Don't believe anything you read, it is in the interest of all companies that this market continues to exist, they just have to put on a good face for the public. Believe me they sell more through these stores than through their official website.
Did anyone else just hear the audio clip of "rise from your grave!" from Altered Beast just now? Thanks I guess, for choosing my post from 6 years ago to to necro this topic...
Just to school my past self (and anyone else harbouring affection or indifference towards G2A): G2A is a terrible system and it is, in a very real sense, unethical to use it. The lowdown on the whole mess is that, basically, many of the cheapest keys are purchased with stolen credit card details or defrauded bank accounts, from the publishers or devs, and then sold on G2A as a way to irreversibly clean stolen money. When a stolen credit card or defrauded account is then pursued by the parent bank or local anti-fraud squad, the money is often extorted from the developers or publishers whose keys were purchased, but no action is taken against G2A: publishers and devs lose money, G2A gets to keep the money. G2A have been notified of this many times by many developers, publishers and watchdogs and have done absolutely nothing to combat it. Some developers are so upset about it that they've openly stated that they'd rather you pirate their game than buy it from G2A, because G2A sales actively hurt them.
Yeah I thought that was quite widely known, thought it was basically with case with most 'grey market' or whatever rubbish term they use.
More known now, but not so much in 2015. It was speculated it was 'too good to be true' so was iffy, but this was only a few years since developers had been complaining similarly about Steam destroying the market by selling every AAA game 90% off for £1.50. G2A also were working with big YouTubers, so it authenticated them.
I mean, I first wrote about problems with stolen keys and keys bought with fraudulent payment methods back in July 2016, and the problems were long-established at that point. Maybe it's more people didn't want to know back then, 'cos the information was definitely out there.
The posts in this topic from the start are interesting, couple well known names here saying "no idea, bit iffy, but went ok". Even G2A made an account here! As you say it wasn't until another 18 months that you first wrote about it. We can see it was around this time that companies started taking action, but also that they got the backlash for it.
Oh, aye, all these companies often try the PR offensive approach. I've had *several* offers to include something about being able to buy dirt-cheap Windows licences, from a key-seller who shall not be named, in any articles I'm writing in exchange for filthy lucre. Which reminds me, did you know you can get dirt-cheap Windows licences from... just kidding, I obviously turned 'em down.
Lol, Windows keys. Even I was taken in at the beginning of my business. "Hmm, I can get a clearly dodgy Windows key from eBay for £3, but it's certain to be skimmed from an upgrade cycle, resold many times and no longer work past the first week of purchase...but wait? A real brick-and-mortar Limited Company, with an address and website and credentials, and they're selling them for £30! Maybe these are more or less legit and will carry on working far into the future!" Spoiler alert, they didn't, the company no longer exists, the keys are all dead, it just took them somewhat longer than the eBay hustlers to get taken down.
What surprises me is people still use G2A or Kinguin. Last time I checked their "deals" were more expensive than Steam. Try Ebay. Real people on there if you care to look. Generally Steam sales are cheaper.
Don't know baout key site prices now, but Steam isn't even the cheapest out of most of the legit stores these days either. Gamersgate, GOG and co. will be a pound or some pence cheaper even.
Fair enough. That's even more funny really. Not only is Steam cheaper, but the legit-key under-cutters are cheaper. G2A was always being coy, but now it can't even compete. Is anyone selling tickets, coz I'd love to watch them burn.
While it is true that Game publishers often sell the base game for peanuts on legit stores like Steam, Fanatical, HumbleBundle, GamesPlanet etc, they then also try to milk you on the DLC by barely giving any discounts on it.... Not uncommon to see a game discounted by like 80% on Steam but then the DLC is a paltry 10% off and still costs more than the base game did before the discount. But of course that is just a side note, because regardless of what happens on legit stores, everyone should just stay away from fraud riddled scumbags like G2A.
Indeed they do. I love me them definitive editions on sale though. Full game + full dlc for 40-60% off. Mh hm don't mind if I do. I'm a patient man, generally. I pay less than full price for the complete game.
I feel that. At this point there are games I literally ignored for a decade just to get a bargain price on them. Game prices exist in another dimension of economics to my life priorities. Do people really spend £60-80 on a game? Even magically knowing for sure I'd get hours of enjoyment out of it, that seems steep to me. Am I out of touch? No. It's the game publishers who are wrong.
Nowadays I don't consider games to have any value, given how freely they're given away. A AAA title will be free in a year or two, even Game Pass is being given away near free. A couple games a year I might get on release, but the rest are being thrown at my face But I guess that's part of the evolution into subscription-based entertainment. The future is games not being individual things you 'own' and play on a console, but part of (and exclusive to) a library you can subscribe monthly to and stream onto anything with a screen and internet. So one game has no value, but a collection does.
