Without starting another thread, how legit are GOG games on G2A and similar sites?

On G2A they are legit for about an hour before they realize the code was purchased with a stolen credit card,

... and Stardock will soon add a "Download This Game" DLC to their titles.

There's no way for the end customer to know. Obviously some are aboveboard. But just like Steam keys and the like, if it seems like too good a deal to be true, it probably is. Sites like that are basically as legit as pawn shops, and just as respectable (which is to say, not overly).

At this point there is zero reason a key would be cheaper on G2A then it is on a GOG sale unless you have some seller who is trying to get rid of his keys because he's not managing to sell them at all. Anyone else, which is likely most of them, offering for less than sales prices is likely trying to sell keys bought by fraudulent means and those keys are likely to disappear.

This is because there's no regional pricing to abuse. Any gift bought is bought for the same price as anyone else can buy them.

That said, I do remember some people here mentioning sites that take your account and buy a game on your account for cheap but I doubt that kind of thing happens on G2A and it baffles me that anyone would consider giving up their account info to do it.

Maybe you get lucky and find a legitimate seller who bought the game on sale and is just making a small profit so you don't have to wait for the game to go back on sale again.

There was a time when it was possible that people could buy codes from cheap regions on GoG and you might be better off, but that loophole was removed a few years ago so it's unlikely those are still around.

If they are selling it cheaper than it has ever been, it is almost undoubtedly a scam. Either bought with a stolen credit card, stolen in a trade, or what not. Just not cool...

I don't see any reason to ever buy a game from those sites because if you are patient, those games will be on sale again and without the surcharge.

There are many fantastic answers including the ones by GOG's folks. However, in my opinion these coupons are not so much a scam (since you don't pay for them), as much as utter fakes. I remembered an attempt once at trying to do a good deed by submitting a real, true good and exclusive coupon code that I received from being a subscriber of a mailing list.

And you know what? They refused to let the submission automatically go through, claiming the need for checking/time for it to show up or some such, and meanwhile, the page for the merchant is littered with fake or expired coupon codes. Incredulous, I tell you! (In the end, my Legit coupon never showed up) Gosh, I hate these sites and really have no clue what their purpose is for.

They don't need to work on it, somebody already did that, though I don't recall if EA ever did. I believe it was Direct2Drive that used to limit your downloads of your purchased games either to a fixed number of downloads or a fixed period of time (no more than a year I think), then gave you the option to pay for the privilege of being able to download them after that had expired.

Someone was selling Little Big Adventure for 5p more (I think) than it was in the last sale, which is still odd. I should of got it then, I want to play it before I play the freebie sequel, oh well I'll wait till it's on again.

I notice people sell bundled keys on G2A cheaply, that makes sense, getting rid of unwanted keys.

G2A? I can tell you. From what I know and what I suppose:

* part of them are Steam codes, which have been offered as GOG codes by mistake (99,9% of G2A are Steam keys and some sellers are not aware anything else exists) - please, note that there are a few offers containing games from the last Humble Bundles (but all that bundles were Steam keys only!)

* part of them are keys for games, which offers digital copy for box/Steam owners (as from that list of games) - some people are not interested in digital copy and I suppose they're selling their code, keeping just a box/Steam version

* part of them are keys bought during sale and offered when the sale is over - in such case you'll pay more than just waiting for the next GOG promo, because you need to cover high fees and seller's profit

So even considering that none of that offers is just reselling codes bought with stolen credit card, it still a better option to just wait a while for GOG sale. That's why wishlist is a great idea ;)

Marketplace as G2A makes sense for Steam, where you can buy codes from different sources with huge discounts, including bundles and giveaways, which duplicates some items in your library. In case of GOG, which is the only source of GOG codes, it makes no sense to look elsewhere.

So what does this mean for the email I got with a 75% off coupon for a the sequel to game I had that has a bunch of links pointing to dubious looking websites with gog in the url but not pointing to gog.com?


later edit - just got the unannounced promo thread and it seems its an actual GOG thing.

So it should have been for everyone who only has the first one? If yes, this really was totally messed up and the email just got distributed randomly... Never got one of these promo codes and I only have the first NWN.

Same here. Spam folder checked. No promo code.
Failed experiment, GOG.