I didn't get the Special Edition in time. Can I still buy it, or can I still participate in the alpha?

We're really sorry about that! We offered the Special Edition for over a year and tried to make sure our fans really knew about the end date but it appears some people still missed out. It's possible we'll offer the Special Edition for a very limited time to get some of you long-standing fans into the alpha, but we haven't decided. The Standard Edition will get you into the beta though which shouldn't be too far off.

NS2 won't load, it gives me a "Natural Selection 2 is currently only available to people who pre-ordered the Special Edition" error.

This is a bit confusing: first you need to make sure you've entered you NS2 Special Edition Steam key you got when you purchased NS2. Then you need to enter a second Steam authorization code to tell Steam to recognize your 'leet Special Edition armor and status. You should have been e-mailed both of these codes by now. If not, you can have them sent to you again by going here. To activate these keys, select "Games/Activate a Product on Steam..." from the main menu in Steam and paste in the key from your e-mail. You should now be good to go!

I didn't receive my CD-key or order confirmation in e-mail or I changed my e-mail address.

Make sure to check your spam filter. If you ever need your key resent to you, you can always go here to retrieve it. If you changed your e-mail address, you can update it here.

I have a Yahoo.com e-mail address and I haven't received my key yet.

We've heard it's taking a long time for our e-mails to reach Yahoo users for some reason. We're not sure what the problem is but sorry about that!

If I pre-order NS2, can I play on Steam?

Yes! NS2 requires Steam actually. If you pre-order, we'll send you a Steam key which you can enter which will add NS2 to your Games list.

If you put out a Mac version or Linux version, will this pre-order let me play on those platforms?

We can't commit to a Mac or Linux version, but if we do, we let you use the same pre-order key on all those versions. Your key can only be in use on one machine at a time, but you can input it to as many systems as you like. We're big Mac fans here and we want it and we have the same problem with other games. We have to reserve the right to change this policy, but I don't see us doing so.

When can I expect to try it out?

Our "engine test" and complete tool set are available right now. The alpha will be available to Special Edition owners on the 26th of July. We don't yet know when the beta will be available, as this will depend largely on how long the alpha phase lasts.

Now, back to the pre-order page!