Bioware’s Christ Priestly posted an entry on its forums acknowledging that it was aware of various issues players faced yesterday after picking up their copies of Mass Effect 2. Those issues include activation codes for the Cerberus Network not working, timeouts or connection drops to the Cerberus Network, and failure of the Cerberus Mission Computer to appear in-game after entering the Cerberus Network activation code. Although people who could access the Cerberus Network apparently complained that Zaeed, a free downloadable character who was supposed to be accessible at launch through the Cerberus Network, was not available, Bioware indicated that he was only yesterday being “propogated to Xbox Live” and would be accessible by midday today, January 27th.
Bioware indicated that the Cerberus Network activation codes for the PC Colletors’ Edition should be working by 4pm Pacific Time after a game restart and that it was activily working to address the timeout and connection drops to the Cerberus Network. As for Cerberus Network activation issues on the Xbox 360, Bioware stated that players should assure that their EA Online account is associated with their Xbox Live gamertag and contact customer service if it is not.
Personally, I was unable to access either the Cerberus Network or my Gamestop preorder bonuses in the game even after entering the activation codes at www.masseffect.com as directed. When I tried to link my EA account to my gamertag, EA’s system stated that the gamertag was already linked to another account. That’s a bit odd . . . since I have never linked my Xbox gamertag to EA’s website.
But apparently this is a problem that EA has already been aware of, as indicated by a January 14, 2010 forum entry noting that EA had received “quite a few requests” regarding issues linking both Xbox 360 and PS3 accounts to EA accounts to access content. Considering EA opted to require players to create or link to an EA account instead of relying on Xbox Live’s redemption code system to access downloadable content, I would have hoped they would have ironed out these issues before launching a game with the draw of Mass Effect 2.
Like me, some individuals who responded to that forum entry yesterday went to EA’s support site and waited in line for long periods of time (40 minutes for me) to get live chat support, only to be disconnected and booted from the line. I then opted to send a customer service request through their system rather than risk waiting in line again. The confirmation message indicated that I would receive a response to my request within 24 hours. Given the number of players that seem to have this issues, I’d be surprised if they can actually address my issue in that time frame. I’ll retain hope, though, because I would like my extra stuff at least before my first playthrough of Mass Effect 2!
Update: A possible solution to the gamterag link to your EA account may be to go to the link in this forum post and enter your gamertag. Some people have done this and received an e-mail allowing them to fix the link issue. Others, however, either did not receive an e-mail after entering their gamertag (like me), or were unable to fix the link issue even after following the link in the e-mail they received. I still haven’t heard back from my customer service request, and I waited in line three more times today for over thirty minutes for live chat support only to again get the message that my chat request had been canceled. After some digging (because like many companies, EA purposely no longer posts the number publicly on their website and forces you to use e-mail or live chat support), I finally found EA’s customer service phone number: 866-543-5435. After being on hold for an hour, a customer service rep quickly fixed the issue and linked my gamertag to my EA account. So, I would suggest not wasting your time with live chat right now and go straight to the phones. At least after your long wait, someone will actually help you and not disconnect you.