What are your thoughts on steam key sites? have you even bought a key from sites like g2a? are they a scam or are they cool, also do you have a story to share about steam keys.
i was planning on getting a mystery pack from g2a or whatever its called but im not sure if its a scam or not.
I’ve bought a ton of stuff (both games and DLC) from G2A and never had any issues.
“Nothing bad has happened to me so nothing bad can ever happen!”
🙄
If you could link me to whoever said that it’d sure be appreciated, since it looks like you’re just making shit up.
It’s not legit. Oftentimes, gray market sites are just buying keys with stolen credit cards
I didn’t say it was legit, I said it has always worked for me.
The question from op was asking if they are legit. Your answer implies that it is.
It has been said by many indie developers many times that purchasing games through key resellers is objectively more harmful for the developers than piracy entirely.
Key resellers tend to buy keys in bulk using credit cards. When the bank reports the card stolen, steam issues refunds. The developer of the game is responsible for these charge backs, not the storefront.
Basically, if you buy games from key resellers not only are you not giving developers money that they deserve, but you’re literally taking it out of their pockets. Do not buy from key resellers, pirate instead.
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There was a mess around green man gaming, which is supposed to be a legit key seller and is in that list.
Around Witcher 3 release they started selling keys for it, however CDPR warned that they were not official partners and as such those keys were grey market. They told people not to buy from there.
Turns out CDPR had selected only a few stores to supplying them with keys officially (which is their right, obviously) and gmg wasn’t one.
Gmg made a rather… unconvincing answer in which they said all they wanted was to provide “Gamers” with the games they wanted and were disappointed with CDPR not letting them. They said they got their keys from legit stores themselves, but it cast a serious doubt about how reliable they were.
Was that not Fallout 4 rather than The Witcher 3, or did it happen more than once? Either way, they clearly sold enough keys during the kerfuffle that the only way they could have got them was buying them wholesale off one or more of their competitors who’d managed to get hold of some, and then it makes sense that they’d want to keep it quiet who it was so the publisher wouldn’t penalise them.
It’s basically the same as an independent game shop buying a box of games from GameStop (or your regional equivalent) when their normal wholesaler has issues so their regulars continue being regulars. As far as everyone’s concerned at the end, a retail key was sold to a retailer and ended up in the hands of a customer, and no one in the supply chain got scammed.
It did happen with Witcher 3 : https://www.pcgamer.com/green-man-gaming-hits-back-over-witcher-3-key-row/
I am not aware of something like that for Fallout 4 though, can’t tell about that one.
One indie dev that most people had ever heard of said this. I don’t know why people need to spin this as “many”.
Okay, noted, buy all my Ubisoft and EA games through G2A etc 😂
This is a great idea. Now only if they made any games I actually want to own…
you have 300 IQ over here
As a former indie dev, you also get innundated with scams. At least a couple of emails a day pretending to be moderately famous YouTubers or gaming sites.
It was a huge time sink to verify them but we couldn’t just ignore them occasionally one of them was a moderately famous YouTuber.
It was a shitty feeling. If you can’t afford the game, pirate it.
Yes, look at this blog post from Factorio team, it is a few years old by now but still valid
https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-303
They start talking about G2A about half way through the post. Basically they much rather see you pirate the game than buy it through G2A
Mike Rose talked about that specifically and it was nothing more than a PR stunt to sell games. When G2A had that “contest” to prove that stolen keys were sold on their site and they would pay you 10X what you lost we found out that G2A only sold 5 copies of Rose’s game on their site. Not 5 stolen copies, 5 sold copies total. Then other devs like that Charlie Cleveland clown said that stolen games were sold on G2A before G2A even existed.
Wait, so those 5 Factorio buyers sent at least 7 E-mails to the Factorio devs? The blog post there has 7 example E-mails.
That indicates quite clearly that someone is lying. Given that one “someone” in this case has hosted thieves, I feel pretty safe suggesting who that is.
There is a follow up post as well, at the very end they write a bit more about it. And much more than 5 keys.
You’re confusing Wube and No More Robots. The “pirate our games rather than buying them from G2A” line in that blog post came from Mike Rose from No More Robots. It was ironic because almost no one purchased his game, let alone purchase it from G2A.
Wait, so Tanoh posted about Factorio, and you replied to him. If you were talking about a completely unrelated developer, who’s confused here?
Basically, the Factorio dev proved G2A was selling stolen keys. If you have evidence against that, we’re all ears.
I’m talking about the developer quoted in the blog post that they posted in the comment I replied to. I don’t understand why you’re confused.
So your point is that the person who detailed condemning evidence about G2A’s behavior ALSO happened to cite an unimportant quote from someone that, according to your unsourced info, happened to be a small-time developer not making many sales, and thus deserves to be mocked and ignored.
Not only is that several levels of logical indirection, it’s kind of pathetic…
G2a is legit
G2A is scam on scam on scam on top of scam.
I can only imagine you in a super shady trench coat sitting in some dark alley signaling people over. One side of your coat has G2a keys and the other side has bottles crudely labeled “snake oil”. G2a is garbage and nobodies “but I get der gaems 4 cheep” anecdotes are going to change that.
I get deer games cheap tho
Often times g2a keys are purchased with stolen credit cards or acquired through other sketchy means and the game risks becoming invalid days or weeks after purchase. Had it happen to a friend a while back with Civilization 5.
Sometimes I use instantgaming. Is that a bad thing? It always works perfectly.
No, they are not legit.
Sometimes the keys they sell work, sometimes they don’t, and sometimes they start out working but later get revoked. But more importantly…
They are even worse for the developers than pirating the games:
- https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48908726
- https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/g2a-controversy-indie-game-developers-calling-out-illegal-key-resellers/
- https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-303
It is better to wait for a Steam/GOG/Humble sale. Price tracking sites like this one can be helpful:
Most are scams, but there are reputable ones, like Humble Bundle and Fanatical.
Made severall purchases on G2A and Kinguin and never had a problem. I only buy old games though and only from resellers with a lot of reviews.
Stopped with G2A however when they asked me to upload an ID.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying a key on G2A but you’re asking to get ripped if you buy some mystery pack. Just buy the specific game you’re looking for if it’s the cheapest deal. I buy a lot of my games on there because many times it’s the best price but I’ve never purchased those mystery bundles.
Even in a situation where you’re relatively assured to get the game, it can still be damaging to foreign markets. Further use of sites like G2A can encourage publishers to pull out of markets where they’d set regional prices, denying lower-income countries access to those games, and ensuring no future low G2A prices.
They’ve also habitually been used as a way to launder money. If a pickpocket steals someone’s credit card, they typically use it to quickly buy a large number of game keys to sell to sites like G2A before the card gets canceled, resulting in a situation that’s difficult for the publisher to reverse without negative attention from a buyer that believes themselves legitimate. It’s possible that those sites stopped allowing anonymous key purchases now, but it’s still a bad mark on them historically.
This is the same parroting I saw on Reddit and it’s not really based in reality. G2A is based in the Netherlands and therefore bound by EU law. If fraud was that rampant then there would be investigations out the ass. The reality is that there is fraud on G2A just like there is fraud on every single open marketplace on the internet and it’s not nearly as prevalent you’re making it out to be.
g2a and similar websites are grey market websites. That means they’re not literally illegal, but most of their keys are usually gotten illegally. Sometimes (it’s rare, but it happens) people buy keys and they get revoked later if Steam confirms it was stolen. I wouldn’t use them at all if you care about giving the developers their money, you might as well pirate it.
Meanwhile there are legit websites like Fanatical that do sell cheap mystery keys. Most of them are shovelware they’re trying to get rid of, don’t bother.
Mystery packs are always just a scam to get rid of worthless keys by an illusive promise of possibly getting a good game
Some are legit, some are scams.
As a rule of thumb, of it is featured in isthereanydeal.com , then they’re safe
I sell my Humble Bunlde choice keys - not everything is stolen. It’s my thing, I bought it, I’m entitled to selling it and someone else is entitled to buying it.
Been using CDKeys and it is all good
I’ve used Eneba for a few things and I’ve only had 1 bad purchase that was refunded pretty fast. I really only check it when I’m looking for something that’s kind of old, but is still full price or damn near full price on most storefronts. Like you can get Skyrim Anniversary Edition or Fallout 4 GOTY edition on any platform you want for like $3 instead of $50-60.
I used it to get Sims 4 and every expansion that was out at the time for $10 total.
