G2A confirms stolen game key sales, pays $40,000 to Factorio devs

[AshRiver]

Just now, Nas said:

Green Man Gaming and Humblebundle come to mind.

Are those safe and not a scam?

[Nas]

Just now, AshRiver said:

Are those safe and not a scam?

Both are reputable, the latter of which donates a portion of your purchase to charity.

[AshRiver]

9 minutes ago, Nas said:

Both are reputable, the latter of which donates a portion of your purchase to charity.

Thanks.

[mrthuvi]

5 hours ago, Aereldor said:

I don't know why so many people used G2A when there's a much easier, completely legal way to do this. 

Find a friend in a country where Steam is subsisidized - consistently good in Ukraine, China, Argentina, Brazil, India. 

Set up gameshare, send $ over venmo/paypal/messenger even

Profit

Find a random stranger and arrange transaction? That's as complicated as it sounds. The receiver loses money over paypal transactions and when withdrawing the money the money btw, it's very expensive from the seller's perspective which would have to raise the cost.

As someone who used to buy from G2A, if it's cheaper, I buy it. That's all there is to it. When you are broke, moral is less appealing, simple as that. 

Ironically enough they don't have competitive pricing any more for a long time, possibly because they don't allow gray key sells anymore. 

Anyway our country started having regional pricing so I just buy from first party nowadays. 

[dalekphalm]

34 minutes ago, AshRiver said:

Anybody knows good sites selling games key legit at discount similar to G2A and Kinguin?

There isn’t one. Not really. 
 

Buy from a legitimate retailer only. HumbleBundle is the closest in terms of crazy discount, but they have a rotating selection (usually themed). 
 

Green Man Gaming is an online web store that sells legit steam keys. 
 

GoG.com has good sales now and then, and is DRM free. 
 

Epic Game Store and Steam both have massive discount sales fairly regularly. 
 

In my opinion, there’s literally no reason to ever buy a key from G2A and similar ilk, if you live in an industrialized “1st world level economy” country.

[Kisai]

2 hours ago, thorhammerz said:

You should really check which rate (daily vs. monthly vs. yearly) you're looking at. 

 

That's before applying the foreign exchange spread charged to retail consumers of some 2.5-3%, so most people will probably see a rate somewhere around 1.42-1.45 at the moment (CADUSD currently rangebound between ~0.705 to ~0.72 until further market catalysts). 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Unless of course, you're using a Credit Card like the Rogers Bank Mastercard that provides a rebate on the spread, or have otherwise exchanged the CAD to USD via roundabout methods such as Norbert's Gambit.

 

I think this whoosh'ed over your head. I have the ability to pay for a US GAME in US DOLLARS, without having to convert it first to CAD and pay in CAD at inflated CAD dollars. That's TWO round trips. Here's the exact cost it costs me to buy a game:

 

USD to CAD rate was 1.3939. The fee was 13.46 USD.

BoC rate (as above) 1.3550 , this assumes that Steam, Epic, etc are using forex reserves and aren't simply exchanging every single transaction.

 

So That $99.99 game in CAD (79.99 price tier USD)? Costs me:

CAD $18.76 ($13.46USD)

CAD $8.39 (the difference between $108.38 and $99.99CAD)

CAD $99.99 

For a total of CAD $127.14 (* 0.7176 = USD $91.23)

 

Now, up front here, the reason I exchange USD to CAD the way I do is precisely to avoid per-transaction charges, especially when the exchange does not work in my favor. This can't be avoided however when buying from a US store in CAD. If I could buy everything from the US store in US dollars, I would, and was doing right up until Steam changed it, much to my annoyance. So now there is a 15% increase in base cost, PLUS taxes.

 

[Brooksie359]

2 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Regional pricing is due to MASSIVE income

disparity across the globe. 
 

There are countries where someone making a somewhat decent local wage earns less per year than an American living on basic assistance. 
 

Regional pricing is also in large part designed to reduce piracy in those countries, as without it, very few would be able to afford buying games. 
 

In theory regional pricing shouldn’t need to exist. But it’s a good solution to a real problem.

 

Besides, if regional pricing was eliminated, prices wouldn’t be the low regional pricing. It

would end up being significantly more expensive for those countries with low incomes. 
 

Sure it might drop a bit for Europeans and Americans, but not by much, and it would ensure that most low income countries would not be able to afford new games anymore. 

Again I do not agree with the premise that if they can afford the pc to run the game they can't afford the game itself. If they want to sell it for a lower price in a certain region I do not see what's wrong with people using loopholes to take advantage of that. The company brings it on themselves for doing regional pricing. 

[SeriousDad69]

I love G2A and similar sites, they're the only reliable way to get a lot of older games for reasonable prices(Like Skyrim LE for example, which is now hidden on the Steam store and is still $20 without DLC but on G2A it's about $10 with DLC). Fraud happens everywhere in every industry and country. My duty as a consumer is to get what I want at the lowest possible price. It's not my duty or responsibility to police game developer/publisher supply chains for them, nor is it my place to worry about charge backs.

 

Someone somewhere is always getting the short end of the stick one way or another. It sucks but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

[3rrant]

8 hours ago, wANKER said:

How do the keys actually get 'stolen'? 

 

Or is it just that they're bought with stolen card details etc.?

Either review keys fraudly requested or a guess for the code using an exploit of their site.

Other times, most commonly, they buy bulk of unactivated keys during a discount and resell them for higher prices. This however cannot happen with factorio because that game has NEVER been on a sale ever and it's base price increased over the years.

[IAcKI]

G2A, CDkeys and the like are hardly ever competitive now. They usually charge the same or often more than games are available. The few instances I've ever seem them cheaper are by a couple of % from Steam etc. At that point it pointless going through online sellers as you don't get all the security you do from steam. Refunding etc.

[dalekphalm]

13 hours ago, Brooksie359 said:

Again I do not agree with the premise that if they can afford the pc to run the game they can't afford the game itself. If they want to sell it for a lower price in a certain region I do not see what's wrong with people using loopholes to take advantage of that. The company brings it on themselves for doing regional pricing. 

What you're basically saying is that these poorer countries should just get screwed. Yes, a PC in a poorer country is very expensive, compared to their annual wages. In some cases, the cost of PC components is a bit lower - but often, it's the same, or sometimes even more expensive than what we pay.

 

For someone in those countries, buying a PC is like buying a car. They can usually only do it once in many years, and it will have to last them much longer than, say, I would need to keep one.

 

Sure, if loopholes exist - but those loopholes can and should be closed, so that people in these poorer regions can still afford games, and people elsewhere who can afford to pay more, do.

 

This is exactly what Steam did when they locked down gift keys from different regional pricing. I firmly support them closing further loopholes.

11 hours ago, SeriousDad69 said:

I love G2A and similar sites, they're the only reliable way to get a lot of older games for reasonable prices(Like Skyrim LE for example, which is now hidden on the Steam store and is still $20 without DLC but on G2A it's about $10 with DLC). Fraud happens everywhere in every industry and country. My duty as a consumer is to get what I want at the lowest possible price. It's not my duty or responsibility to police game developer/publisher supply chains for them, nor is it my place to worry about charge backs.

 

Someone somewhere is always getting the short end of the stick one way or another. It sucks but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

The difference is that G2A actively avoids dealing with fraud. It's been proven multiple times that it's stupid easy to get a fraudulent key approved for sale. G2A does next to nothing to stop fraudulent keys from getting on their site. AND if you're the buyer, you're fucked unless you buy the insurance(G2A shield).

 

Contrast that with places like eBay, where if you get defrauded, you get your money back as a common courtesy.

[SeriousDad69]

11 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

AND if you're the buyer, you're fucked unless you buy the insurance(G2A shield).

 

Contrast that with places like eBay, where if you get defrauded, you get your money back as a common courtesy.

Paying the extra like $2 for G2A shield is better than paying an extra $10-$30 for an older game the developer wont drop the price of(or in some cases they don't even sell the game anymore and old keys are the only way to get a non-pirated copy). Buying newer games off G2A is usually dumb because they're usually the same price as retail or more.

[dalekphalm]

33 minutes ago, SeriousDad69 said:

Paying the extra like $2 for G2A shield is better than paying an extra $10-$30 for an older game the developer wont drop the price of(or in some cases they don't even sell the game anymore and old keys are the only way to get a non-pirated copy).

Depending on the game, it's often on GOG for a stupid cheap price to begin with (And GOG has regular sales).

 

The $2 for shield is literally extortion in my opinion - it should be included in the price of the key. A retailer should stand behind not letting their customers get defrauded. Even a marketplace style retailer.

 

Aside from that, many devs have outright said they'd rather you just pirate their games than buy from G2A and the like.

 

But, if you're actually buying an old game that's no longer in production and no longer for sale - sure. I'll give you a pass for this extremely niche situation.

33 minutes ago, SeriousDad69 said:

Buying newer games off G2A is usually dumb because they're usually the same price as retail or more.

Often true - but I've seen people buy from G2A even just to save a buck or two.

[SeriousDad69]

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

Depending on the game, it's often on GOG for a stupid cheap price to begin with (And GOG has regular sales).

 

The $2 for shield is literally extortion in my opinion - it should be included in the price of the key. A retailer should stand behind not letting their customers get defrauded. Even a marketplace style retailer.

 

Aside from that, many devs have outright said they'd rather you just pirate their games than buy from G2A and the like.

 

But, if you're actually buying an old game that's no longer in production and no longer for sale - sure. I'll give you a pass for this extremely niche situation.

Often true - but I've seen people buy from G2A even just to save a buck or two.

Easy for gamedevs to say they'd rather I pirate it, it's not their PC getting viruses and the online usually doesn't work.

They should put their money where their mouth is and give me a free CD key if I contact them with a picture of my G2A shopping cart lmao. I'm joking because I know that's dumb, but so is telling people to just pirate it.

[Brooksie359]

On 5/22/2020 at 12:12 PM, dalekphalm said:

What you're basically saying is that these poorer countries should just get screwed. Yes, a PC in a poorer country is very expensive, compared to their annual wages. In some cases, the cost of PC components is a bit lower - but often, it's the same, or sometimes even more expensive than what we pay.

 

For someone in those countries, buying a PC is like buying a car. They can usually only do it once in many years, and it will have to last them much longer than, say, I would need to keep one.

 

Sure, if loopholes exist - but those loopholes can and should be closed, so that people in these poorer regions can still afford games, and people elsewhere who can afford to pay more, do.

 

This is exactly what Steam did when they locked down gift keys from different regional pricing. I firmly support them closing further loopholes.

The difference is that G2A actively avoids dealing with fraud. It's been proven multiple times that it's stupid easy to get a fraudulent key approved for sale. G2A does next to nothing to stop fraudulent keys from getting on their site. AND if you're the buyer, you're fucked unless you buy the insurance(G2A shield).

 

Contrast that with places like eBay, where if you get defrauded, you get your money back as a common courtesy.

I still disagree. Just because someone can afford to pay more doesn't mean a company should charge them specific more for the same product. 

[XR6]

I'm not surprised this happened. I've never had a good experience with G2A. Out of all the key selling websites, G2A seems like the least reputable one to me.

It's much better to pay full price on something like steam then get a key that was most likely stolen for less money on a site like G2A imo.

 

small rant about G2A here:

Spoiler

The one and only time I bought from G2A, the seller had bought the key on a stolen credit card (which I was not aware of when I bought the key) and X-Plane revoked my key meaning I'd lost something like £30 (can't remember the exact amount now). G2A support were unhelpful and getting a refund seemed impossible so I gave up after a few days of trying.

 

Moral of the story: Don't use G2A. 

 

[dalekphalm]

38 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

I still disagree. Just because someone can afford to pay more doesn't mean a company should charge them specific more for the same product. 

You are of course able to hold that opinion.

 

I have no such qualms - eventually, over time, world economies will converge to a point where income disparity will level out - it's been happening for the last 50 years, no reason to think that'll stop now.

 

I'm willing to pay more, because I happened to be born into one of the wealthiest countries on Earth. Just because someone was born into a country where a years wage is less than I make in one pay cheque doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to enjoy PC games. Especially if a lot of these countries were fairly rampant with piracy.

 

The Publishers/devs don't really make much money from these regions, but at the very least, these practices work really well at stemming piracy.

 

And it doesn't harm me, who would pay that high price regardless of whether regional lower pricing was offered to them.

 

Loopholes might exist to allow me to get those prices. Those loopholes should be closed (as much as is possible, anyway). And if they did close those loopholes, I'd be totally okay with that.

[Andreas Lilja]

G2A is shit even amongst the shady sellers. 

[optimuss]

What about the cases where someone already bought the game on another account or platform.

Example - I've bought GTA V on PS3, then PS4, then PC (steam). Had a reason to create new steam account. I don't feel I'm doing anything bad whatsoever if I get a steam key at G2A for some of the games I already owned (several times!) on different platforms.

[dalekphalm]

2 hours ago, optimuss said:

What about the cases where someone already bought the game on another account or platform.

Example - I've bought GTA V on PS3, then PS4, then PC (steam). Had a reason to create new steam account. I don't feel I'm doing anything bad whatsoever if I get a steam key at G2A for some of the games I already owned (several times!) on different platforms.

There is certainly a cost for a developer to port to a new system. Sometimes that cost is very low. Sometimes it's a lot higher.

 

In an ideal world, you'd get an owners discount - or the initial sale price would already be padded to include the cost of ports, and would give you access to any platform. To a limited degree, this exists with things like Microsoft titles on the Microsoft store.

[Aereldor]

On 5/22/2020 at 8:09 AM, mrthuvi said:

Find a random stranger and arrange transaction? That's as complicated as it sounds. The receiver loses money over paypal transactions and when withdrawing the money the money btw, it's very expensive from the seller's perspective which would have to raise the cost.

As someone who used to buy from G2A, if it's cheaper, I buy it. That's all there is to it. When you are broke, moral is less appealing, simple as that. 

Ironically enough they don't have competitive pricing any more for a long time, possibly because they don't allow gray key sells anymore. 

Anyway our country started having regional pricing so I just buy from first party nowadays. 

For fuck's sake I said 'friend'. I didn't say 'Random stranger'... This is something I did in college. It's something a lot of people do, actually. And I don't see how it's immoral. The way you share a console game is... You give your friend a disc. If they bought on sale, at a yard sale, in another country where it was cheaper... It's the same fucking thing. 

[Mihle]

For those that mentioned older games, if an very old game is on GOG it's actually better to buy it there than whatever else, because very old games on GOG is tested and sometimes changed to make sure it runs on more modern systems, while if you buy it other places it might not.

[ARikozuM]

I've sold keys on G2A and would prefer to simply have a market on Steam or other website where I could put my unused keys, or even the used ones, up for sale. Especially as we move towards a more digital economy we will have to change how we look at these items in terms of resale. 

[Donut417]

On 5/21/2020 at 4:50 PM, Aereldor said:

don't know why so many people used G2A

Because they dont want to pay Microsoft $120 for Windows 10 home. That would be the biggest reason. 

 

For games, I dont really know why. Games are always on sale on steam, Humble Bundle, or any other legit site. 

[-CLASSIFIED-]

On 5/21/2020 at 1:50 PM, Aereldor said:

I don't know why so many people used G2A when there's a much easier, completely legal way to do this. 

Find a friend in a country where Steam is subsisidized - consistently good in Ukraine, China, Argentina, Brazil, India. 

Set up gameshare, send $ over venmo/paypal/messenger even

Profit

its quite simple why people don't do this , steam locks those keys for those regions (99% of the time as far as i can tell this is the case). anyone outside of those regions cannot activate they keys , and possibly not even play the game when out of country.