Do you buy from such unauthorized 3rd party retailers?
I sometimes use it to buy a copy of a game that is not available in fucked up cencorship Germany.
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Sooo it's probably not the right thread to ask this but still... Are the keys in the humble store legit?
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I have one thing to say about these sites.
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I used to trade on Steam here and there for the discounts at new games that interest me. I don't buy full price because of my low income but I still would like to play certain games sooner than 2-3 years down the road when I can afford them. Sadly Valve pretty much killed that way off. So yeah I use these sites now since I don't want to fall back to Piracy, which is even worse for Devs. I haven't had a problem yet :) Like with trading there are always going to be some bad cases, but there's a good chance the money ends up at the devs instead of them getting nothing due to piracy or reconsidering the purchase and I get my game - so I'm fine with it overall.
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yeah they are much better off with him pirating their games. right?
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Or maybe he could just wait to be able to get it for cheap? That's what I do. AAA are regularly on bundles, have 80% discounts or are even given for free for promotional purpose. A little more than 2 years after its release I got Bioshock infinite for 1$. I mean its possible.
I heard there is even an amazing website where generous people give away great games for free every day !
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And just to be clear, I don't want to pass any moral judgement on anyone in particular. But at the same time I really think it's bad for the industry as a whole and it encourages an unhealthy market.
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he is buying it cheap, from other people who bought it during above mentioned sales, on steam or elsewhere. I really see no problems with it, as long as its not stolen keys, credit cards or whatever other tactic scammers use nowadays. And developers/publishers already got their cut, once original purchaser bought their game so i really see whats the big deal.
also, many people miss many sales, just like its with ebay stuff, but they still want to get their games cheap.. ish, Or else, as i already said, they are going to go back to pirating and i cant see that doing any good to either devs or publishers.
and devs yelling omg but but our keys !!! is just a cry wolf from publishers, nothing else really. either way i retreat from this discussion as g2a and such sites dont really interest me right now because im not actively buying new games, and got tons to trade away but i really dont see it as such a huge problem some people are making it to be. Im sure how a huge majority of marketplace sellers games were bought in a legit way, so devs publishers and even 3rd party sites already got their share. Now, we, players are able to save some money by buying cheaper games too. yeah it doesnt look all that bad in my eyes.
not to mention publishers and devs are a bunch of hypocrites. They have no problems in moving their HQ and dev studios to places with lower wages or taxes, but firmly believe how european players shouldnt be able to buy games from Brasilian stores and god forbid, trade with brasilian traders because, you know thats a bad thing. and it hurts poor studios. boo hoo.
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But the problem is that you have no way of knowing if the key you're buying comes from a legit seller or just a scammer.
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You have a simple way of knowing. It is called experience. You may have heard about it.
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Experience requires you to have deals with the sellers, and without any prior dealings you cannot know if they are trustworthy or not: even the "British" group at G2A with 5 million or so key transactions are 100% trustworthy in name only: if you bother to scroll through their feedback, you can see fake/duplicate key feedback, nicely masked by the site itself.
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actually, i do. just like ebay stars, those marketplace sites have sellers rating so if someone has 700 sales and no negative feedback id feel pretty safe buying from that person.
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And from my experience it is much more secure to buy (and also sell) on G2A or Kinguin then here in trades. No-one has tried to scam me on G2A or Kinguin, but like 20 people already tried to scam me here.
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Except you don't know it, you suppose or hope, there is a big difference. It may just be a very good scammer that found a loophole. I mean websites like these are a paradise for thieves.
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Why should I assume this? It maybe that GMG is too selling stolen keys, who knows, I really didn't see inside of their company and maybe Steam itself is generating more keys then they are supposed to and ripping off devs.
You don't know any of this.
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As far as I know it never happened, while in the grey-market it's happening regularly. At this point it's just denying reality.
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Keys are bought directly from the developers for the most part, they are reputable because of it. And furthermore there are safeguards, people that are accountable for. In the grey-market the customers just moves on and the thieves keep the money.
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And my point isn't that it's unsafe but that it encourages illegal activities when alternatives exist.
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They are, actually. They won't get the money either way, but with the grey market some other person is getting very real profit from their work without doing anything.
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Because at G2A all money goes to the site and/or seller only, none to the publisher and the developer. There is no publisher cut. And as you could read in the thread-starters post's link, indie publisher do not know how those keys ended up at G2A since they never sold such keys.
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but why give so many keys away then? as i already said, give it to a few famous twitch streamers, make 10ish giveaways here and maybe give a few to famous redditors (if theres such a thing lol) and journos. and thats about it
i dont really feel any sympathy with people promising keys if their game gets greenlit though so i could care less for those cases :P im really one now, going to play fifa a bit so thanks for the chat :D
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Many people votes for "NOP" but true is...
"shady" sites groving and groving!
also RIP trading...
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I really don't think anyone should encourage stealing credit cards, scamming indie developers and such. Especially when pretty much all games will become so cheap at some point or another.
Regional pricing is mostly awful, sure. But this is not the way to go.
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I did buy two games from them (South Park last year and Orange box in 2009) and it worked fine. However I would still suggest to buy from the official stores unless you are really desperate for a game and don't have cash. Making these sites your primary source of games means supporting a shady business which it is even if the copies sold by them work fine. In the end it is up to everyone's conciousness though.
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I've actually heard stories of people getting their Steam accounts disabled and losing all of their games. Dunna how true they are (probably not), but is it really something you want to risk to find out? I sure don't.
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thats a very huge misconception
activating couterfeit keys will NEVER EVER get your account disabled or suspended or anything
Not sure where you heard that but its sure as heck wasnt true
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I did say the stories are most probably not true, didn't I? That doesn't mean I trust those bullshit sites any more.
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Volvo can suspend or disable your account for any reason, or for no reason, and at any time.
Continuous fraud is one of those reasons people do lose their accounts.
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I don't even dare using sites like kinguin etc to buying games. I prefer buy on steam or not buy.
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Purchased about 15 games or dlcs from g2a so far and i have nothing to complain about all works fine
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Sounds like a lot of pointless scaremongering to me.
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Who's to know who's legit?
We collected a list of reputable sources / authorized resellers of Rebellion (Sniper Elite) and "The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited". (Sources listed below) This list is maybe not complete, but could be a helping hand to find good stores!
You find the "List of official STEAM resellers" here: http://www.epicbundle.com/official-steam-reseller
Sources:
Rebellion, developer of the "Sniper Elite" franchise, published a list of their official licensed partners in July 2014. This list gives a good overview of the official digital key reseller in 2014.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/238090/discussions/0/540744936577983546/
The community coordinator of "The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited" posted the following statement with a list of reputable sources for ESO Steam keys in May 2015.
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/171736/deactivation-of-fraudulently-obtained-esotu-game-keys
...
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I use G2A all the time assuming I can't buy the game straight off of GoG. So for origin keys and the like. Cheap keys, best customer service I've ever seen (able to answer any of my questions), and if I get ripped off, I get my money back in full within 3 hours.
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Checked out the three stores but most of the prices are way too high; the prices should be at least 75% off for retail, 85% off for sale, and under $0.20 for bulk commodity.
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They sure are problematic sites, bought twice from them long time ago and I would lost money if I wasn't sending them (and to Ubisoft back and forth; they were nice btw) lots of emails for month about "where is my pre-order key"/"Key already used" problem. Never again!
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Relevant (doesn't mean that I agree with the content):
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/PaulKilduffTaylor/20150925/254656/The_Key_Masters_Reselling_and_the_Games_Industry.php
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There are A LOT of these sites and many of them take great pains to seem legit. Some even blatantly lie to their customers, suggesting that they have support or even sponsorship from large game companies then put things on their FAQ, promising that Keys are real and items they buy from MMOs and what not won't get them banned because they are "legitimate" resellers. I can tell you, very few are and many blatantly break the rules set out by the publishers/developers of these games. Avoid these places, you will likely regret your association with them, in one way or another (and the keys potentially being illegitimate is only ONE of the problems you could encounter).
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At this time I have 14 items from kinguin (or rather their polish fron gamecodes.pl) in the shop history with no issues. Before the front I use was integrated with kinguin directly (dont know if it was purchase or just site rework) I had bought many more items there. I had 2 problems back then: once they offered key for sale that they didnt have and I got my money back after 2 or 3 weeks. The second one was with already activated key - after few emails with screenshots etc I just got a new (working) key.
Oh: I never use the buyer protection or whatever this thing is called.
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sadly, steam has made an addict of me. only them or official sellers, like humble and indiegala
no shoe pictures? it's the same as MrsSadistic stopped stabbing. whats happening to the world ;)
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The part I really dislike about the grey-market key bullshit is that unscrupulous sellers often storm game contests which diminishes chances for others. It's so disgusting when resellers grab "free" keys from developers and sell them once the promotion has ended. There's no telling where this money is going either, seems like this just funds more shady business.
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Wow i had no idea about this. Thanks for the info :D
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Is this a multi-layered problem where everybody plays a part in making this (grey market like G2A getting popular) happen?
What are the long-tem consequences with gray markets like these?
What, then, is the solution?
Should we, the buyer/consumer/gamer, care about this?
Can't we just, like, say "oh, what can we do?! Let the big guys (e.g. government, publisher, developer) handle this"?
Do they even know or care? Can they find out the truth?
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Heree are some excerpts, quotes and stuffs from the site:
Fast2Play, Kinguin and G2Play are sites which are all owned by a company called 7 Entertainment. Fast2Play is a store where keys are sold to customers, whereas Kinguin is a “marketplace” which allows users to sell keys between themselves. G2A are a separate entity: their business also has both store and marketplace components.
All of these sites had listings for the game but were unable to supply any proof that they were genuine copies that we had authorised. We had never received a share of sales from any of them.
Fast2Play immediately responded to our enquiry by saying simply, “Product has been disabled on the store.” I asked them if this constituted an admission of illegal activity, to which I received no reply.
Frozen Synapse remained on sale on the rest of their sites until several days later, when more unanswered emails prompted its short-term removal.
It was at that point that Game Informer decided to write about the story, interviewing Ed Key and I about it:
7 Entertainment then responded to the article:
It was at that point that I decided to leave things. We’d achieved a commitment from them to stop selling keys from Humble Bundles for profit, a concept which was pretty much universally panned by customers and developers alike. The traditional indie response to situations like this is to spend our limited resources elsewhere, specifically on things which directly benefit legitimate customers.
However, some recent developments have caused me to renew my interest.
G2A and 7 Entertainment have taken out some very high-profile sponsorships, with a particular focus on esports and Twitch streaming. This kind of activity can be profoundly powerful in establishing the legitimacy of a brand; it seems to partially explain G2A’s rapid growth:
It’s not just indies who have tangled with the key resellers. Ubisoft got into a difficult situation with Far Cry 4 keys which were purchased with stolen credit cards and then resold via Kinguin and G2A. Kinguin responded by effectively blaming EA and then appealing to gamers “who simply don’t want to pay publisher suggested prices”. As many players had bought their keys via reselling sites, believing that they were legitimate, Ubisoft were then forced to backpedal.
Polygon published a comprehensive look at the matter and revealed the confused, chaotic nature of key marketplaces. Apparently, nothing has changed since the original Game Informer article: publishers and developers ignoring the situation has simply allowed these sites to grow.
I found it to be an interesting read while getting my manicure (=
For the record, I've never used any of these unauthorized sites for games. However I am curious on everyone else's opinions / experiences with them.
Click to read the article
Additional Reddit Article provided via BearBear
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