Error: "This game cannot be played."

I get this error when I try to play any game I purchased from the iTunes Music Store:
This game cannot be played.
Connect your iPod to iTunes and reinstall the game.
The only way I know of reinstalling is turning off syncing for games and applying, then turning it back on again and applying so it installs again. Why isn't this working for me?
This is not the same as the failed to authorize message.

I cannot load the game I purchased onto my iPod. I get the following error message:
The game Mahjong was not copied to the iPod "Rich's iPod" because you are not authorized to play it on this computer.
I am using the PC version of iTunes. My generation 5 video iPod is running ver 1.2 of the iPod software. I shut down and restarted the PC but still have the problem.

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Possible Fix for Frequent "This game cannot be played" Errors

I was seeing the error, "This game cannot be played," almost every time I tried to start a game on my 30GB iPod. The game would always eventually start fine on the second or third try, though.
I was just living with the error and figured it was a bug Apple would eventually work out. Then it occured to me one day that I'd neglected the fact that the iPod is, in part, a glorified hard disk. Maybe it needed some TLC.
So, I used DiskWarrior 4 to rebuild/repair it and the error has not appeared once since. It's been about four or five days.
Just thought others out there might have been having the same problem...

I also had this problem, and since I don't want to shell out $100 for DiskWarrior nor do I wish to do a restore (I manually manage my songs, photos, videos, etc.), I found that resyncing the games from within iTunes (on a Mac) is viable as well.
1. Select your iPod to bring up the overview/management window.
2. Select the games tab.
3. Enable the "Sync games" checkbox.
4. Select "Sync [Your iPod]" from the "File" menu OR right click on your iPod in the iTunes Devices list and select "Sync."
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I have a 5th Gen ipod and I bought 2 games about 6-10 moths ago. I went to play one yesterday and the ipod gave me the message "this game cannot be played" and tells me to connect the ipod to itunes and reinstall the games. How do you reinstall the games and more so, why is it giving me this message? have some things changed within itunes via a new update or something that won't allow game to be played? help please - thanks!

First, what kind of iPod you got because games only work for certain iPods. I know they work for iPod Video. Don't know about the others. Also, the only way you can play them is on an iPod so if they're incompatible with your iPod, then you've just wasted like $30 on games you have no use for.

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Hi
I've pretty much got exactly the same problem. We've just replaced our old computer with a laptop and I've transferred my iTunes library over but I can't open almost all of my songs as "the original file couldn't be found." I've tried the "locate" prompt but that gives me so many different options, all to no avail. However, I have added a few new CDs since transferring the library to the laptop and they open up without any problems.
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Hey Ronald
If you are experiencing and issue with your purchase, check out the following article to report the issue to get it resolved.
How to report an issue with your iTunes Store, App Store, Mac App Store, or iBookstore purchase
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1933
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Regards,
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I have the same problem with poker, and also with tetris, and pacman!
Have contacted apple, then re-sent me the games to download and still no luck, have restored the ipod several times just to make sure that its clean and that the games will re-install.
Cant get anything to work.
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"This game cannot be played" Texas Hold'Em

I have found a lot of questions on this - but no responses.
I've even tried deleting it and re-purchasing it, which also gave the same error.
I've played this before on my iPod, but I think one of the newer games has corrupted something.
I have a model MA146ZP (ipod video 30Gb) version 1.3.
Has anyone found a solution to this ?

I found the solution - for all iPods (I had it working before and it stopped working).
Navigate via Explorer on your PC and find the directory which has it in (I looked for music files which were in the game - you can also look for the instructions image file).
Delete the root folder for the game and install again.
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This game cannot be played?????

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Help

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I would suggest going through this iPod classic troubleshooting assistant:
iPod classic Troubleshooting Assistant
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/classic/
Cheers!
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Are there any fixes for this? I've tried all the troubleshooting in the support docs, and nothing seems to work.

Thanks for your suggestions; however none of them worked.
I contacted technical support, and the only suggestion they had for me was to request a refund - because for some reason, unknown to them, the game doesn't work on my iPod.
I'm not generally a ranter - I try to be polite to people, in person, on the phone, online - wherever, but I have to say that in my experience, Apple seems to have the worst support of any company with which I have ever dealt.
After being told no less than eight times, by five different representatives from iTunes support, I was referred to technical support, who told me in essence, "tough cookies" (although the representative certainly didn't say that, he was quite polite).
I had to double check that I was talking to "technical" support.
I've been a faithful iPod user for many years; but this experience has certainly soured me. I will have to think long and hard before buying another Apple product if the support I have experienced is indicative of a typical support instance.
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Hi there,
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Error: "This game cannot be played."

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