G2A Steam Key Reseller Drama Thread

[Perkel]

Key resellers aren't fucking different from eBay or other services like that in first place. Hell G2A even works the same as in users selling crap receive comments and shit and you can clearly see if someone is trading stuff all the time or someone is one off sale (which could be risky).

In meantime i noticed that my old minecraft account was hacked (probably due to nexus password leak from last year) and someone used to play it few hours a day, bought premium minecraft server and probably wanted to stream shit and stuff with his channel on youtube.

i recovered my account.

I wish there was some popular game which you could secure twice or something and then release your password in wild and recover such account after few months to find who got caught. It would be hilarious to find some high profile streamer and publicly shit on them :D

 

[Saark]

I like G2A because modern devs deserve shit and on the extremely rare occasion i need to get something that isn't available on a steam sale or somethin' i'd rather not give the devs any cash. If the key was stolen, i'm all the more happy.

Fraud my ass. The real frauds are modern developers, pumping out shit after shit while expecting us to pay premium prices for their dumped down garbage. As for the indie faggots. Learn to make a game that isn't shit you fuck wits.

Moral of the story: when all you make is shit you deserve shit.

Devs/Publishers could just stop being crybabies and do the work that is required to stop most of the issues people have been blaming on G2A for years now. If you notice keys are being bought with stolen credit cards, stop blaming G2A and instead disable the goddamn keys. It's really not that hard. Will it fuck people over who bought one of those keys? Sure, but it's your product you're trying to protect here, not Gamestops or G2As or whatever other marketplace keys get bought on these days.

I'm reminded of the rimworld steam-release, where the developer gave every backer a steam-key they could use to activate the game on steam aswell as still getting updates via e-mail. People then used stolen credit-cards to buy from the dev directly and sold the steam keys on reselling sites. Instead of crying for G2A to stop listing those stolen keys the dev himself went ahead and charged back the money, worked together with valve to disable the scammed steam-keys and every other issue solved itself right after. People who bought one of those stolen keys couldn't play the game anymore, they hammered the scammy sellers reviews and the marketplace just got a little better.
Sadly most devs/publishers don't want to put in the time to do the same so key-reselling may become less shady.

Don't get me wrong, G2A is far from ideal and they have a long way to go but most of the issues people are crying about are ultimately not the fault of the marketplace. If I drive by the street and see someone selling apples that are 50% cheaper than what an apple might cost me at the store, I cannot be surprised that it has worms in it. If I buy two-week old fish on the market and get sick, I don't go ahead and ask the people who rent the stalls to do their job, I punch the vendor in the face. Once enough people have done this, the market cleans itself up automatically.

Protecting customers of your product is your responsiblity. If you cheap out on payment systems and people abuse it because the fraud-protection systems in place aren't up to par, this is on you, and you alone.

 

[Spectacle]

Protecting customers of your product is your responsiblity. If you cheap out on payment systems and people abuse it because the fraud-protection systems in place aren't up to par, this is on you, and you alone.

Which fraud-proof payment system do you recommend?

 

[Perkel]

Most hilarious are devs who are outraged about G2A keys being sold which belonged to Youtubers who received them from devs and sold them for quick bucks.

I mean at this point you would stop and think a little but nooo gotta fire up reddit and talk about G2A...

 

[Saark]

Protecting customers of your product is your responsiblity. If you cheap out on payment systems and people abuse it because the fraud-protection systems in place aren't up to par, this is on you, and you alone.

Which fraud-proof payment system do you recommend?

It's not necessarily about preventing fraud, it's more about how developers react to it. A lot of these devs complain about being unable to block keys that were bought with stolen creditcards, because they couldn't even link the payments to the game-keys. Others don't do it because they "don't want to punish people who thought they were buying a genuine key". Either way, 95% of the time it's the developers being retarded, cheap or naive.

If you let scammers run rampant with little to no repercussions, of course nothing is gonna change. They could at least have the balls and take some responsibility by taking action themselves. Buying keys with stolen creditcards is only lucrative if people actually want to buy them. If developers started blocking those keys consistently a lot of the issues that currently get blamed on reselling-sites like G2A or Gamestop would disappear rather quickly.

Sadly this is just one of the issues at play here, another one was mentioned already: They sell a shitload of keys to third party stores or sites who use them however they want because its a quick buck for the dev/publisher. Add to that that a lot of keys that were given away for PR purposes, and all of a sudden quite a lot of the "illegitimate" keys actually have their origin in the dev/publisher being stupid/greedy. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are actually counting on everyone hating the resellers for a couple more years so they can squeeze out a little more money.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I'm so sick of this. Lyric Suite is dead on. CRY FUCKING MORE!

I am sick of these game developer whiny bitches.

YOU ARE NOT DIFFERENT, YOU ARE NOT MORE SACRED THAN ANYTHING ELSE ON THE MARKET

Why does it matter so fucking much if the "industry is hurt"? It's not as if it was poor children being malnourished!

If I buy Omega watches in Eastern Europe to resell them for a profit in the west, no one (but Omega) minds. There would never be a legion of fags whining that I am being unfair to the watch industry.

The reverse is also true. The likes of Apple are supposed to be morally justified to hire cheap Chinese labor that works for dollars a day and leave their American workers in shit while they scam them out of all tax dollars by making scam divisions in Ireland or Luxembourg... but when I want to save money by using the world economy to my advantage, suddenly I'm a monster? For something as worthless and insignificant as a GAME?

Do you realize how stupid that is?

I love to see all these shit devs moan and cry and acting like primma donnas. I think I'm going to make it a point to only buy on G2A.

I hope they all crash and burn and get real jobs instead of acting morally superior to everyone else!

 

[Quatlo]

Protecting customers of your product is your responsiblity. If you cheap out on payment systems and people abuse it because the fraud-protection systems in place aren't up to par, this is on you, and you alone.

Which fraud-proof payment system do you recommend?

Use credit cards and charge back if someone fucks you over. Simple and effective.

 

[Excidium II]

The only thing more pathetic than the gamedev whining is G2As attempts to reach out to them.

 

[gaussgunner]

I hope they all crash and burn and get real jobs instead of acting morally superior to everyone else!

Real developers agree.

Use credit cards and charge back if someone fucks you over. Simple and effective.

See chargeback fraud, page 1.

If developers started blocking those keys consistently a lot of the issues that currently get blamed on reselling-sites like G2A or Gamestop would disappear rather quickly.

Are any developers actually defending the resellers?

G2A seems like a big part of the race to the bottom, along with app stores, Steam, and Kickstarter. We hated $70 AAA shit games, we wanted decent games for $10, thanks to all these tech geniuses we'll get nothing but $1 shovelware.

 

[pippin]

Games have always been around 40 to 70 dollars, even back then the really expensive games were even around 80 if my memory from the CGW mags still serves me well. The thing is that often games would be bundled, discounted and thrown into the sale bins for 1/6th of the original price. For instance, I got the original Fable (the MOlyneux game) for about 2 bucks recently. Publishers don't want to lose sales and devs support them because the earlier pay the latter. They are defending their bosses. These shady situations are a lose lose for everyone involved, really. It's that point of the development of a certain industry where people seriously question the worth of what you're doing, and try to get it as cheaply as possible, and even for free. Streaming worked for music and tv/film, and don't be surprised if gaming goes there too, in fact, EA already has this thing where you buy a "ticket" to play x ammount of games in a certain time period.

 

[Saark]

If developers started blocking those keys consistently a lot of the issues that currently get blamed on reselling-sites like G2A or Gamestop would disappear rather quickly.

Are any developers actually defending the resellers?

G2A seems like a big part of the race to the bottom, along with app stores, Steam, and Kickstarter. We hated $70 AAA shit games, we wanted decent games for $10, thanks to all these tech geniuses we'll get nothing but $1 shovelware.

Obviously no dev wants their games to be resold cheaper than what they want it to be sold at.

The retarded issue with the whole G2A drama is that some developers, mostly indie-devs and some of the Tier2/Tier3 ones, are trying to fight the resellers more openly and strongly than the actual fraud. Have better control over who you give free keys to, don't sell mass-discounted large amounts of keys to thirdparty institutions, region-lock keys that are being sold in weak economies, block keys that were bought with stolen credit-cards. Might cost you more money than you're actually saving this way, but at least youre not a greedy fucking hypocrite. They can decide to be part of the solution, not the problem.

It's also not about the price of the game. Games of all kinds get resold way cheaper, be it 10$, 25$ or 60$ titles. It's way easier to get a 20$ game for 2 bucks, than a 60$ game for 6. That's because most of these indie-devs hand out keys more freely and cheaper than a UN worker in the blackest part of africa hands out condoms.

 

[Alienman]

I checked out G2A since people have been talking about it again. I looked at some AAA prices and was kinda surprised. I mean from what people have been talking it seemed like I could score a Nier automata key there for like 10 bucks but the cheapest was some Russian one that I guess won't even work on my Steam. It was even cheaper on Greenmangaming. I don't get this crusade at all, is it manufactured by the gaming industry to suppress a second hand market like the whole thing with second hand copies of console games?

 

[pippin]

y to suppress a second hand market like the whole thing with second hand copies of console games?

Partly, yes
There are "legit" G2A keys, but 80% of the rest are shady ones probably bought with stolen credit cards, the latter being the problem and the source of the bad reputation G2A has. Companies react with anger towards G2A because they thought keys would end piracy but it didn't work, and they have no other way to counter the second hand market. It's like the early 00s again. At least you can get free downloads from Metallica's website nowadays.

 

[Dexter]

y to suppress a second hand market like the whole thing with second hand copies of console games?

Partly, yes
There are "legit" G2A keys, but 80% of the rest are shady ones probably bought with stolen credit cards, the latter being the problem and the source of the bad reputation G2A has. Companies react with anger towards G2A because they thought keys would end piracy but it didn't work, and they have no other way to counter the second hand market. It's like the early 00s again. At least you can get free downloads from Metallica's website nowadays.

99.9% of the keys on shops like G2A are not a problem and work perfectly fine, they're from legit sources either from lower-priced regions, bundles, promotions or similar.

This entire "stolen keys" thing is blown way out of proportion by people with an agenda e.g. publishers that want their margins and geo-locking and a few butthurt indie devs that seem too stupid to run their own shops. G2A has rating systems and will purge sellers that act fraudulently. A business with even 10-20% of "shady" or "fraudulent" product, much less 80% like you're saying wouldn't be sustainable for anyone in the equation, it would get a really bad reputation and people wouldn't continue buying there.

As it is most customers seem to be satisfied and you just got the butthurt few making big noise.

 

[gaussgunner]

G2A has rating systems and will purge sellers that act fraudulently.

These crowdsourcing sites just slap on a rating system and pretend there's no fraud as long as they're making money.

NOBODY has an effective rating system, not even Ebay and Amazon who've had 20 years to perfect it. Maybe 10 years ago they worked ok but now there are companies that specialize in gaming these systems. I sat in on a sales pitch from one last year. That was for doctors. Do you really think game keys are relatively unspoiled?

 

[Turjan]

G2A? I think I bought a key there once. They didn't like that my payment method was from a different country than my residence. After some questions, they told me "Sorry, we cannot do business with you." My answer: "Isn't it a bit late for that? You have my money, and I have the key". That was the end of our relationship.

The key was a photograph from some boxed release. It worked okay.

 

[Infinitron]

lul:



https://www.pcgamesn.com/g2a-indie-sites-thomas-faust

A rogue G2A employee asked ten sites to publish an “unbiased” article – without credit

Game key marketplace G2A has confirmed that an employee approached ten media sites with a request to publish an article without attribution or association with G2A.

The proposal was first disclosed by Thomas Faust, an indie games journalist and freelance indie game translator. Earlier today, he tweeted that he had been approached by someone purporting to represent G2A with the shady request to publish an article written by G2A without disclosing its provenance or associating it with them in any way.

According to screenshots in Faust’s tweet (embedded below), the article is “a transparent and just review of the problem of the [sic] stolen keys reselling”, and is part of an effort to improve G2A’s “brand awareness and public image”. The company is currently embroiled in the latest of many controversies concerning its business model, which has been criticised for harming game developers, especially indies, 3,000 of whom have now signed a petition calling for it to stop selling indie games.

We contacted G2A about this, and were told by head of communications Maciej Kuc that “this is something that had no right to take place, must’ve been done without authorisation, and in no way was within the scope of our actions. I am the only authorised person to talk to the media in the company’s name. The mentioned suggestion is absolutely unacceptable, and if proven to be real, strict consequences will be drawn.”

Kuc promised to investigate, and apparently discovered that the approaches were indeed made by a G2A employee. The company says the employee acted “without authorisation”, and indeed that he had contacted “nine other media outlets” with the same proposal. G2A has promised “strict consequences, as this is absolutely unacceptable.”

Without seeing the article mentioned in the email, it can’t be said for certain that it is an endorsement of G2A, but its title makes its intentions clear: “selling stolen keys on gaming marketplaces is pretty much impossible.”

We’ll update this story with any further action G2A takes.

 

[cvv]

Isn't it time to resurrect this thread? G2A are in the headlines everywhere rn and the most prestigious games forum in the world, possibly in history, isn't talking about it. Sad.

Also, what the fuck is the problem with G2A this time around? I thought it's basically eBay for game keys? So when a dev writes this:



...I can't into understanding. What does he mean "we earn zero money" on games bought through G2A? All keys ultimately come from devs no? Please explain men.

EDIT: Also why is everyone riding G2A dick constantly? Afaik there is a fuckload of reseller markets just like G2A. Is it anti-potato raysism? Western imperialist hatred for brown people?

 

[Azalin]

Stolen keys?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The absolute asshurt that consumers are allowed to sell something they paid money for

 

[cvv]

Stolen keys?

Is it stolen keys or keys bought with stolen credit cards? Either way how are reseller markets responsible for someone swiping a credit card and buying a bunch of shit with it? The only "policy" eBay has is "if you suspect shit is stolen, plz contact your local law enforcement hurr".

 

[FeelTheRads]

How do stolen keys happen?

Crying about reselling keys is even more stupid than crying about reselling physical games. At least with physical games they can claim that multiple persons use the game without them getting any money. Which is what happens in every other industry, but apparently the entertainment industry is somehow special and this shouldn't be allowed.
However, with keys... what the fuck. If it's activated you can't sell it anymore. So... what is the problem? Only one person can have it. Do they want to get money from multiple people for the same key?

 

[cvv]

However, with keys... what the fuck. It it's activated you can't sell it anymore.

Yep. What I utterly can't into understanding is why are devs claiming they earn ZERO money for keys bought on G2A. Unless the wily Poles run an illicit key generator in their basement this shouldn't be possible. Afaik G2A can't sell a key that wasn't generated and sold by the devs first.

But they do seem to be very butthurt about it so there must be something to it.

 

[Infinitron]

This is what they're saying is happening:

1) Buy key directly from developer.

2) Cancel credit card transaction. You still have the key, developer gets no money.

3) Sell key to G2A.

4) G2A gets money by reselling key.

 

[Jasede]

How do stolen keys happen?

Crying about reselling keys is even more stupid than crying about reselling physical games. At least with physical games they can claim that multiple persons use the game without them getting any money. Which is what happens in every other industry, but apparently the entertainment industry is somehow special and this shouldn't be allowed.
However, with keys... what the fuck. If it's activated you can't sell it anymore. So... what is the problem? Only one person can have it. Do they want to get money from multiple people for the same key?

Often, when you buy the game box these days it just includes a steam code and then you have to download it; no CD. In Eastern countries, people steal these boxes without buying them and then sell the key.
However, of course the store that bought those games already paid the publisher at that point so they aren't exactly hurting the company, just the store. That's how it was explained to me once.