I bought Rocksmith today, and like many other Rocksmith buyers around Europe, my copy didn't come with a CD-key. It seems like Ubisoft made a huge mistake somewhere along the packaging line, as shown by the number of people complaining about it on the official ubisoft forums. http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/718433-no-cd-key-Forums/page6

Just a heads-up to anyone thinking about buying the PC version, be aware that you might have to deal with Ubisoft customer support and wait until they email you a CD-key. I'm not sure if this applies to the copies of Rocksmith sold in the US, since everyone who's complaining so far lives in Europe.

Edit: I've gotten my key from customer support now, took about 5 hours from when I first filed my ticket.

How do you prove to them you bought the game? Take a picture or something?

@SomeDeliCook said:

How do you prove to them you bought the game? Take a picture or something?

Good question.

So does anyone know how Rocksmith on PC works? Like, how would I use the Steam version? Where do you get that dongle they use to translate the sound into the game? I've always been curious about the game, but this PC version especially sounds like something they didn't really think out before doing it. This thread kind of cements that.

@iAmJohn: Apparently you have to buy the official Rocksmith chord to play on PC. You can't use other audio inputs. So I'd get a physical retail copy if I were to get it on PC

@SomeDeliCook said:

How do you prove to them you bought the game? Take a picture or something?

More or less. Yeah.

When I ordered Assassin's Creed: Revelations back in December (during a boxing day sale), I ended up with a Signature Edition of the Game that didn't have the code for unlocking extra content. So I took pictures of the disc and attached a copy of the invoice and e-mailed that to customer support and they sent me a code.

@SomeDeliCook said:

How do you prove to them you bought the game? Take a picture or something?

You have to send a photo of your receipt, as well as information regarding where you bought it etc. The process is detailed here http://ubisoft-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/17223

@iAmJohn said:

So does anyone know how Rocksmith on PC works? Like, how would I use the Steam version? Where do you get that dongle they use to translate the sound into the game? I've always been curious about the game, but this PC version especially sounds like something they didn't really think out before doing it. This thread kind of cements that.

You can buy the cable separately if you want (though it's cheaper to buy a physical copy bundled with the dongle. However, if you already have the 360 or PS3 version, you already have the dongle and thus you can buy the Steam version without getting a new one.

Ubisoft

Well, there's the problem.

@iAmJohn said:

So does anyone know how Rocksmith on PC works? Like, how would I use the Steam version? Where do you get that dongle they use to translate the sound into the game? I've always been curious about the game, but this PC version especially sounds like something they didn't really think out before doing it. This thread kind of cements that.

You can buy the retail version that comes with the cable and put the CD key that comes with it into Steam. You can buy the cable separately and use it with the Steam version.

Don't mean to hijack the thread with a tangent, but how good is the pack-in guitar? I mean, for the purpose of playing the game/putzing around with? I'm not expecting a world-class instrument, of course, but something that isn't junk at least.

mine just turned up and sure enough NO FUCKING CD KEY! I am so pissed its untrue... how can you forget to include cd keys?!?!?! its crazy... and now I have had to send them an email with photographs of proof of purchase!

usually when companies fuck up like this they throw something free your way... I would like to see a free song or 3 song song pack for breaking my balls...

I remember when I got The Witcher this happened. They basically forgot to include cd keys for all the retail copies in Canada (or a lot of them anyway).

I received my key from Ubisoft yesterday without even asking for it - or even knowing it would be missing as I didn't receive the game until today.

The included guitar is ok, I guess. I'm no guitarist. It's an Epiphone Les Paul Jr. so it's targeted towards beginners.

The game crashed twice on me though.

I love the concept of this game but I have no intentions of buying some proprietary dongle which will most likely suck. I'll buy real gear before I do that.

I got over my little fit earlier and they sent me my key at long last! if you play guitar this is great to supplement your learning@Azteck said:

I love the concept of this game but I have no intentions of buying some proprietary dongle which will most likely suck. I'll buy real gear before I do that.

and that statement is unjustified... how do you know it sucks? if you own a guitar its a great way to hook it up to your pc... the game has been out for over a year in america and people have shown what the lead can do... so do a little research before assuming anything.

@Reale: I'm basing it off of every other proprietary dongle I've ever had to use in the past. If it's great, then I believe you, but I very much dislike it when companies force me to use something which I'll never use for anything else.

@Azteck: haha if thats your complaint its somewhat fair but dude.... IT ALLOWS YOU TO USE YOUR OWN GUITAR! you dont have to buy any plastic fisher price peripherals to play a game, I wouldn't call it a dongle its a jack to usb and you can use it with other things such as Native instruments software, audacity, amplitube 3... the UK PC version packs in the bass expansion for free too so for £35 you get the cable (£20 on its own) the game minus CD key (£35 on steam) and the Bass expansion ($29.99 .. ) you also have to take into consideration that if you want to play guitar/bass plugging it into your PC for feedback is a great way to save on money instead of buying hardware for different sounds (amplitube 3) and on top of all that - the game will be modded to fuck - you will have people converting tabs to songs in NO TIME so it should mean an endless free supply of songs to play/learn!

now I feel like a salesman after that! but in short... its worth the coin.

This same incident happened with Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor in Canada. THQ was replying to emails in like 2 minutes with keys.

Things happen.