Recently bought Earth2160 but for some reason I cant activate the game it wont let me do anything but play the ED Campaign, can anyone let me know what the fix is there. I have already e-mailed Support Staff for GOG. I am hoping that this might bring the problem to GOG Staffers attention they can start sending out activation codes with the game.

If this worked for you, you should mark his post as solved so that people wondering the same question will see it.

earth 2160 wont let me do anything until i enter the serial # and i sent an e mail to GOG support staff 5 days ago and i have not heard anything any suggestions?

Thanks for the info about the campaigns. It would not let me access the single player without activation, but support got me a valid key within a day.

Only affects LAN/online play? Not over here it doesn't!
I cannot do ANYTHING with Earth 2160 without this goddamn key! Multiplayer, singleplayer, hell even the goddamn editor asks for the key and just quits out when you don't give it.

And I hear your limited to only 3 re-installs before it locks you out until you beg the robbing ****** at Zuxxex to let you at least have one more install!
So much for GOG's DRM free "yours to keep - forever" guarantee!

GOG - change Earth 2160 so it does not do this anymore, or WITHDRAW it from your catalogue!

(Sorry but I'm seriously A-N-G-R-Y at the moment!)

PS/ I notice the OP is dated 2009 - SO WTF? AFTER SIX YEARS GOG STILL HAVE DONE SOD ALL TO REMEDY THIS ISSUE?!!!!!

Jesus Christ I'm angrier than ever now!

I was running into the same issue. I submitted a ticket for a key, but I figured out the issue. We have Windows 8 and 4 users. Each of us have our own account. I make all the user accounts just standard accounts (not admins). I have another account that is an admin. I use this account to do all software installs, etc. When you install Earth 2160, it creates a set of registry entries that contain a bunch of data including the serial key. These registry entries are only under the user that installed the game. So go in as that user and export HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Reality Pump\Earth2160 using regedit. Next log in as a user that you want to have play the game. Import the registry export that you just created. The game should now run. I hope this helps others who might have the same scenario.

Hi ...
I can't play on skirmish mode, it need an activation :(

The problem is easy to solve --I had to figure it out. I use a standard account (Windows 10) 'cos of security reasons (hate it when games or apps asume you are the admin) and while I know the admin password, I never use the admin account except when Windows asks me to.

You only need to have or know the admin password and "Run this program as an administrator" option. This fix works both on Earth 2160 and Cultures 2. :)

Hi there GOG team and other users,

I've been having a hard time getting the NEP 2.0 mod working for Earth 2160. Without the mod it works fine, with it it asks for activation. The activation server tells me I have tried to activate on too many computers, and you guys are saying running as administrator fixes the issue. However, I can tell you it doesn't as I've made sure every executable runs as admin. Also, I am using an administrator account. So, has anyone got any ideas? Because I am out of ideas and a bit frustrated.

UPDATE

Okay, so in the NEP 2.0 WD files, make sure to remove both NEP_LANGUAGE_EN.WD and NEP_LANGUAGE_PL.WD. I saw on the moddb forum for NEP 2.0 that removing just the EN file would fix it but it didn't for me, so I tried the PL one as well and voila! (I have no idea why, though).

Hope that fixes everyone elses issues with the mod and the GOG version of Earth 2160.

At first you need to get the CD-KEY to play online from gog's staff. Then insert it via "Change Serial Number" tool. After it you can activate your Earth 2160. When you have activated Earth 2160 you can install NEP mod and this works for me.

If you tried to activate Earth 2160 with NEP installed then use gog galaxy to repair instalation.

Sadly, it doesn't work on single player mode on Linux.
After reading some posts on needing to install it on a fake C drive via wine, I proceeded to install it there... to no avail. :S It keeps asking me for the serial number..