We've had colourful discussions about G2A in our Telegram group, IRC, reddit and other places. Some people don't care and just want cheap games, but for those of you who want to support not only Linux, but gaming in general—read on.
I've written before about how IndieGameStand has to deal with fraud, and it's not pretty.
The developer tinyBuild originally had their own shop on their website, which they had to shut down due to chargebacks. They noticed that later G2A would suddenly get a bunch of keys to their games.
Here's the developer tinyBuild on how G2A has sold approximately $450,000 worth of their games without them being compensated.
Note: Seems their website is now suffering problems, here's a screen-grab of the article.
The developer emailed the store, and got a reply along the lines of "you won't get a penny from us, start selling your games on our store or we won't do anything about it".
Stores like G2A make me very angry, ripping off developers and gamers and by the looks of it they don't give a hoot, disgusting.
If you didn't know about this, fair enough, but I urge you to stop now. If you buy from G2A and you understand this, you're not helping developers at all. I implore you: if you use G2A just stop.
I should note, that I don't personally see anything wrong in selling on keys you legally own and haven't used to someone else. The problem is that stores like G2A built a business around it, which has obviously attracted the attention of a fair amount of scammers using stolen credit cards to buy keys and sell on. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I've written before about how IndieGameStand has to deal with fraud, and it's not pretty.
The developer tinyBuild originally had their own shop on their website, which they had to shut down due to chargebacks. They noticed that later G2A would suddenly get a bunch of keys to their games.
Here's the developer tinyBuild on how G2A has sold approximately $450,000 worth of their games without them being compensated.
Note: Seems their website is now suffering problems, here's a screen-grab of the article.
The developer emailed the store, and got a reply along the lines of "you won't get a penny from us, start selling your games on our store or we won't do anything about it".
tinybuildIn short, G2A claims that our distribution partners are scamming us and simply selling keys on G2A. They won’t help us unless we are willing to work with them. We are not going to get compensated, and they expect us to undercut our own retail partners (and Steam!) to compete with the unauthorized resellers.
Stores like G2A make me very angry, ripping off developers and gamers and by the looks of it they don't give a hoot, disgusting.
If you didn't know about this, fair enough, but I urge you to stop now. If you buy from G2A and you understand this, you're not helping developers at all. I implore you: if you use G2A just stop.
I should note, that I don't personally see anything wrong in selling on keys you legally own and haven't used to someone else. The problem is that stores like G2A built a business around it, which has obviously attracted the attention of a fair amount of scammers using stolen credit cards to buy keys and sell on. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: DamonLinuxPLIm never buying on G2A... but Im buying on Steam, GOG or Huble only cheap games or in sale. Other game in full price more than 20 euro? I prefer buying in my local country stores, box or digital version (cdp.pl, gamesrepublic, techland store or muve.pl), because Steam price calculator is unreal for my country.
Simply in Poland for new game I pay 100 złoty (polish zloty) (~22 euro) for digital key or 120 złoty (28 euro) for BOX. If I buy it on Steam, I need to pay in euros, so this same game I should pay 49 euro, so this is about 215 polish zloty.
So until steam not provide support for my currency, many gamers in my country, not bying in Steam and buying only cheap games or only in Poland stores.
I hope you understand my opinion and why people in Poland skip steam?
So maybe anyone know, If steam plans to introduce a new currency?
I don't know about Steam but I know we have support for PLN on GOG :)
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I used to have an online shop selling hardware and software but we closed it immediately after the first hacks/frauds we noticed.
We had it online for like 2-3 years and Lost like 700-800 Euro because of that, not much but it really destroys any plans you have for the future.
So in short I understand the situation and especially if there are a lot of money involved.
Unfortunately as a developer you cant revoke all the steam keys because you will make your fans angry but maybe if developers distribute the keys to less shops at the start and after a 3-6 months period to distribute it to more less secure shops?
I want to blame a bit the developers as well..
We all know the reason why people do this...buying cheaper...
Sometimes or actually most of the developers on their games release date they are demanding extremely high prices for their games.
Lets say for example Planetary Annihilation was like 60-90 Euro on Early access
I find games like that overpriced and ofc I would save my money to buy something else
And yes there are a lot of games that are extremely overpriced for their content.
These overpriced games lead the users to find ways to get some cheap games or at least to find a better way to get the games they want cheaper. Most users they can easily pirated the new game and when it gets cheaper they buy it from a legal store.
if the developers could put a logical price I believe that most of the users would buy from a legit store than to find it cheaper elsewhere or wait for summer sales or bundle games.
Before years ago we had steam Russia Market where you could buy steam games on Russia prices but unfortunately valve blocked cross region trade so you cant do this anymore :P
For example you could buy SteamWorld Heist for 6.52$ instead of 20$
Well steam has some issues with currencies because in some regions some games are overpriced and in some other regions are cheaper.
Anyway lets hope valve will find a way to deal with this but is not actually valves problem.
Is more about the developers and how they distribute their keys provided by Steam.
Last edited by wolfyrion on 20 June 2016 at 9:42 pm UTC
We had it online for like 2-3 years and Lost like 700-800 Euro because of that, not much but it really destroys any plans you have for the future.
So in short I understand the situation and especially if there are a lot of money involved.
Unfortunately as a developer you cant revoke all the steam keys because you will make your fans angry but maybe if developers distribute the keys to less shops at the start and after a 3-6 months period to distribute it to more less secure shops?
I want to blame a bit the developers as well..
We all know the reason why people do this...buying cheaper...
Sometimes or actually most of the developers on their games release date they are demanding extremely high prices for their games.
Lets say for example Planetary Annihilation was like 60-90 Euro on Early access
I find games like that overpriced and ofc I would save my money to buy something else
And yes there are a lot of games that are extremely overpriced for their content.
These overpriced games lead the users to find ways to get some cheap games or at least to find a better way to get the games they want cheaper. Most users they can easily pirated the new game and when it gets cheaper they buy it from a legal store.
if the developers could put a logical price I believe that most of the users would buy from a legit store than to find it cheaper elsewhere or wait for summer sales or bundle games.
Before years ago we had steam Russia Market where you could buy steam games on Russia prices but unfortunately valve blocked cross region trade so you cant do this anymore :P
For example you could buy SteamWorld Heist for 6.52$ instead of 20$
Well steam has some issues with currencies because in some regions some games are overpriced and in some other regions are cheaper.
Anyway lets hope valve will find a way to deal with this but is not actually valves problem.
Is more about the developers and how they distribute their keys provided by Steam.
Last edited by wolfyrion on 20 June 2016 at 9:42 pm UTC
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Added a screen-grab of their article on it: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_images/1466459516tiny.jpg
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just to calm things a bit down
Party Hard
SpeedRunners
have been in bundles and SpeedRunners could be sold in a 4 pack before ages ago with russia market on sales for 1 cs:go key around 2$ split pack.
Here is an example how trades are working (i think this guy buys a lot of keys and cheap from humble monthly buyers)
https://www.steamgifts.com/trade/hFEU8/h-csgo-keys-w-the-forest3khurtworld3k-life-is-feudal-your-own35k-humble-bundle
Tiny build lost a lot from Punch Club since it has not been in any bundle so the amount he lost is like 13k and not the extreme amount of 450k
Thats my humble opinion...
credit fraud is disgusting and I am against that and all kind of thievery.
Party Hard
SpeedRunners
have been in bundles and SpeedRunners could be sold in a 4 pack before ages ago with russia market on sales for 1 cs:go key around 2$ split pack.
Here is an example how trades are working (i think this guy buys a lot of keys and cheap from humble monthly buyers)
https://www.steamgifts.com/trade/hFEU8/h-csgo-keys-w-the-forest3khurtworld3k-life-is-feudal-your-own35k-humble-bundle
Tiny build lost a lot from Punch Club since it has not been in any bundle so the amount he lost is like 13k and not the extreme amount of 450k
Thats my humble opinion...
credit fraud is disgusting and I am against that and all kind of thievery.
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I don't see the issue of G2A though. If they were not explicitly for this target of fraud keys, what would be the issue to get the key list of fraud-keys, revoke them and revoke the payment.
Someone would loose the cheap key, but would get back their money. So would the developers. Forcing the developers in special key-offers for this is ridiculous.
I'm not sure where they're located, but legally that's not a good terrain to stand on. That's fencing / assistance to fraud, and that's certainly not allowed in most countries of the world.
Someone would loose the cheap key, but would get back their money. So would the developers. Forcing the developers in special key-offers for this is ridiculous.
I'm not sure where they're located, but legally that's not a good terrain to stand on. That's fencing / assistance to fraud, and that's certainly not allowed in most countries of the world.
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wvstolzing Jun 20, 2016
Quoting: DrMcCoyQuoting: EhvisFor instance, let the cheap Russian version only have the Russian languageLimiting language selection is pretty crummy for expats living in places where they don't speak the local language well enough.
Off-topic, but I completely agree with this. Another case is that of using games for language practice. I hate it when region locks of any sort block my access to German and French versions of games.
Playing a long RPG, or a strategy in a foreign language is a great immersion technique.
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Quoting: wvstolzingQuoting: DrMcCoyQuoting: EhvisFor instance, let the cheap Russian version only have the Russian languageLimiting language selection is pretty crummy for expats living in places where they don't speak the local language well enough.
Off-topic, but I completely agree with this. Another case is that of using games for language practice. I hate it when region locks of any sort block my access to German and French versions of games.
Playing a long RPG, or a strategy in a foreign language is a great immersion technique.
Obviously they need to allow paying full price for the international version.
Anyway, not doing that means you get G2A. And since it's perfectly legal, there's not much that can be done about it. And you can be sure that most will not consider the ethical implications of it.
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Quoting: EhvisObviously they need to allow paying full price for the international version.That's...the opposite of a good fix for this issue.
The price differences exist because of the different cost of living in certain places. A non-native-Russian person living in Russia, who would like the "international" version, will not magically earn more than his native Russian co-workers.
Last edited by DrMcCoy on 20 June 2016 at 11:21 pm UTC
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