The site notorious for selling shady steam keys at excessive discounts seems to have figured out how to steal even more money from developers
G2A is the sort of website that ruffles a lot of feathers across the industry. While some people may be happy to purchase cheap keys (no matter where they’re obtained from), I’d like to believe that most of us would think twice before buying potentially stolen keys, no matter the discount. G2A has made a name for itself by selling keys for games at prices so unbelievably low, it’s no wonder people started to question where exactly they were getting them. I don’t want to go into their shady history, but a large contributor to their poor public image is zero moderation on where exactly their keys come from as many have been found to be purchased through stolen or illegal credit cards. Game developers have often spoken out in the past about G2A’s less than ethical business practices, but a new wave of controversy has just washed up the shoreline.
Mike Rose, previously of publisher tinyBuild, has noted that G2A has taken out sponsored ads for certain games that were appearing above the publisher’s official website. Tweeting out his frustration, Rose states, “We make zero money on our games if people buy them through ads”. He continued on to demonstrate that the ads taken out by G2A can’t even be disabled, meaning there’s no way to block them on personal devices. “Please, if you’re going to buy a game from G2A, just pirate it instead! Genuinely!”, continued Rose.
Other developers echoed his sentiments of piracy over G2A. Developer Rage Squid agreed that it would be better for players to pirate their games instead of purchasing them through G2A.
Rami Ismail of studio Vlambeer elaborated further, saying “If you can’t afford or don’t want to buy our games full-price, please pirate them rather than buying them from a key reseller. These sites cost us so much potential dev time in customer service, investigating fake key requests, figuring out credit card chargebacks, and more”.
G2A has yet to respond to this latest wave of criticism, but I wouldn’t count on any kind of formal statement.
Last Updated: July 2, 2019
G8crasha
July 2, 2019 at 10:09
I have bought from them in the past, but eventually stopped. I just wait for discounts on Steam. In all fairness though, I know of at least 3 other sites that are like G2A, but they don’t get the same negative coverage.
Jacques Van Zyl
July 2, 2019 at 10:17
I’d personally like to see all similar sites named and shamed so I can add them all to my blocklist.
Yahtzee
July 2, 2019 at 10:17
The other one is epic store DOT com
Jacques Van Zyl
July 2, 2019 at 10:41
Epic store has nothing but Fortnut and the skeletal remains of what could’ve been a great reboot of Unreal. Nothing worth supporting there right now.
Kromas
July 2, 2019 at 10:58
Vampire 2 I personally already have locked down as a must have day 1 plus there are a few other decent titles like Outer Worlds to look forward to.
Jacques Van Zyl
July 2, 2019 at 11:07
Wait, Vampire: The Masquerade 2? Is that going to be a timed exclusive on Epic too? I mean, I have no issue with Epic paying devs more but the way they’ve gone about it in some cases has censored my hentai, so to speak.
Day 1 isn’t that big a deal for single player games to me though, BL3 on the other hand…
Yahtzee
July 2, 2019 at 11:14
Nope, You can pre order it on steam right now.
For the Emperor!
July 2, 2019 at 10:29
Is CDKeys one of the problem sites? I have used them in the past, but not recently due to not buying new games…
Kromas
July 2, 2019 at 10:59
As far as I am aware CDKeys is the only site that operates differently. They go around the world and buy up physical editions on sale at a reduced price then resell those keys.
Admiral Chief Umbra
July 2, 2019 at 10:09
If I don’t buy from Steam / HumbleBundle directly, I don’t buy online keys
Alien Emperor Trevor
July 2, 2019 at 10:23
But I thought we were just supposed to play games & not worry about shady stuff the store we buy it from does? I’m so confused these days.
Snarkiness aside, I find it interesting devs are promoting piracy over buying “full price” from G2A instead of just saying wait for a sale on a legit site.
Kromas
July 2, 2019 at 10:58
Cause they know people won’t wait for a sale if they truly want your game.
BakedBagel
July 2, 2019 at 12:54
So wait. Just 2 years ago we had multiple writers from this site saying “piracy is theft. How dare you question otherwise you just taking money out of DEVS pockets”
Now it’s okay pirate games if you cant afford them(what people have been saying from year 1) yall need to make up your damn minds..
Once g2a peaces out yall will go back to saying dont pirate. Yall are fucking yawn
Magoo
July 2, 2019 at 11:29
I use Kinguin quite often for old, cheap games. Most of the purchases are Steam gifts but the keys are probably more or less the same shady thing. :/
CrAiGiSh
July 2, 2019 at 16:19
CDKEYS – I’m guilty.