the latest PC Games at awesome prices at CJS-CDKeys.com using your favourite Crypto-currency!

You can now spend your Dogecoins or Litecoins on our store by using the checkout button indicated in the image:

buy cd keys with bitcoin dogecoin litecoin

 

 

Enjoy!

Air France Boss: “Windows 8 is Disappointing”

Air France Boss: “Windows 8 is Disappointing”

Is Lalanne aware of its Free Poker Games

The Windows 8 operating system is steadily rising in France. According to the May 2013 Operating Systems Barometer by the online intelligence solution provider AT Internet, the country famous for Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Chanel recorded the highest visit share for Windows 8 during the fifth month of the year. This latest data puts France at the top of the list of European countries that utilize the Microsoft operating system. However, this improvement might be derailed because of a statement by Air France CEO Jean-Christophe Lalanne.

During an interview with IT news and analysis site Computing at the 2013 Air Transport IT Summit in Brussels, Lalanne said that Windows 8 is nowhere near the brilliant features of iPads, citing the OS’s lack of applications.

“We think that for the existing applications that are running on Windows 7, it could be interesting to think about refurbishing them for Windows 8,” he said.

“It should be easy with the adaptable design mode to use with tablets, but at the same time using the tablets as if they were classical desktops. So the new platform where the screen becomes the tablet surface, could be very interesting for us.”

If Lalanne was relating Windows 8 features to his business, then his concerns are valid because the Microsoft OS isn’t really developed for industrial applications. But from a gamer’s perspective who is into poker games, this wouldn’t be the case.

One of the top features of Windows 8 is the free-to-play (F2P0 World Series of Poker: Full House Pro, a game added to the OS at the start of the year. This title, which has some resemblance to the games offered at Partypoker, was installed in the Windows 8 to boost PC sales. WSOP: Full House Pro is one of the things that you will love the most from Windows 8. With this game, you have instant access to a high quality poker game – without the need for downloads. The game has many redeeming features. Among these are the F2P-jump in that lets you play with real people online, a daily stack of chips to let you challenge players at any level, and a variety of games (e.g. single-player mode, single-table games, and full-blown tournaments) that will definitely suit your style of play. It also comes with specialty games that include eight head-to-head Pro Takedowns, and an All-in Pro Takedown. Each mode also has ESPN announcers Lon McEachern and Norman Chad that make you feel like you are in an authentic WSOP game.

Lalanne should play Windows 8’s WSOP: Full House Pro to realize how different it is from iOS devices. WSOP is one of the top games on the Windows 8 platform. It’s free, exciting, and as real as the professional poker contests.

SimCity Launch Problems – Post Mortem and apology

Update:

All problems solved now.  We’re back to usual instant delivery. Buy now on our SimCity CD Key page and receive instantly!

 

 

Hello CJS Fans!

Well, this week has possibly been one of the busiest weeks in the history of CJS since Black Ops 2.  The amazing new game SimCity was released today, and our pre-order figures were higher than we ever anticipated.  For this, thank you.  We really appreciate your support.  However, the launch of the game and dispatching of keys went wrong.  Please accept our apologies for this situation.  We didn’t mean it to be like this.

We’ve decided to take the time to make this post, to explain the situation in great detail, explain what caused the problem,  explain what we’re going to do to resolve the situation, but most of all, apologise for the mess.

What was promised?

CJS CD Keys want to be an honest company, and we want to confirm exactly what we promised, what we failed on, and what we’re going to do to resolve the situation.

When we listed SimCity for pre-order back in November time, we had placed a pre-order of 500 keys with our main distributor, who sourced the keys from EA in Hungary.  This is an official distributor who is the next step down from EA themselves.  That means that the game boxes go from EA Factory in Hungary -> Our distributor in another country -> Us.

We pre-ordered 500 SimCity EU Multi-language Limited Edition codes from our distributor.  They confirmed the order, we paid up front for it (EA always want payment up front for game pre-orders), and we were promised delivery on 6th March.

During the period waiting up to 6th March, we passed these promises onto our customers.  That is, we promised our customers would receive:

  • Limited Edition SimCity
  • Full multi-Language region free keys
  • Delivery on 6th March

Everything was going great.  Pre-orders were coming in fast, and by the night of 5th march, we’d logged 450 pre-orders.  We’d sold our entire pre-order stock before the game was even released.  This was great for us, and we were very happy with the results.  Everything looked to be on plan.

Delivery Time

As we’re based in the UK, shipping a pallet of games to our own warehouse would take a very long time indeed. To save time, we ask our distributor to scan the codes and send them to us digitally.  Everything was planned that we’d receive the keys on morning of 6th March.  We made clear to our distributor that the delivery date was extremely important, and this 6th march date was promised to us personally by the CEO of our distributor company.

When morning dawned on 6th March, we were notified by our distributor that scanning had commenced and keys would be with us shortly.  By about mid-day, we’d received the keys via Email.  All 500 of them.  We were really happy.

Now bear in mind at this point that we were aware the keys were from Hungary.  This means that as far as we knew, there was absolutely no way that the keys would be region locked and we were absolutely confident that the keys would be multi-language.  Everyone in the whole CD Key business knew this – it was obvious.  All games from Hungary are always Region Free and Multi-Language.

We were so happy that everything had gone to plan.  We uploaded 500 keys to Autokey, and watched our customers collect them within seconds of each-other.

Disaster Struck

Suddenly, the CEO of CJS got notifications from support staff about many complaints of language locks.  We thought to ourselves – how can it be true?  These keys are surely region free.  That’s when we noticed..   We tested one of our keys on Origin, and were absolutely bemused to discover that the keys were LOCKED to ONLY  Russian, Polish, and Hungarian Languages.  We couldn’t believe our eyes.  How could this be possible?

In the 4 years that CJS CD Keys have been running, we’ve NEVER seen anything like it.  Origin keys are never language locked.  The only time that Origin keys are usually language locked are when they are from Russia.  That means that any key not from russia is always Region free and Multi-Language.  We didn’t understand why, or how this happened.

We immediately got in contact with our Distributor, who had apparently noticed the problem at the same time.

We immediately took the codes out of Autokey.  Unfortunately, 200 keys had already been sent and activated by customers.  That means that we had 200 useless keys that activated, and 300 unused keys which were useless due to language lock.

A solution?

Having 200 angry customers and 300 waiting customers is not a fun situation to be in.  We had to think fast to get the problem solved.  We immediately placed an emergency order with our other Distributor for stock that was from a different country from Hungary.  We sourced keys from all over the globe in an effort to find which keys are language locked and which aren’t.  Luckily, only Polish and Hungarian keys seemed to have been locked.

The problem is that to get replacement EU keys in would mean waiting another 2 days.  Courier delivery always takes 1 days and by this time, 1pm had passed and our distributor doesn’t dispatch games via Courier after 1pm.  That means that we’d have to wait at least 2 days before we could get EU codes in stock.

We noted that russian copies of Battlefield 3 have a similar language lock in place.  We also noticed that the file structure of the language packs are almost identical.  We decided that it could be possible to make a temporary fix for the SimCity language lock by distributing the english language files to our customers.  Customers would then be able to download the English language pack, install and play.

We bought a UK key from our local retailer and activated it to our own account, in order to get hold of the multi-language files.  We downloaded the game and we were so happy! We had the language files.   We tested the method and it worked fine on our EU key.  We could easily swap the language files around and the game would change between our selected languages.  We were really happy to have found a solution.  We quickly packaged them up and distributed the language files to customers.

Uh-Oh

Suddenly, yet again we started getting angry customers fire support tickets at us.  It seemed that while the language fix worked fine on an EU copy of the game, the langauge fix wasn’t working with the hungarian version of the game!  While battlefield 3 language fix works fine, it seems that the SimCity game would trigger an ‘invalid product key’ error if an english language pack was installed.  We collaborated with many other CD Key shops in an effort to fix the language, but we simply couldn’t get it to work.  It seems that a language fix simply wouldn’t be possible for this game.  Back to square 1.

Distributor Woes

At this point, we had 200 customers with useless langauge locked keys, 300 waiting customers, and 300 unused langauge locked keys that we’d withdrawn from Autokey.

We spoke to our distributor and said that we cannot accept the keys, as they were language locked.  We referred back to the fact that we were specifically promised by the CEO of our distributor that the keys would be totally region free and multi-language.  As they broke this promise, we demanded a refund on the unused keys.

It’s common practice in the CD Key business that distributors will NOT accept refunds on used keys.   Of course, once a CD Key is activated, there is no way that the item can be de-activated or re-sold. 

Since we’d already sold 200 keys, we accepted that we had no choice but to take the hit.  That means that 200 keys for which should have been EU keys, and weren’t – at the fault of our supplier – we were the ones who had to front the money for them and take the £6,400 GBP loss.

We accepted the fact that they couldn’t refund the used keys, but we argued hard with our distributor to accept the unused keys back and replace them with EU unlocked versions.  They refused.   No matter how hard we tried, they simply refused to refund.  The reason for this is not technically our distributors fault.  EA are the culprits.  EA language locked the keys, and EA refuse to refund any pre-orders.

As our distributor had no way of getting a refund or replacements from EA on the 500 keys, they passed this terrible policy onto us.  Being a company that deals with the public, CJS CD Keys couldn’t simply ‘refuse to refund’ like EA have.. We have no choice but to replace or refund our customers out of our own pockets.  Total loss – £16,000 GBP – all because of EA’s no-refund policy, and tricking us.  EA / distributor had promised the keys would be region free, yet they weren’t.

A glimmer of hope

At this point, we were in serious trouble.  We had lost money on 500 keys, we had 500 dis-satisfied customers, and we had no way of getting replacement keys within a short time-frame due to the time it takes for courier shipments to process.

Suddenly, our distributor contacted us and said they had received some inside information.  Apparently, due to the enormous pressure that people were putting on EA for the strict language locking of the game, EA  executives had an emergency meeting, to discuss about unlocking the game.  It was possible that by the evening of 6th March, the game would be unlocked and made to be fully region free and multi-language.

We never did hear about the outcome of that meeting, but it obviously was denied, as the keys are still language locked as of today.

Emergency Stock

At this point, we gave up on the Hungary keys and focused all of our efforts onto sourcing Multi-language stock.   During the whole fiasco, we’d already been ordering some backup stock from our other suppliers all over the globe, in an effort to get the game.

The problem is with SimCity limited edition is that it’s just that – very limited.

EA allow distributors to place an unlimited quantity pre-order. Then after release date, you cannot pre-order more.  That means that already stock was extremely limited on the market.  No wholesaler was willing to give up their stock.  We had to scrimp and scrape from suppliers all over the globe in order to get 500 EU keys in stock.

We managed to place enough orders, but only very few orders would be arriving to us on the 7th (since that’s only 12 hours later).  Most orders would get here on the Friday 8th March date.

We tried our best to get as much emergency stock that we could.  Prices were crazy.

The whole CD Key market was in big trouble, as everyone in the business has pre-ordered this hungarian stock, and never anticipated this strange language lock.  As a result, there was very little EU stock on the market.  It was a nightmare for everyone to get the stock.

Because every CD Key shop in the world was desperate for EU stock, our suppliers prices raised to record highs.  Some of our stock cost nearly £43 per key.  Everything was absolutely sold out and anything that was in stock cost a fortune.  The only cheap stock available wouldn’t arrive until Friday.  We placed the order and hoped for the best,

Friday Morning

Friday mornnig, and we received notification that one of our larger deliveries was ‘out for delivery’ by the courier.  We were really happy to realise that the courier delivery was on time and everything was good.  We finally received the shipment about 2pm, scanned them, and uploaded them.

We couldn’t leave our customers with hungary keys, so we deleted all of the 200 keys from Autokey that had been dispatched, which means that the affected customers could collect a brand new key from Autokey again as a free replacement.

Throughout the day we received deliveries, and uploaded them to Autokey.  The day was a good success, we fulfilled some 300 orders.  We still have 200 customers left waiting, but 300 undelivered keys are due to arrive in stock on Saturday morning according to our delivery schedule and courier tracking.

This means that on Saturday all deliveries of SimCity should arrive and we’ll get all the orders fulfilled.

Summary

We hope you have enjoyed reading the in-depth story about our SimCity situation.  We’d like to apologise for the situation, and we are going to make sure that it won’t happen again.

We want to make sure our customers know that anyone who is not willing to wait is more than welcome to a refund.  You have a number of options available to you:

  1. Wait until Saturday mornnig. We’ll get all orders fulfilled by then.
  2. You can get a refund to Store Credit and buy an instant version of SimCity with the credit (We have some expensive EU stock available now) – but you’ll need to pay the difference.  We know it seems offensive but it’s just an option for our customers.  We’re putting full priorities on the situation at hand and if you don’t want to pay the difference then just hold tight and we’ll get your key delivered ASAP for you.
  3. Request a refund – We’re more than happy to refund anyone who doesn’t want to wait.

Thank you again for reading, and we are very sorry about this situation.  If we had it our way, we’d have received EU multi-language keys in the first place and had everyone’s orders fulfilled.  We want to stress that your patience is much apprecaited. Complaining or flooding our Ticket system only slows us down.  If you want a refund we’re happy to give it, or if you’re happy to wait then please be patient.  But waiting and complaining at the same time is only causing problems for our other customers who are getting delayed responses due to a lot of spam being posted in our ticket system.

Thank you, and once again, apologies for this situation.

CJS CD Keys

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