Ah key resellers, a topic that always generates a lot of heat. A lot of it usually directed at me for 'telling you what to do', but this might help clear some things up.
A little background: I really do not like key resellers like G2A. I, amongst many other members of the 'press' think they are a shady outfit that profits from fraud. I refuse to even link to them when talking about them, as they are so shoddy. Their systems essentially allow people to sell any old key they can find.
While you can argue (and I'm sure you will, it's always argued by pro-G2A people) that they are legitimate as they allow people to sell their spare keys, a lot of keys will be 100% fraudulent. I still stand by my firm belief that they would be nowhere near as popular or as full of keys if it was truly legitimate, because that many spare keys just don't exist in my opinion. The way it works is usually thus: keys are purchased with stolen credit cards that end up doing chargebacks, which affects any store out there as they then lose their money, the keys sold and then have their own charges to deal with from payment processors and a lot of lost time. This has forced stores to close, removed financial support from developers who needed it and it just goes on and on.
It's another reason why sometimes it's damn hard for us here to get a review key from a developer, as developers have had to become more and more careful about who they give a key to. I've heard too many stores about keys being given out that just end up on G2A being sold, it makes it harder for us all.
John Bain or 'TotalBiscuit' as he is known, a fellow brit, spoke to Gearbox recently as Gearbox planned a partnership with G2A on a AAA revamp of an older title. You can read what he had to say here (it's legitimate, video here if you don't want to read his statement), including details on what Gearbox have said G2A need to do, or Gearbox will not partner with them. John actually spoke with Gearbox at length which allowed Gearbox to come to a decision about what to do due to a massive backlash from gamers.
If you really don't think G2A are shady, read that link, seriously.
For those too lazy to read it, essentially Gearbox has told G2A they need to give fraud protection to all customers for free (the fact that they didn't before is more evidence against them, doesn't make them sound confidence in what people are selling), G2A is to open an API for developers to search for fraudulent keys and have them removed (how do they still not have such a thing, makes you wonder doesn't it?), implement some real fraud check flagging for new sellers and developers to prevent mass fraud being sold (again, how do they still not have something so basic implemented), make their fees simple and clear.
All extremely reasonable demands and to be honest, things all stores should damn well have from day one of opening.
G2A's reputation is so poor, they even resorted to commenting on my last article about them, where they suggest that you buy their fraud protection. Again, does that fill you with confidence? Sure doesn't make me think about buying from them.
I also fully expect G2A to back out of it somehow and prove once and for all they are the shady business I believe them to be. If they do clean up their act, I will be shocked to my core.
We have so many stores that constantly run sales like GOG, Steam, Humble, itch.io and FireFlower Games that are legitimate, there's little need to resort to key resellers. If price is really your issue, then wait for a sale. Practicially every game ever made goes on sale and the seasonal sales especially make things easy on the wallet. It's not like we're short of them, seriously, if that's your argument for using a grey market reseller then you need to re-think. If it's a case of a store not taking your currency, well that's a fair point, hopefully there is a more legitimate store out there that will. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
A little background: I really do not like key resellers like G2A. I, amongst many other members of the 'press' think they are a shady outfit that profits from fraud. I refuse to even link to them when talking about them, as they are so shoddy. Their systems essentially allow people to sell any old key they can find.
While you can argue (and I'm sure you will, it's always argued by pro-G2A people) that they are legitimate as they allow people to sell their spare keys, a lot of keys will be 100% fraudulent. I still stand by my firm belief that they would be nowhere near as popular or as full of keys if it was truly legitimate, because that many spare keys just don't exist in my opinion. The way it works is usually thus: keys are purchased with stolen credit cards that end up doing chargebacks, which affects any store out there as they then lose their money, the keys sold and then have their own charges to deal with from payment processors and a lot of lost time. This has forced stores to close, removed financial support from developers who needed it and it just goes on and on.
It's another reason why sometimes it's damn hard for us here to get a review key from a developer, as developers have had to become more and more careful about who they give a key to. I've heard too many stores about keys being given out that just end up on G2A being sold, it makes it harder for us all.
John Bain or 'TotalBiscuit' as he is known, a fellow brit, spoke to Gearbox recently as Gearbox planned a partnership with G2A on a AAA revamp of an older title. You can read what he had to say here (it's legitimate, video here if you don't want to read his statement), including details on what Gearbox have said G2A need to do, or Gearbox will not partner with them. John actually spoke with Gearbox at length which allowed Gearbox to come to a decision about what to do due to a massive backlash from gamers.
If you really don't think G2A are shady, read that link, seriously.
For those too lazy to read it, essentially Gearbox has told G2A they need to give fraud protection to all customers for free (the fact that they didn't before is more evidence against them, doesn't make them sound confidence in what people are selling), G2A is to open an API for developers to search for fraudulent keys and have them removed (how do they still not have such a thing, makes you wonder doesn't it?), implement some real fraud check flagging for new sellers and developers to prevent mass fraud being sold (again, how do they still not have something so basic implemented), make their fees simple and clear.
All extremely reasonable demands and to be honest, things all stores should damn well have from day one of opening.
G2A's reputation is so poor, they even resorted to commenting on my last article about them, where they suggest that you buy their fraud protection. Again, does that fill you with confidence? Sure doesn't make me think about buying from them.
I also fully expect G2A to back out of it somehow and prove once and for all they are the shady business I believe them to be. If they do clean up their act, I will be shocked to my core.
We have so many stores that constantly run sales like GOG, Steam, Humble, itch.io and FireFlower Games that are legitimate, there's little need to resort to key resellers. If price is really your issue, then wait for a sale. Practicially every game ever made goes on sale and the seasonal sales especially make things easy on the wallet. It's not like we're short of them, seriously, if that's your argument for using a grey market reseller then you need to re-think. If it's a case of a store not taking your currency, well that's a fair point, hopefully there is a more legitimate store out there that will. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: Alm888So, wired transfers are something from the past.
I wonder if we talk about the same thing, then. Bank transfer ("Überweisung" in German) can be made from any computer, there are very safe methods to do so, and as far as I know I'm able to transfer money to any account. I get as many transfers (at least national ones) as I want for a very low monthly fee. Wouldn't know why something like this could be outdated.
0 Likes
Quoting: EikeI wonder if we talk about the same thing, then. Bank transfer ("Überweisung" in German) can be made from any computer, there are very safe methods to do so, and as far as I know I'm able to transfer money to any account.
Probably, not. On-line bank transfers are not a problem. What I have in mind is a very old sub-set of wired transfers, but it can be used without being a client of a bank at all (with only credentials of a recipient). Something like "Western Union", only slow, costly and uncomfortable.
Quoting: GempalmThey like not having to recognize the legal principle of first sale. They like selling the same game over and over to each player, with no secondary market.
Because they are not "selling" games. They are licensing them to end-users. That's why it is called End-User License Agreement and everyone "buying" a game should read that and not just clicking through the whole installation process. Thus, even sharing (or even allowing to play to a friend who just dropped at your house) is illegal. So re-selling is a big NO-NO! Steam (AFAIK) has the right to ban an account it Valve finds out you it was re-sold to someone other than original owner.
Last edited by Alm888 on 7 April 2017 at 4:57 pm UTC
0 Likes
kill second hand market, a bigger illegal market will thrive
allow people to sell back they're unused games and G2A will be reduced to peanut
allow people to sell back they're unused games and G2A will be reduced to peanut
1 Likes, Who?
I'm going to be honest, I have never had an issue buying from G2A. I try not to use them to buy games very often, as I like to support devs when I can. However I can't really condemn their shady practices without being a hypocrite so... yeah.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Alm888Because they are not "selling" games. They are licensing them to end-users. That's why it is called End-User License Agreement and everyone "buying" a game should read that and not just clicking through the whole installation process. Thus, even sharing (or even allowing to play to a friend who just dropped at your house) is illegal. So re-selling is a big NO-NO! Steam (AFAIK) has the right to ban an account it Valve finds out you it was re-sold to someone other than original owner.
Yes, that's what I said, keys are licenses and are non transferable. That's the scam. The legal principles behind this are not cut and dry. When movies and games were sold on media such as tapes, then discs, the media conglomerates tried to sue rental companies out of existence claiming that it was "licensed" media. That argument failed in court, because of the principle of first sale (if it looks like a sale, quacks like a sale, it's a sale).
When the same issue came up for downloaded software, the media conglomerates were a lot more powerful and they got their version of licensing law passed. So now something that is in every way a sale of a product can have unconscionable restrictions placed on it - or can even be revoked without a refund. This makes no legal sense, and is clearly anti-consumer, but as long as media fanboys like you exist to shame those who see through the shinanigans, nothing is likely to change.
1 Likes, Who?
Gempalm, the thing is that using g2a might get you burned and it's insurance policy is worthless and a scam. You're free to do what you want with your money but what is not right is encouraging others to do the same fully knowing the risks associated. By using g2a you're not "sticking it to the man" unlike those "media fanboys" you mention, you're just making money for some crooked business and nothing really changes.
0 Likes
As I said in my first post, it's an unverifiable black market transaction because of the media industry. G2A didn't make it that way, it was already like that. Buyer beware of you get a stolen one that gets disabled. That said I've never had a key go bad. By the way the requests gearbox made would give them exactly the tools they need to make 100% of the keys on g2a invalid.
You can't negotiate with content providers (lumping gaming companies in here even though it's less so for Indies), they have an unrealisitic view of how they should be compensated.
By the way, I don't consider myself a "pro-g2a guy". The vast majority of my games are direct steam/humble sales. I just want to answer the one sided propaganda.
You can't negotiate with content providers (lumping gaming companies in here even though it's less so for Indies), they have an unrealisitic view of how they should be compensated.
By the way, I don't consider myself a "pro-g2a guy". The vast majority of my games are direct steam/humble sales. I just want to answer the one sided propaganda.
1 Likes, Who?
This whole post is anti keyseller/pro game distributor. That's fine, it is an editorial and that's liam's position.
By the way, propaganda doesn't mean lies. It means biased or unbalanced view point to promote a particular agenda. It can be facts and still be propaganda, by omitting other important facts. I didn't bring up fake news, you did.
By the way, propaganda doesn't mean lies. It means biased or unbalanced view point to promote a particular agenda. It can be facts and still be propaganda, by omitting other important facts. I didn't bring up fake news, you did.
1 Likes, Who?
I got keys from G2A in the past before I learned of the sketchier aspects of their business practices. Stopped doing it and decided to just keep an eye on Steam sales. I'd rather just wait for a game to go on sale than get into risky business these days. To me, it doesn't seem worth it, especially considering games go on sale pretty often on Steam. It also helps me have a little more patience/discipline so I'm not buying everything that looks shiny and new immediately upon release lol.
Last edited by Kylinux on 8 April 2017 at 7:54 pm UTC
Last edited by Kylinux on 8 April 2017 at 7:54 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me