Home G2A wants to pay developers a cut of third-party key sales

G2A wants to pay developers a cut of third-party key sales

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G2A and other dodgy key sellers aren’t looked upon kindly by publishers and developers right now. Consumers love them though, and I understand that. Gaming is expensive, and any way to get something cheaper seems like a good thing. Paying something has got be better than just pirating games, right? Well, perhaps not.

In recent months, sites like G2A have been under the spotlight as more people have realised that many of the keys sold on them are illegally obtained – usually by way of stolen credit card details. Worse is that none of the money from sales of those games ends up back in developers’ hands. Spurred on by the rather high-profile brouhaha involving Tinybuild, G2A is trying to patch its relationship with developers.

It’ll certainly be an uphill battle, but it looks like G2A is at least trying to do the right thing – and will pay developers up to 10% on transactions.

“As a leader in the digital gaming marketplace, we recognise our responsibility to serve the greater good for the entire gaming industry,” G2A told Eurogamer.

“Recent events have demonstrated that we need to move faster to introduce new benefits designed with developers in mind, and invite them to play an even bigger role in creating the marketplace of the future.”

On top of that, they’re also going to be actively monitoring for fraudulent activity to make G2A a better marketplace

“We want to reassure the development community that we monitor our marketplace extensively for any possible fraudulent activity,” G2A said.

“In the small fraction of cases where fraud may be detected, we investigate and ban offending parties from further participation. We work with law enforcement globally to track fraud and we are committed to ensuring that the marketplace remains safe. Dozens of payment providers work with us globally because they have total confidence in our security process.”

I still don’t really trust G2A or many of the shady key resellers operating on its marketplace, but they’re at least making the right noise to remedy that. Still, I find it weird that developers can apply to get a cut of possibly illegal and fraudulent sales of their own games. It sounds more like hush money than really fixing the problem.

Last Updated: June 28, 2016

12 Comments

  1. Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

    June 28, 2016 at 13:41

    WTF, yeah you developed the game but we’re selling it so here’s 10%… G2A might just as well have sex with the devs wife but it’s fine because they bought her dinner first.

    Reply

    • Deceased

      June 28, 2016 at 14:09

      XD

      Reply

    • BakedBagel

      June 28, 2016 at 18:45

      it is fine tho, like R400 at spur.

      JK.

      Reply

  2. VampyreSquirrel

    June 28, 2016 at 13:44

    G2A can GITS.

    Reply

  3. HairyEwok

    June 28, 2016 at 14:00

    Uhhhh how the hell does that work. G2A aren’t the developers, they’re the person selling the keys. If anything G2A should be paying the developers full retail plus 10% for being dodgy AF

    Reply

  4. Greylingad[He Charges!]

    June 28, 2016 at 14:05

    “Recent events have demonstrated that we need to move faster to introduce new benefits designed with developers in mind, and invite them to play an even bigger role in creating the marketplace of the future.”

    Woa, wait, just…”introduce new benefits designed with developers in mind” The people that created the games that they were selling in their own market place?…ok…”and invite them to play an even bigger role in creating the marketplace of the future” So their market, but G2A’s fraudulent way of obtaining keys then?

    Reply

  5. Admiral Chief Maximum Effort

    June 28, 2016 at 14:08

    • HairyEwok

      June 28, 2016 at 14:20

      Nope, not entirely July yet, but we’re close 😀

      Reply

  6. Deceased

    June 28, 2016 at 14:12

    Checked out my steam-account’s value ( I guess in terms of what I spent ) and can proudly say that 0 games were bought from any established grey-market reseller such as G2A – sure, some are from HumbleBundle, which I don’t know whether they count as a grey-market reseller… but yeah – at least I try to make right for my days on the unethical seas ( whether I play the games or not, I buy them ) 🙁

    Reply

    • HairyEwok

      June 28, 2016 at 14:18

      Humble bundle is hardly grey, the developers make a deal with humble to help a certain donation movement. Your steam account isn’t part of the 50 shades of grey market 🙂

      Reply

      • Deceased

        June 28, 2016 at 14:23

        Phew – safe for another generation XD

        Reply

  7. Dane

    June 29, 2016 at 09:38

    Kinguin is my Robin Hood. <3

    Reply

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