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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Mountain Man Jun 21, 2016
Quoting: leillo1975What kind of Store is instantgaming?Basically, if a deal seems too good to be true then you need to be suspicious. Out of the ones you listed, I'm pretty sure that only Steam and Humble Bundle are legit. I'd be wary of the others.
I bought a couple of games on it two months ago with a increíble price.
Normally I buy games on Steam, humble Store and Bundlestars
Look, I'm all for saving a buck, but not when it screws the developer.
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Mountain Man Jun 21, 2016
Quoting: StyromaniacUm, get the FBI involved maybe?Pretty sure they're outside of the US. Companies like this tend to take advantage of the lax laws in their own countries.
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natewardawg Jun 21, 2016
Quoting: GempalmThen 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.
I don't need to region lock it. I wouldn't punish honest people because of a few fraudsters. This is just where you need to be careful who you sell keys to and in some cases how many you give out (IE some unknown Youtuber will get 1 key and that's it). Only give them to places that actually have a good reputation to lose, like Humble Bundle. If a Russian decides to buy 100 copies of my game on Steam at $3 and resell it to people (IE Americans) for $5 when it retails at $10, that's fine with me, and everyone like this still won't make up majority of my sales.
The world is full of dishonest people and they will find some way of ripping you off one way or another if they have their heart set to it. Might as well not make people who want to be honest suffer because of them.
My bottom line is that if you play it smart you will at the very worst get some money from almost every sale while also not punishing your customer and ruining your reputation. Good customer service goes a very long way, especially in a world where it is becoming very scarce. Good customer service also doesn't mean shooting yourself in the foot.
edit: Separated the "dishonest people" statement from the previous paragraph so as not to call the people from the previous sentence dishonest or fraudsters.
Last edited by natewardawg on 21 June 2016 at 2:22 am UTC
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Well if your position is you should be able to sell outside the US for cheaper and those sales should be allowed to be transferred to those in the US, then we have nothing further to discuss because I completely agree. Well, except I would disagree that it's "fraud" or dishonest.
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Mountain Man Jun 21, 2016
Quoting: GempalmThis 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.Is it even possible to keep track of keys in this fashion? You're assuming that it is, but I'm not so sure.
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As a developer the technical aspect of linking a key to a sale then revoking it is fairly simple to solve. It'a so simple it's pretty much unfair to the consumer.
Edit: what I mean is from a consumer standpoint buying a 'License Key' you are already pretty much boned because it can be revoked at any time for any reason. You don't actually own anything. /Tangent
Last edited by Gempalm on 21 June 2016 at 2:01 am UTC
Edit: what I mean is from a consumer standpoint buying a 'License Key' you are already pretty much boned because it can be revoked at any time for any reason. You don't actually own anything. /Tangent
Last edited by Gempalm on 21 June 2016 at 2:01 am UTC
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ElectricPrism Jun 21, 2016
I feel like this hasn't been said yet.
As a consumer/gamer I don't buy from G2A because I consider it unethical, I don't buy from them because I'm not even sure if I'll get what I pay for delivered, so I could loose my cash.
If a developer revokes keys that it notices were not from a authorized channel and they revoke them I suspect most of the whiplash will fall not on the developer but on G2A as it should, thus discouraging their business.
In this case the developer should fight fire with fire and write back threatening to revoke all keys from their store thereby harming their credibility and future business. This is the only way to apply pressure to correct the problem.
I buy from Steam primarily for the convenience factor, it remembers my payment information, is simple, I can gift games to friends, they have sales that make piracy take too much effort in comparison to buying a 70% off version of the game, they keep it up to date and patched for you, you have a friends list, its on linux, etc.. etc... etc...
As a consumer I'm not gonna change my buying habits to by from Bozo X Store to save a buck or two when they're shady as fsck.
As a consumer/gamer I don't buy from G2A because I consider it unethical, I don't buy from them because I'm not even sure if I'll get what I pay for delivered, so I could loose my cash.
If a developer revokes keys that it notices were not from a authorized channel and they revoke them I suspect most of the whiplash will fall not on the developer but on G2A as it should, thus discouraging their business.
In this case the developer should fight fire with fire and write back threatening to revoke all keys from their store thereby harming their credibility and future business. This is the only way to apply pressure to correct the problem.
I buy from Steam primarily for the convenience factor, it remembers my payment information, is simple, I can gift games to friends, they have sales that make piracy take too much effort in comparison to buying a 70% off version of the game, they keep it up to date and patched for you, you have a friends list, its on linux, etc.. etc... etc...
As a consumer I'm not gonna change my buying habits to by from Bozo X Store to save a buck or two when they're shady as fsck.
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natewardawg Jun 21, 2016
Quoting: GempalmWell if your position is you should be able to sell outside the US for cheaper and those sales should be allowed to be transferred to those in the US, then we have nothing further to discuss because I completely agree. Well, except I would disagree that it's "fraud" or dishonest.
Thanks for pointing that last part out. I did try and separate that statement into it's own paragraph for that very reason, but I can definitely see it mixing with the previous. I don't think that buying at $3 and selling at $5 is fraud or dishonest either. I'm going to add an "edit" note for that.
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metro2033fanboy Jun 21, 2016
ops...just got Pillar of Eternity on G2a ...my bad!
goVEGAN
goVEGAN
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Kuduzkehpan Jun 21, 2016
never bought games out of Steam only 1 time from GOG and that was not compatible with my ubuntu. (very very old game tho.)
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