This was going to be a response to someone bringing up the fact that KF2 is available for pre-order on G2A already. But considering how long it is, I figured I'd make my own post.
TL;DR: G2A and Kinguin harbor stolen keys. Never purchase from them.
Here's a conversation I had on Youtube about a month ago asking a Youtuber not to support G2A as a sponsor(As MANY Youtubers are doing right now) and enlightening the Youtubers audience as to why G2A and Kinguin are thieves.
The conversation went like this:
PlatinumRooster: Please don't support G2A or Kinguin. They get stolen keys.
PlatinumRooster: They have hundreds of thousands of stolen keys. EA is the only one to have gone through an authentication run with it and snagged it.
These keys aren't digitally generated. They come off of a physical game disc. They get stolen all the time and sold for a massive discount.
You can look up multiple older accounts of people getting keys revoked. And not just EA or Origin.
Physical shipments get stolen constantly. Primarily games that aren't globally locked in other countries.
Some keys are actually achieved by stolen credit cards too.
G2A won't get their hands dirty with the actual work, but they willingly take these keys and sell them knowing their background. G2A offered refunds this time because the big boys stepped up.
Look ANYWHERE without a developer/publisher tagline and you'll find plenty of situations where people don't get refunds when their keys don't work because it's an "incurred risk".
PlatinumRooster: +Theblacksnake Not all keys are bad. But theres a good chance that it could be a stolen key. And if the dveeloper or publisher of the game steps in, it'll be revoked and you'll most likely be out of a refund.
Physical copies are stolen in batches. Trucks. Ships. Etc.
Other keys are bought with stolen credit cards.
Some keys are buy in other countries (which have innately lower prices) and resold here which is basically undercutting the developer.
Buying a key from a non-ceritifed source such as Kinguin or G2A is not a good practice.
It enforces customers to undercut the market.
On top of that, buying a discounted key allows the company to continue their business buying super discounted stolen keys, greymarketed keys, and SOME legitimate keys.
But you'll never know what you got until the hammer comes down.
PlatinumRooster: +Theblacksnake If you want raw numbers... You're likely in the clear.
But, discounted keys is worse than pirating IMO. A good portion of pirates actually BUY games once they try the pirated copy. This is a common practice now adays because rarely do developers release demos anymore. And because of so many failed and overhyped games these last few years, people have a hard time trusting the hype. So they pirate to test out the game, and buy if they like it. Not all pirates do that. But a good portion of them do.
Discounted keys on the other hand give zero revenue to steam(if it's offered on there) or the developer. Physical copies that are stolen are stolen before they're paid for. So the developer gets screwed.
PlatinumRooster: +hooman arabzadeh Incorrect. There was another issue involving G2A and Kinguin with 7000 Sniper Elite keys around july of last year. Of course G2A and Kinguin werent the only culprits, but they were involved as well.
PlatinumRooster: +Rediroph People are only looking at the big picture with the massive loads of keys where the developers or publishers step it. With that kind of publicity, they need to offer refunds to keep customers. Without it, I hear over and over again people not being offered refunds. Day in and day out.
PlatinumRooster: +KageNekoSamax They're certified re-sellers. Its called Humble Bundle because developers OFFER them keys to sell at low prices. They get orders, and send the orders automatically to the developers who in part send keys back for them to give to the customers.
And when they're not GIVEN keys, they buy wholesale price from developers.
The concept of Wholesale is basically saying, "Hey Developer. Selling 10,000 copies of your game at retail price might be a little hard... so how about we buy 10,000 copies at a discounted price giving you a GUARANTEE immediate profit.
Most developers are down with this because its an instant influx of cash. While it may not be as much as 10,000 at retail value, it's a safer route because you never know how long it'll take to sell 10,000 copies at retail value. You'd rather sell 10,000 right now.
This method is also why Steam is so successful. A game might be year old and not make much sales anymore because its still at a pretty steep retail price of, say, $40. Steam puts in on sale for... $25 and all of a sudden, 10,000 copies fly of the shelves in an hour and a portion goes to the developer.
Now again, while it's not as much as 10,000 at retail value, the developer may have only been selling 300-400 copies of that game per month. With the steam sale, it just jumped up to 10,000.
For your mathematical digestion, in this scenario, the developer was only getting $16000 a month from selling at retail value(400 x $40). But when it went on sale and suddenly 10,000 copies were sold at $25 each (10,000 x $25), the gross sale is $250,000. Steam takes their cut. Lets say 50,000. And so the developer just made $200,000 in a single hour by selling their game cheap.
PlatinumRooster: +Justin Morssink The shield crap is just to get an extra dollar or two out of you. I was in the position where I wanted to buy a game from G2A about... 8 months ago. This is of course before I was any wiser about it. I was a little cautious and asked around about the shield. Other people responded saying it was bupkiss.
On the rare occasion you'll get reimbursed another key, they usually just offer some jargon-ish responded saying that their hands are tied and can't do anything.
And also... ask yourself this. If the keys are legitimate and will work as all the sheeple keep saying, why would you need to buy a protection plan for a digital code locked to your account anyway?
Shouldn't they want to do that for free like EVERY other digital game retailer?
Ya know... CUSTOMER SUPPORT???
It's because they KNOW their **** can be fraudulent and they keep going on with it because people keep buying.
TL;DR: G2A and Kinguin harbor stolen keys. Never purchase from them.
Here's a conversation I had on Youtube about a month ago asking a Youtuber not to support G2A as a sponsor(As MANY Youtubers are doing right now) and enlightening the Youtubers audience as to why G2A and Kinguin are thieves.
The conversation went like this:
PlatinumRooster: Please don't support G2A or Kinguin. They get stolen keys.
"Dasman": G2A got 1 batch big deal. Don't buy EA games from them and it is ok.
PlatinumRooster: They have hundreds of thousands of stolen keys. EA is the only one to have gone through an authentication run with it and snagged it.
These keys aren't digitally generated. They come off of a physical game disc. They get stolen all the time and sold for a massive discount.
You can look up multiple older accounts of people getting keys revoked. And not just EA or Origin.
Physical shipments get stolen constantly. Primarily games that aren't globally locked in other countries.
Some keys are actually achieved by stolen credit cards too.
G2A won't get their hands dirty with the actual work, but they willingly take these keys and sell them knowing their background. G2A offered refunds this time because the big boys stepped up.
Look ANYWHERE without a developer/publisher tagline and you'll find plenty of situations where people don't get refunds when their keys don't work because it's an "incurred risk".
"Theblacksnake": What do you mean stolen keys? I bought some games from kinguin. Is it bad?
PlatinumRooster: +Theblacksnake Not all keys are bad. But theres a good chance that it could be a stolen key. And if the dveeloper or publisher of the game steps in, it'll be revoked and you'll most likely be out of a refund.
Physical copies are stolen in batches. Trucks. Ships. Etc.
Other keys are bought with stolen credit cards.
Some keys are buy in other countries (which have innately lower prices) and resold here which is basically undercutting the developer.
Buying a key from a non-ceritifed source such as Kinguin or G2A is not a good practice.
It enforces customers to undercut the market.
On top of that, buying a discounted key allows the company to continue their business buying super discounted stolen keys, greymarketed keys, and SOME legitimate keys.
But you'll never know what you got until the hammer comes down.
"Theblacksnake": Made a comment about how many of his keys were bad and mentioned something about piracy. His comment was removed.
PlatinumRooster: +Theblacksnake If you want raw numbers... You're likely in the clear.
But, discounted keys is worse than pirating IMO. A good portion of pirates actually BUY games once they try the pirated copy. This is a common practice now adays because rarely do developers release demos anymore. And because of so many failed and overhyped games these last few years, people have a hard time trusting the hype. So they pirate to test out the game, and buy if they like it. Not all pirates do that. But a good portion of them do.
Discounted keys on the other hand give zero revenue to steam(if it's offered on there) or the developer. Physical copies that are stolen are stolen before they're paid for. So the developer gets screwed.
"k1mpman": I didn't know this, thanks for informing me
"Rediroph": If you get a bad key they give you a 100% refund no big deal
"hooman arabzadeh": G2A worked fine 5 months ago
"Rediroph": If you get a bad key they give you a 100% refund no big deal
"hooman arabzadeh": G2A worked fine 5 months ago
PlatinumRooster: +hooman arabzadeh Incorrect. There was another issue involving G2A and Kinguin with 7000 Sniper Elite keys around july of last year. Of course G2A and Kinguin werent the only culprits, but they were involved as well.
PlatinumRooster: +Rediroph People are only looking at the big picture with the massive loads of keys where the developers or publishers step it. With that kind of publicity, they need to offer refunds to keep customers. Without it, I hear over and over again people not being offered refunds. Day in and day out.
"MrIceDr4gon": The only stolen keys are coming from the g2a marketplace, where every user can sell a key. Only buy from the company g2a, then it's safe!
"KageNekoSamax": what about humble bundle and bundlestars?
"Justin Morssink": Thank god my PvZ key is still valid, but then again, I did buy it with G2A shield.
"KageNekoSamax": what about humble bundle and bundlestars?
"Justin Morssink": Thank god my PvZ key is still valid, but then again, I did buy it with G2A shield.
PlatinumRooster: +KageNekoSamax They're certified re-sellers. Its called Humble Bundle because developers OFFER them keys to sell at low prices. They get orders, and send the orders automatically to the developers who in part send keys back for them to give to the customers.
And when they're not GIVEN keys, they buy wholesale price from developers.
The concept of Wholesale is basically saying, "Hey Developer. Selling 10,000 copies of your game at retail price might be a little hard... so how about we buy 10,000 copies at a discounted price giving you a GUARANTEE immediate profit.
Most developers are down with this because its an instant influx of cash. While it may not be as much as 10,000 at retail value, it's a safer route because you never know how long it'll take to sell 10,000 copies at retail value. You'd rather sell 10,000 right now.
This method is also why Steam is so successful. A game might be year old and not make much sales anymore because its still at a pretty steep retail price of, say, $40. Steam puts in on sale for... $25 and all of a sudden, 10,000 copies fly of the shelves in an hour and a portion goes to the developer.
Now again, while it's not as much as 10,000 at retail value, the developer may have only been selling 300-400 copies of that game per month. With the steam sale, it just jumped up to 10,000.
For your mathematical digestion, in this scenario, the developer was only getting $16000 a month from selling at retail value(400 x $40). But when it went on sale and suddenly 10,000 copies were sold at $25 each (10,000 x $25), the gross sale is $250,000. Steam takes their cut. Lets say 50,000. And so the developer just made $200,000 in a single hour by selling their game cheap.
PlatinumRooster: +Justin Morssink The shield crap is just to get an extra dollar or two out of you. I was in the position where I wanted to buy a game from G2A about... 8 months ago. This is of course before I was any wiser about it. I was a little cautious and asked around about the shield. Other people responded saying it was bupkiss.
On the rare occasion you'll get reimbursed another key, they usually just offer some jargon-ish responded saying that their hands are tied and can't do anything.
And also... ask yourself this. If the keys are legitimate and will work as all the sheeple keep saying, why would you need to buy a protection plan for a digital code locked to your account anyway?
Shouldn't they want to do that for free like EVERY other digital game retailer?
Ya know... CUSTOMER SUPPORT???
It's because they KNOW their **** can be fraudulent and they keep going on with it because people keep buying.
