Earlier this week we told you that Green Man Gaming’s keys might not be quite as authorised and official as you’d been led to believe. While they’re keys are always genuine, working ones, they were sometimes sourced through less official ways.
Companies like Activision, CD Projekt RED and Ubisoft have all had their feathers ruffled by the site selling their respective games for way below market value – casting suspicions on the keys’ origins.
In the interests of Transparency, Green Man Gaming will now disclose where their keys come from – along with information on when consumers can expect delivery of said keys.
“You spoke, we listened,” the key seller said on its Facebook page.
“We know you want great games at great prices. In response to your feedback, rolling out from today on the Green Man Gaming store you’ll see our pages now have two new pieces of information:
1/ When you can expect the delivery of a key
2/ The source of that keyWe are committed to continually improving our site, so you can expect the very best service and experience from us. Bear with us as we have over 5000 titles to update, but remember that your feedback is always really important to us, and we want to keep helping you make informed decisions when shopping with us. Thanks for your support!”
As a result, their games have been updated to show where the keys have come from. Sort of. While most games o seem to come directly from publishers, games like Battlefront, Black Ops 3 and The Witcher 3 list “Authorised distributor” as their source, which is nebulous, obfuscated twaddle – probably in place to hide the fact that between GMG and some other retailer, they’ve broken a few trade agreements. I’m all for transparency, but this is a little more opaque than it ought to be.
In the end, I don’t think most consumers really care; they just want games at great prices – whether or not they’re as ethically sourced as they should be.
Last Updated: November 19, 2015
James Anderton
November 19, 2015 at 10:12
I’ve been using Green Man to buy quite a few release titles over the past 2 years. Never had a problem and their prices always beat Steam (with the exception of the Steam sales).
Charl van der Merwe
November 19, 2015 at 13:49
I honestly don’t give a crap where the keys come from , AS long as they work,and are cheap. I just wanna play games.
konfab
November 20, 2015 at 05:55
Then you might as well pirate.
Then at least you are not funding any middlemen
Desertwhale
November 20, 2015 at 08:15
Horrible attitude. They’re legitimate keys, and GMG is willing to prove so. You’re advocating stealing over buying a game cheaper than retailers??
konfab
November 20, 2015 at 08:29
If the keys are not legitimate, then it is worse than piracy. Which is why I responded to this:
“I honestly don’t give a crap where the keys come from”
Desertwhale
November 20, 2015 at 08:34
You do understand that this article is about gmg showing where the keys are coming from to prove their legitimacy right?
konfab
November 20, 2015 at 08:38
I know that, but the comment indicated that some people don’t care about whether the source is legit or not, thus they are no better than pirates.
Desertwhale
November 20, 2015 at 09:09
I don’t know everything about keys for games, but I believe that more often than not they’re legit. They have to pass tests through steam, origin, or whatever launcher you’re using. Most of the time they are sold and are not legit is when it’s a duplicate. With pirates they don’t care and are 100% certain that they’re stealing.