I don’t see it as ethical. The amount of people who use these sites is roughly 1% of gamers. Mostly those too poor to afford the absurd prices of games today.
Also, it’s good for your community, you want new people? here you go.
These kind of sites are bad and should be fought teeth and nails. Come one, such a big discount CAN’T be legit. They are stealers and resellers. Like, you know, thepiratebay and co which aren’t technically hosting anything illegal but are simplifying the process…
I can only recommend reading this article : http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/9/8006693/the-truth-behind-those-mysteriously-cheap-gray-market-game-codes which give an insight to how it’s done. Mostly it’s “special promotionnal keys” or otherwise free keys that can be found as part of various offers.
For anybody interested, and does not care that it is a physical copy, Amazon has the game for $39.88. Sold and shipped by Amazon and not a secondary seller. This is only the Xbox One version though.
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Wow, you’re right. I was sure you meant with the Prime Discount, but it’s not. It’s available 20$ off, legally already, at least on Xbox one.
My question is why offer it on the official forums? I’m surprised they wouldn’t lock this thread immediately, maybe there are other forums where this would get a better reception but not on the one site where it’s mostly people who bought it. Legitimately.
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Simple, for people looking at the game and thinking about it, I wanted them to see the best deal on the game currently.
I only ever buy PlayStation credit keys from cdkeys.com (and they also sell keys for Xbox Live credit).
If they weren’t legit, I’d have thought that Sony and Microsoft would have stamped on them long ago.
Maybe the business has evolved from what I know from the past then, but I see key sites as the pinnacle of shady for gamers.
Why would they lock it down?
I’m in the UK and here the RRP for the game is £50. That does not mean a retailer has to sell it at £50. For example my local large supermarkets are selling it for £42. There is nothing illegal about this.
If you buy the game for £50 or £42, the same amount of money will be going to gearbox, say £20. It is the retailer that is taking the hit.
Now they can mitigate this is 2 ways,
Bulk ordering - buying a large enough quantity that the supplier gives a discount. (Supermarkets)
Reducing overheads - selling digital products through a website means you save a lot of money. No postage, no physical store and all of the subsequent costs - staff, insurance, equipment etc. (Online retailer akin to cdkeys)
I think it’s funny that people slate cdkeys as being dodgy just because they sell things cheap, or their mate Dave down the pub told them his mate Bob said he knew someone who got ripped off.
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Well the negative connotations in my case come from running into it when file sharing was first taking off, and you’d see hacked cd keys / game downloads all the time. This was over a decade ago but still that’s my association with this kind of business so it seems suspect.
Their mate down the pub is our friend at the bar. lol
Yeah I hear you. I can’t say with 100% surety that they are legit, I just find it hard to believe they can operate the way they do without getting shut down, they have a Facebook page for example, that doesn’t scream cloak and dagger to me.
As for me finding it funny, It’s just it’s something I would expect my Mum to say re. buying something online, not so much hear on a games forum is all.
@mkilbride2599 you just saved me £10, was just about to get total war on steam for £40, cdkeys had it for £30. Thanks for that.
Well it’s dodgy because it IS dodgy. From £50 to £42, it’s not a huge sale. I even bought it 40€ instead of 50€ myself, on a website I know is trustworthy. But 25€ ? 50% sale on a game that is barely just out? Come on, it’s just too good to be true.
My take on this is that the dev actually get nothing from the sale. The key was obtained via unknown means, either stolen, via a free promotionnal operation, or something that inevitably will result in the developper not getting the money, and the reseller getting it all. You may very well be well meaning, but in trying to save a few bucks you denied the real authors theirs, and rather further contributed to make this kind of despicable websites continue running.
What’s even more sad is that the small studios will be affected the most. Getting a Call of Duty key won’t really hurt Activision. Getting a Battleborn or a indie game key, though, will probably not help the game.
I can only beg people not to use these sites. Use real, official ways. Think not only with your own wallet and the couple buck you will keep. Heck, I’d encourage piracy before using those sites. At least with piracy there is a chance you would go and grab the game “for real”, resulting in GBX getting some money for sure, whereas if you acquired the game via shady means you won’t buy it a second time… ( kay battleborn probably can’t be cracked because of the whole MP aspect, but I hope you get my point ).
edit : as far as operating goes, I can only urge you to read the link I posted earlier. They aren’t culprit. They operate by collecting keys people sell them. It’s a chain, but almost inevitably you will find out there was one loosy link, and at some point, someone lied about the origin of the key. The people that manage the site won’t look, and chances are the customers won’t look either. At any rate, the key is mostly perfectly valid, but chances are that this key should never have been sold in the first place. You know, this kind of product which come with a little disclaimer : " this product shouldn’t be sold separatly ".
That, or using massive bulk sell at a hugely discounted prices in one country and then use the power of money conversion to get it to other countries for half the price it should have costed there.
Well it’s dodgy because it IS dodgy. From £50 to £42, it’s not a huge sale. I even bought it 40€ instead of 50€ myself, on a website I know is trustworthy. But 25€ ? 50% sale on a game that is barely just out? Come on, it’s just too good to be true.
They bought a bulk load of keys, the game isn’t selling, they sell it cheaper so they don’t get lumbered with a load of unwanted codes. Simples.
My take on this is that the dev actually get nothing from the sale. The key was obtained via unknown means, either stolen, via a free promotionnal operation, or something that inevitably will result in the developper not getting the money, and the reseller getting it all. You may very well be well meaning, but in trying to save a few bucks you denied the real authors theirs, and rather further contributed to make this kind of despicable websites continue running.
What’s even more sad is that the small studios will be affected the most. Getting a Call of Duty key won’t really hurt Activision. Getting a Battleborn or a indie game key, though, will probably not help the game.
Show me some actual evidence to back this up and I will jump straight up on that high horse alongside you, until then this is pure conjecture and in putting it here you are actively misinforming people, possibly putting them off sending legitimate money to a legitimate retailer.
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It’s legitimate. These sites typically deal in promotional keys which cost nothing or next to nothing.
It’s stuff the average consumer would not otherwise have access to.
If you are so paranoid, you might want to notice that this seller has PayPal.
They never see your payment info. Not unless you actually choose to give it to them.
So is paypal suddenly stealing everyone’s info or are you just bitter that people who waited can now get the game at a pittance?
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Wrote my response before I saw your edit.
I followed your link, I won’t lie to you, I didn’t read the article. Who is Charlie Hall? Just another nobody with a keyboard trying to get some likes against a nothing article in his climb up the journalism ■■■■ pile.
We can go back and forth all night I expect, I have my opinion based upon not a whole lot, and you have yours, again not based on a whole lot. I’m done.
But Battleborn is from Gearbox. A triple AAA studio. I’m confused as to how it’d hurt them and indie devs, but not other AAA studios?
Fanboys don’t care about logic, it doesn’t come into play.
They should be thanking you for advertising a means to encourage more people to buy the game.
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Simply take a look at amazon india and you will know how they can afford to sell the game for 30$ when they pay 15$.
Google the exchange rate if you want but 999 is about 15$
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For a very long time there is nothing shady with these sites - I can’t say for all of them but the kinguin ones (ones with the guarantee for a working product) are legit.
Those keys are already in traffic, you aren’t damaging the devs, the key you get has already went into the air, so to speak. Most of the keys are from the massive buyouts from steam sales or from different (if compatible) countries etc. While yes, if you buy from steam for 60, you payed more than if you buy from such sites from like 30, but the thing is, that 30 bucks cd key is legit, it didn’t fall off the truck or something:)
It’s the same as you would find a diablo 2 in some supermarket for like three bucks, when it’s like 20 when you buy it from blizzard. You aren’t “scamming blizzard”, it’s THEIR copy in that supermarket. It’s just, due to that copy standing there, the supermarket is willing to give it for way less. Blizzard got their percentage from that copy like 15 years ago.
Those keys cost next to nothing for a reason : because they are promotionnal keys not intended to be sold. It’s a concepot that has been around for … a long time. It’s like selling the little toy in a Kinder, or the game that came out with the latest Nvidia GPU you bought. They CAN’T legally be sold because they are part of a package.
I don’t care whether people get the game for less. I care because it impacts sales. It’s a data that disappears in the void. It leads to posts here on this forums and countless other forums where people are complaining about the weak number of sold copies, as opposed to how many cdkeys were produced.
@Fullygrim
A work of investigation published by a renown website isn’t enough ? I don’t know what would be. When journalists are copying lame news all around the web, everyone complains they aren’t doing an actual journalist work, but when they do, they are nobodies and so should be rejected.
Maybe this kind of link could help, though : http://www.epicbundle.com/official-steam-reseller
Notice the absence of CdKeys, Kinguin, G2A… Sure, the list isn’t complete, but these sites have been around for long enough they would have been included if they were legit. Kinguin was the main attraction of the Polygon link anyway. But you didn’t even bother to read it so how can I even show you relevant studies when you don’t want to put the necessary time to read it ?
There is also this : http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LeszekLisowski/20141001/226840/How_to_get_every_game_on_STEAM_for_free.php a first hand testimony of an actual indie dev who fell prrey to his own naivity. He basically gave away free keys to youtubers and streamerrs without checking they were actual youtubers or streamers first. His keys were promptly sold on various websites, and people like you and me thought it was a great deal ! Truth is, he didn’t get a dime out of this, so it was essentially theft and resell.
@Doolio
Kinguin IS shady. It’s probably the king Shady.
The keys are in traffic but they are NOT MEANT to be sold. They are for reviewers, streamers, youtubers. People who would promote the game. They decide instead ( if they were even youtubers.streamers in the first place ) to sell them.
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The other way of getting cheap keys is indeed buying them from low-economy country, and, ignoring international commercial laws and abusing exchange rates, bring them back low cost. This isn’t technically theft, but it’s still a pretty immoral way of handling things. This is why those sites have never been closed or attacked by justice : they mostly do nothing illegal themselves. It’s still pretty shady, sometimes they keys ARE legit, sometimes ( often ) they aren’t.
The whole industry is just put at risk with those vultures than come feed on the work and goodwill of others. GBX may not be an indie dev, but it still hurts them when they got nothing on a key, and some ill-intentionned sellers take all the cake.
I’m frankly amazed that so many people would not see the issue in these ways. As long as your own wallet is not too light after you made a purchase, the world will be fine ? Have we become that ego-centred that we’d rather promote ill pratices if it benefits us than try to make things right ?