Throughout the past few years, criticism has risen regarding the method of how game key storefront G2A obtains its competitively-priced codes. In an attempt to quell rumors of G2A being behind illegal chargebacks, the reseller made a promise: they would pay out ten times the amount of money that a developer had lost due to illegally stolen game keys. The only caveat was that the developer would need to, through impartial investigation, prove that G2A sold stolen game codes, and that they had also been gotten as a result of fraudulent activity through the game owner's storefront.

In July of 2019, one game studio actually took G2A up on their promised offer: Wube Software, the team behind the indie game Factorio. The studio claimed that 321 keys had been stolen from them, and thus illegally sold through G2A's marketplace. G2A then went through a process of looking for an auditor who could investigate further, but was unable to find one that would agree to both their and Wube's terms of being able to publicly disclose the results of the audit. That led to G2A starting its own internal investigation, in which it discovered that they had indeed been unaware but responsible for the sale of 198 out of the 321 stolen keys from Wube. The keys were sold by third-party sellers throughout the year of 2016.

And, just as promised, G2A paid out exactly ten times the amount that Wube Software had lost for those 198 keys--a grand total of $39,600. G2A has also reiterated that they want to be clear that they understand that fraud can hurt independent studios, and that it hurts G2A as well, as they weren't directly responsible for the theft. They also stress the fact that if other game companies can prove that G2A has sold illegally obtained keys, they are free to contact G2A in order to look into compensation.

Prague-based Wube Software became the only developer to take G2A up on this limited-time offer to the gaming developer community in July 2019, after discovering that illegitimate keys to its construction and management simulation game Factorio had been sold online.

Wube reported to G2A a list of 321 keys that it believed had been sold online illegitimately. After assessing a number of independent auditing companies and finding none that would meet our agreed requirements, Wube and G2A decided that G2A should proceed with an internal investigation. This investigation confirmed that 198 of Wube’s keys had been sold via its Marketplace between March 2016 – June 2016. It is assumed by both parties that the remaining 123 illegitimate keys were sold via other online marketplaces or other online stores.

Per the terms of the pledge made in the blog post here, G2A has agreed to compensate Wube ten times the value of any bank-initiated refund costs that Factorio paid in relation to each of the 198 illegitimate keys sold via its Marketplace.

When we launched this offer, we wanted to send a clear message to the gaming community that fraud hurts all parties. As we spell out in this blog, fraud directly hurts individuals who buy illegitimate keys, it hurts gaming developers and it ultimately hurts G2A because we are forced – as the transaction facilitator – to cover costs related to the sale. We wanted to amplify that message and capture people’s attention, so pledged to compensate developers ten times the value of any chargeback fees they incurred, despite the fact that we had nothing to with the illegal acquisition of these keys.

The gaming developer community has our solidarity and sympathies on this issue, and we want to continue building bridges. With our main point being made, about the seriousness of fraud in the industry, from now on we will compensate developers the full value of any chargeback fees they incurred for any keys sold via G2A Marketplace, if they are able to prove they were illegitimate.

Source

 

[slimbizzy]

You're so lucky tbh
Knowing that G2A exists is a horrible thing to know and you'll be depressed the rest of your life

Well then...

 

[FAST6191]

You're so lucky tbh
Knowing that G2A exists is a horrible thing to know and you'll be depressed the rest of your life

Knowing that there is a site you can reasonably sell your extra keys or devs/interested parties can try to sell a batch to drive up immediate income?
The absolute horror.

 

[AkiraKurusu]

"Please publish this article about how great we are, and how we aren't criminals, that we wrote, without disclosing that we wrote it."

 

[gamesquest1]

time to publish that $1 million dollar dummy indie game on steam then have some keys "hacked" and sold on G2A and demand 10 times my lost profits

 

[frankGT]

First and last time.

 

[driverdis]

I stopped using G2A as earlier this year a key I purchased for Nintendo Switch was chargebacked and Nintendo suspended my whole account. Took half a month to get my account back as Nintendo wanted proof I requested and received a refund from the seller (G2A via PayPal). G2A never responded to me or PayPal so it took half a month for PayPal to side with me and force a refund. Luckily that was enough for Nintendo to remove the suspension but I was told that if it ever happened again I would lose my account permanently even if it was not fraud on my part.

 

[Boostnek9]

Someone tried to scam me when they held my Steam account was hijacked with this site, heh

ok

 

[guisadop]

I always forget about g2a when browsing for good prices. I'll check their deals next time I want a game.

 

[D34DL1N3R]

Someone tried to scam me when they held my Steam account was hijacked with this site, heh

Uh huh. Sure. You gave them your Steam account info too, right?

 

[SG854]

time to publish that $1 million dollar dummy indie game on steam then have some keys "hacked" and sold on G2A and demand 10 times my lost profits

Your profit will be 10 dollars

 

[MercilessDeth]

I don't necessarily disagree with the idea of grey market key sites (though, clearly, there's an issue where grey market and black market overlap).

This is clearly a PR release to paint an out-of-court settlement as a "positive" move on the part of G2A though. The dev took the $40k because it's likely fairly difficult to track down and prove that the keys were stolen, and the cost of fighting it in court would either yield a loss for the dev, a ton of wasted time, or attorney fees would've eaten up any of the difference.

It doesn't help that taking something like this to court essentially hinges on who can afford the most expensive lawyer, since even semi-technical cases aren't terribly well understood by the parties who make the decisions about it

 

[the_randomizer]

Uh huh. Sure. You gave them your Steam account info too, right?

Don't give me that bullshit, I was a victim of hacking and had to contact Valve directly. Don't be rude.

 

[SG854]

G2A is a crummy place. Don't do business with them, ever again.

 

[D34DL1N3R]

Don't give me that bullshit, I was a victim of hacking and had to contact Valve directly. Don't be rude.

Just because someone doesn't believe you and questions something, doesn't mean they are being rude. You tied it directly into getting a key from G2A and I have no idea how that could happen. If you can give more details into how and why, I'm willing to listen.

 

[rmorris003]

I always wondered how these companies can sell key codes for software and games so cheap. Thanks for the good read.