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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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And in a perfect world, that would be fine. But the practice is that the cheap Russian purchases get put on G2A for the rest of the world to buy. It sucks, but there is no good solution for this.
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Quoting: EhvisBut the practice is that the cheap Russian purchases get put on G2A for the rest of the world to buy. It sucks, but there is no good solution for this.
...You can region-lock the key itself, so that it's only usable in Russia?
Just to name one other solution from the top of my head. Just because you can't think of anything else than your silly idea, doesn't mean there aren't any other solutions.
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Quoting: DrMcCoy...You can region-lock the key itself, so that it's only usable in Russia?
Steam supports that, but it's not used in practice. Back when Witcher 3 was on pre-order, there was mayhem because Russians were trading them for CSGO items and there was talk of region locking them. But they didn't and only prevented trading. I suspect there are legal issues with locking out owned games.
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I've never done business with grey market key resellers, they have zero ethical standards. With reputable retailers like Steam and GOG constantly running deep sales, why would I? How much money would I really save potentially buying a stolen key from a grey market reseller? Not much.
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natewardawg Jun 20, 2016
Quoting: DrMcCoyQuoting: 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.
I think a lot of Americans (like myself) sometimes have a hard time comprehending this. My family and I live in Peru where $1 is about 3.5 Soles and 1 Sol will buy you about what $1 will buy in the US. To put it plainly for other Americans it's like buying a new release of a AAA game but instead of paying $60 you now have to pay $200. Or for a an indie game that is released for $20, you now have to pay $70.
As an indie dev I also realise that it's very hard to adjust prices for different regions. We don't have a team, or even an individual who can find out price conversions for cost of living. Is there a resource out there that does cost of living comparisons in an easy to understand format? That would be really nice to have! :)
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Comandante Ñoñardo Jun 21, 2016
I don't buy games on G2A, but I indeed buy Steamwallet codes there; is the ONLY possible way to do that from Argentina...
And is the ONLY international store that accepts the two most popular payment systems here in Argentina: PAGOFACIL and RAPIPAGO, two payment systems ideal for the people who don't have a credit card; you pay CASH with argentinian currency...
I wish that Steam, GOG, Humble, Gamersgate and Greenmangaming do an agreement with Rapipago and Pagofacil. That will make our gaming life more easy here in Argentina.
And is the ONLY international store that accepts the two most popular payment systems here in Argentina: PAGOFACIL and RAPIPAGO, two payment systems ideal for the people who don't have a credit card; you pay CASH with argentinian currency...
I wish that Steam, GOG, Humble, Gamersgate and Greenmangaming do an agreement with Rapipago and Pagofacil. That will make our gaming life more easy here in Argentina.
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It's way to late here for me to read all comments, so I apologize if this has already been said. I can agree as far as keys bought with stolen credit cards go, this is bad and should be prevented. However, I am completely against developers preventing people from selling excess keys, which is exactly what they want to do. It's a free market and if I have a spare key I should be able to sell it.
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This seems like more of a technical problem than anything. Why wouldn't tinyBuild revoke specific keys for which the payment was charged back? Just do it, let the blame fall on g2a where it belongs. The fact of the matter is as much as I love the devs of these games, they are trying to operate without a secondary market. It sounds like the same complaints big media and gaming industry has against the rental and used gaming market, that somehow transferring ownership of something because you don't want it anymore is stealing billions each year. Sorry I don't buy it.
Also, defending region pricing is BS. A lot of us are poor here in America as well. I lost my job in April, maybe I should get preferential pricing? If you ask me whether I'd rather pirate a game or buy it from g2q, I would probably buy it form g2a. At least then there's an initial sale/issuance of some kind.
Also, defending region pricing is BS. A lot of us are poor here in America as well. I lost my job in April, maybe I should get preferential pricing? If you ask me whether I'd rather pirate a game or buy it from g2q, I would probably buy it form g2a. At least then there's an initial sale/issuance of some kind.
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natewardawg Jun 21, 2016
Quoting: GempalmAlso, defending region pricing is BS. A lot of us are poor here in America as well. I lost my job in April, maybe I should get preferential pricing?
This isn't/shouldn't be forced on anyone, but is always a preference to the developer/publisher. The truth of the matter is that I'm very confident I will make more sales in a place like Peru if I make sure I have prices that are friendly to that region. I know that I can sell copies at the standard rate in the US (regardless that a few people might have lost their job). This isn't about forcing an idea on people, it's Economics 101. If your game costs too much for most people in Russia, they will pirate it instead, so instead of getting $3 for your $10 game, you will get $0. I'll take the $3 :)
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Quoting: natewardawgI know that I can sell copies at the standard rate in the US (regardless that a few people might have lost their job). This isn't about forcing an idea on people, it's Economics 101. If your game costs too much for most people in Russia, they will pirate it instead, so instead of getting $3 for your $10 game, you will get $0. I'll take the $3 :)
Then you have to region lock it so people can't trade it or use it if they travel/move. If not then don't complain when people are buying it for export. Economics 101 is also about scarcity which hardly describes modern computing.
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