Key reselling store G2A to make some small steps towards helping developers

Does not G2A have a history of selling stolen keys as well?

Does not G2A have a history of selling stolen keys as well?

Yep, which is why 10% is very low, almost insulting.

In other news, bank robber promises to give 10% of the proceeds of latest heist to the family of bank teller he shot during said heist.

Yeah, 10% is very low, but this isn't a small step, it's a big one. Why am I saying this? Because given G2A's attitude taking a step, no matter how small it is, was completely unexpected of them. They actually did something to improve this situation a little and that's a big deal, because it shows that they are, more or less, open to change this dire situation into something better.
And no, I'm not taking their side, I still think they do dirty business and this step, big or not, doesn't make them saviours or something like that. They did nasty stuff for a while, and thus, earning our trust will also take a while... and if this change is the most they are going to give us then it won't be enough.

Can someone please explain how these stores can sell a cheaper key that steam?

Can someone please explain how these stores can sell a cheaper key that steam?

They resell keys from bundles, sales or giveaways.

Their basic business model is as follows:

1. User A steals a bunch of credit card numbers.
2. User A uses these credit cards to buy thousands of non-resalable Steam key from Steam key reseller B.
3. User A offers those keys for sale on G2A at a heavily discounted rate because their only cost so far has been the stolen credit cards.
4. User C buys the key from G2A, G2A takes a piece of the action and then turns over the (now laundered) money to User A.
5. User C activates the code on Steam.
6. Person D realizes that someone has made fraudulent charges on their credit card and has their credit card company issue a chargeback to Steam key reseller B.
7. Steam key reseller B debits the developer E's account for their share of the sale.
8. Developer E is now left in the awkward situation where thousands of people just got their game without the developer getting their share and if they cancel the codes they end of looking like a heel.
9. G2A laughs all the way to the bank.

The new model would change 8 so that the developers would become complicit with the theft.

Oh come on. There are certainly problems just like there are with eBay. But this isn't really much different from eBay. If G2A will become more cooperative and allows the publishers/developers to check the keys and goes even further in the future, it'll be OK. The dev/publisher crowd still won't like it because they'd like to control all sales instead of just the first sale but it's totally OK in my book at that point.

This is just a first step but there's absolutely no need to act like the only thing they're doing is peddling out warez, there's a legitimate business with some bad practices here.

Can someone please explain how these stores can sell a cheaper key that steam?

It's a marketplace: basically if you buy a 40$ game during sales on Steam at -75% (so the game costs only 10$) and sell the key on G2A when the sale stop on Steam at 20$, and you have a 10$ profit. Repeat it 100 times and you have a 1000$ profit for a 1000$ investment. Some peoples / companies buy games in box (I mean physical copies of games) in Eastern Europe, which are cheaper than non-physical versions (generally physical versions are cheaper than their non-physical version as you have to wait some days when the game is out for buying it in physical stores), and even more cheaper if you buy a large quantity of them, with their associated Steam keys that you can sell on G2A (there are actual companies employing peoples for unboxing and copying the keys on excel files before selling them on G2A). There is also the fact that you can buy a game on a currency and sell it with another (relative value of one currency against one-other, but also the fact that Steam do not sales game at the same price worldwide), which is another optimisation of profits (if you live in a country where Steam sells at a lower price than in North America or Europe as examples). As G2A is a Hong Kong company, they also do not charge VAT (and also pay basically 0 charge on their profits), which allows to sell cheaper. Some peoples sell keys from bundles etc., or keys given by "marketing departments" to "journalists" (some claim they are actual journalists but only collect Steam keys). All of that is more or less "legal" or at least in the "grey area", but there is also stolen keys and keys peoples sell after buying them with stolen credit cards (and G2A acts against that, or at least try, as it is a bad press for their "greyish business" ).

And sorry for my poor English. :)


Last edited by riusma on 28 Jun 2016 at 2:59 pm UTC

I repeat:
I only buy Steam Wallet codes at G2A because they accept argentinian cash... yeah, cash, pe$os...
Thanks to G2A, I don't need to use my credit card any more on Steam...
Is THE ONLY international store who cares about Latinamerican gamers... Devs and other stores should LEARN and not complain.

If G2A will become more cooperative and allows the publishers/developers to check the keys and goes even further in the future, it'll be OK.

If they do that, they go out of business. The majority of keys for sale are from stolen credit cards and the majority of the remainder were originally sold with a "not for resale" clause in the purchasing agreement.

If G2A will become more cooperative and allows the publishers/developers to check the keys and goes even further in the future, it'll be OK.

If they do that, they go out of business. The majority of keys for sale are from stolen credit cards and the majority of the remainder were originally sold with a "not for resale" clause in the purchasing agreement.

What exactly are you basing that on?

What exactly are you basing that on?

I read, or at least glance through, the terms and conditions when I buy things. "Not for resale" clauses are the norm not the exception. Some countries will let a resale slide as consumer's rights, but buying thousands of copies, specifically for resale, wouldn't be protected under such provisions.

I repeat:
I only buy Steam Wallet codes at G2A because they accept argentinian cash... yeah, cash, pe$os...
Thanks to G2A, I don't need to use my credit card any more on Steam...
Is THE ONLY international store who cares about Latinamerican gamers... Devs and other stores should LEARN and not complain.

PaySafeCard works with argentinian cash as well.
https://www.paysafecard.com/es-ar/comprar/encontrar-puntos-de-venta/puntos-de-venta/

And Steam accepts PaySafeCard.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8360-WEJC-2625#acceptedforms

I repeat:
I only buy Steam Wallet codes at G2A because they accept argentinian cash... yeah, cash, pe$os...
Thanks to G2A, I don't need to use my credit card any more on Steam...
Is THE ONLY international store who cares about Latinamerican gamers... Devs and other stores should LEARN and not complain.

PaySafeCard works with argentinian cash as well.
https://www.paysafecard.com/es-ar/comprar/encontrar-puntos-de-venta/puntos-de-venta/

And Steam accepts PaySafeCard.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8360-WEJC-2625#acceptedforms

Did You buy on Steam with pesos through a Paysafecard from Argentina? That is a ver important detail...

Any way, I'm good with rapipago... G2A by itself don't accept Rapipago; is PayU, their payment service provider the one who accepts rapipago... Is Steam who must make a dead with PayU.

What exactly are you basing that on?

I read, or at least glance through, the terms and conditions when I buy things. "Not for resale" clauses are the norm not the exception. Some countries will let a resale slide as consumer's rights, but buying thousands of copies, specifically for resale, wouldn't be protected under such provisions.

Aand you know for a fact that people selling on G2A are either not from the countries where it's legal despite these terms or that the majority of keys have been obtained thousands at a time exactly how?

Aand you know for a fact that people selling on G2A are either not from the countries where it's legal despite these terms or that the majority of keys have been obtained thousands at a time exactly how?

If you're cool helping turn a crank in a money laundering scheme, who am I to dissuade you? Just don't be surprised if you find your keys cancelled and your Steam account flagged some day.

burzmali and riusma thanks for the explanation!!

How can we be sure that G2a bulk purchase keys obtained by theft of credit cards?

The way it is being said here is as it were the main source of their income , is that really true?


Last edited by ANDREZAO on 28 Jun 2016 at 9:40 pm UTC

How can we be sure that G2a bulk purchase keys obtained by theft of credit cards?

It could be that people have legitimate access to large quantities of discount keys that they are able to sell for around half retail on launch day like: https://www.g2a.com/index.php/lego-star-wars-the-force-awakens-steam-cd-key-preorder-global.html?___store=canada

But if they did, why would they sell them on one of the shadiest sites around? Given the volume of keys that G2A moves, were they all legit, hell even if half were legit, you could set up a simple store front with no gimmicks and sell everything, no subscriptions, no "buy a random key" nonsense, just turning around thousands of dollars of keys per day at no risk.

How can we be sure that G2a bulk purchase keys obtained by theft of credit cards?

I don't think the main complaint is anything to do with theft but more about dev's missing out on their share of the sales on G2A. They sell X amount of keys from their own sites cheaply (or given away for free) but then see resellers making profit selling those same keys on G2A with no % for themselves.

And some might be upset with the keys being allowed to be resold period.

I hope that a system to remove any genuinely stolen keys can be put in place to protect both dev and client though. It is a worry for everyone I think.

I'll continue to buy from G2A, I've had no bad experiences with them.


Last edited by Destroyer on 29 Jun 2016 at 3:33 am UTC