Are steam key sites legit/worth it? - eviltoast

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.

  • Eddie@lemmy.lucitt.social
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    1 year ago

    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.

    Source via BBC News

    • Tanoh@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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

      • Harpuajim@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • Katana314@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          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.

          • Harpuajim@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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            1 year ago

            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.

            • Katana314@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              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.

              • Harpuajim@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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                1 year ago

                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.

                • Katana314@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  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…

      • brsrklf@compuverse.uk
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • AnyOldName3@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          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.

    • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • Harpuajim@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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      1 year ago

      One indie dev that most people had ever heard of said this. I don’t know why people need to spin this as “many”.