I guess you don't get it either then...

Here's my review of Outlaws: https://www.gog.com/game/outlaws_a_handful_of_missions

I disagree. One example that springs to mind is Shattered Steel, which is unplayable due to broken collision detection. I only knew this thanks to the reviews. Later, the game went on sale and was featured in a bundle on the front page. I find it hard to believe that GOG staff didn't know the game was broken for many people, but they still sell it anyway.

Reviews are the only real way people have of warning others about a buggy or broken release.

This was the first thing I thought of when I read the post too!

Tinfoil fan that I am, I instantly wondered if the folks that got the classic BG games pulled were trying to stem negative reviews too. :P Almost certainly not true, but like I said, tinfoil fan...

Ugh, Roccat. Couldn't you have chosen better sponsors? They're officially partnered with G2A. Maybe a little background checking and some QA or something. At least get companies that support the gaming industry and aren't anti-gamer/publisher/developer.

And what is wrong with G2A-like companies again?

Everything? Unauthorized resellers that obtain games fraudulently, steal from publishers/developers/users, act as a platform for users to commit fraud crimes, and harming the gaming industry as a whole.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/comments/2yhlw4/key_resellers_and_what_they_mean_for_you
http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/9/8006693/the-truth-behind-those-mysteriously-cheap-gray-market-game-codes
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/MichaelGnade/20160307/267385/How_Steam_key_Reselling_is_Killing_the_Little_Guys.php

They tend to have a stupid support policy when you get a non-working product that involves telling you to contact Steam support (or of the platform of choice), which will then tell you that G2A is not an authorized reseller and to ask them to fix your problem. This leaves you with non-working products from a company that cannot guarantee a working product (in violation of US/EU laws), besides their G2A Shield also being a violation of US/EU laws (charging consumers for a right they're granted under law).

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/354441-g2a-support-0-paypal-support-1/
http://imgur.com/a/7f1ar

+Hundreds more. They started by advertising that they bought boxed copies from cheaper regions and resold the codes, then moved onto "our users sell stuff and we just hoard free promo and bundle keys to resell to you at profit" type tactics. The only unauthorized reseller that actually does buy boxed copies is cdkeys, which should be based in Singapore. I don't use them but I don't have anything negative to say about them since that's conducting business legitimately in my book and via international laws.

And their activities do get noticed. http://www.pcgamer.com/league-of-legends-teams-asked-to-remove-g2a-logo-at-2015-world-championship/ I wish more esports organizations would do the same.

Edit: And I lost the original post where they just said "we're happy to announce our partnership with G2A", but https://twitter.com/ROCCAT/status/717716034975731714 they are indeed partnered.

Regarding the partnership - a cursory search reveals no trace of actual cooperation between them, even official G2A site doesn't list it, and they have tons of logos there.

About the whole reselling thingy. I am not going to adress the very idea of reselling keys, and I will not touch the "who owns the game that is paid for" issue even with a 10 ft pole.

Setting big words like "hurting the gaming market" aside, from what I gather your position seems to be:

1. G2A has crappy/nonexistent customer support.

Most likely true. So do many AAA publishers. Why would you do business with companies with a documented history of disregarding their customers is beyond me.

2. G2A operates illegally.

According to their official website, the company is registered in Hong-Kong, which is not exactly a legal black hole if I understand correctly, and their customer service is located in Poland, which last time I checked was well within EU legal jurisdiction. And there must be a lot of court cases to prove such claim - oh, wait, there are none. The reason such companies are called grey-market is because you cannot call them black-market, due process and all that. Besides they have been operating for several years by now, and if the available fragmentary information is to be believed, their market share is at least significant. You don't grow this big without providing at least some value to the consumers. Neither do you with law enforcement being after you.

3. G2A facilitates criminal activity by its users.

This is a thougher one to tackle. The question of to what degree the middle man is responsible for the actions of freely acting individuals is undoubtly an intresting one, albeit ultimately not particulary a relevant one. If there is a market for second hand keys (like there seems to be) no amount of whining is going to change that. Some parties will act in good faith, some will look for ways to abuse the system. Deal with that.

Going back to where these keys come from. There seem to be a few sources.
a) press keys issued to reviewers, or supposed reviewers - I fail to see how a key here and there makes any difference, and even if it does solving it seems pretty straightforward.
b) identity theft, credit card theft, or other security fails - I don't claim there is an impregnable computer system that cannot be broken no matter what. Making a reasonably secure system may not be cheap, but don't cry when ignoring security risks backfires. In the links you posted above, a big publisher was quite happy to sell bulk number of keys to stolen credit card and cash-in on the transaction, just not that happy when end users tried to activate those same keys. The general public hears about a miniscule percentage of such events, so the scale of the problem is most likely big. I agree there is a lot of room for improvement ON PART OF DEVELOPERS/PUBLISHERS. Threre are no good solutions after the fact, besides not letting it to happen in the first place. I admit it disproportionately hits small indie devs, who don't have a budget for security, but its a cruel world we're living in.
c) humble bundles and/or seasonal sales - the very essence of such institutions where you can get many games for almost nothing means you are not buying all of them to play yourself. I honestly have no idea what to do here, or even if anything should be done at all. I fail to see an injured party. Devs get a short term cash injection, customers get games, and retailers get revenue. If you are offended by that don't discount your games.


To sum it up. If you are a big publisher chances are you are hurting yourself and the rest of the market way more than any reseller ever could. If you are a customer finding oneself on the wrong end of the stick with no money and no working game try some respectable retailer next time. If you are a developer ask yourself one question - why do people pay money instead of going to a friendly russian cracker just around the corner. (And if you are a reseller yourself ask yourself how come the said cracker provide better support;)

Yeah, it's not an issue from a legal standpoint. Whether it works for the consumer is though.

I know some Russian dude was buying Uplay keys off of the Origin client, and Kinguin was saying "we got it from a legitimate wholesaler" before they said "it was some guy with stolen credit cards". At least they took the loss like champs but they really need to stop lying to everyone to save face.

The last thing those Hong Kong/China/Taiwan areas want to do is please foreign interests over their local businesses. Crooked officials galore too. They really don't care what's reported to them unless you're their biggest briber. :P

But the problem is that they do international sales and use services like Paypal that are moderated under US/EU laws to conduct these affairs. Somewhere down the line is something that pertains to them that can be regulated and I'll find it one day. That's gonna be lots of fun. ^^

How long do reviews take to appear on the site, though ? I'm never even sure it has accepted my review.
You guys should add better feedback on wether or not your review is accepted. Maybe provide a link to reviews to the user who made them ?