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.
3 Likes
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.
2 Likes
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?
1 Like
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.
1 Like
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$.
Google the exchange rate if you want but 999 is about 15$
1 Like
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.
–
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 ?
As I said in my last post:
A £50 PSN credit key gets me £50 credit on the PlayStation Store. There’s no impact whatsoever on the developers of any software on PSN (and presumably the same can be said for XBox Marketplace). How my PSN wallet is funded, whether by credit card, PayPal or PSN key (via a card bought at a supermarket or via cdkeys.com) is irrelevant, the game developer will get the correct amount from the sale on the PlayStation Store.
The only people who would be hit by buying PSN/XBox Live credit are Sony and Microsoft. I can hardly believe that they give away tens of thousands of free credit keys, so I can only presume they are acquired cheaply through bulk purchasing (and not buying though cheap countries as the credit has to be specific to the PlayStation Store you are linked to e.g. UK, Europe, or US).
As I said, if this wasn’t legit, Sony and Microsoft would have stamped down on it long ago.
Answering to myself but, I just checked Kinguin.
Two things are immediatelly looking bad : they sell digital Blizzard products, which Blizzard disallows ( only they have the right to sell digital keys ), and they have a “buyer protection” addon. If Buyer Protection doesn’t sound shady enough, maybe the fact they are selling something they aren’t allowed to sell should.
Here is another interesting reddit topic on the subject : https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/2yhnsw/key_resellers_and_what_they_mean_for_you/
it’s a bit old but there are interesting points, including how to check the legitimacy of a site ( and the blizzard only sell their own cdkey info which I also thought was common knowledge ).
Yes, it’s probably harder to cheat with consoles. Cd Keys are probably an issue very specific to the PC world. I frankly don’t know a thing about how consoles operate at this level so I don’t have an educated opinion about this. the only thing I can note is that the credits are legit by themselves and you are buying directly from the actual PSN, so at any rate, yes, developpers will get the correct, intended, amount they should get. That’s all I ask for.
On PC the whole issue is that Steam just accepts any working cdkeys without checking its legitimacy in any way. You don’t know what your money exactly bought and who will really profit from it.
And again the whole point with Kinguin, G2A, and “non officially listed resellers”, is that they aren’t illegal. They just… take shortcuts or look elsewhere when they acquire their own stocks. It’s a chain, and chances are high a link, somewhere, is rotten. It could also be perfectly, 100% legit. This is why it’s called “Grey market” or “Shady” as opposed to “Black market” or downright theft. We can’t know for sure. that’s why I’d recommend piracy ( and it’s heartbreaking ) or real, official resellers, because at least, you know what you’re getting.
I don’t think blizzard keys are digital. ie, you get the photo of the key from the box. That to me points to a legit source, a store that didn’t manage to sell that copy and thus lowered the price (like that diablo 2 cd that was 3 bucks - my friend bought it at a supermarket, which, obviously was a legit source), while if you order diablo 2 from blizzard it’s like 10 or 20 bucks.
The shadiness is in the fact that you get the key only and not the box/cd, not that blizzard didn’t see their money - they did, a long time ago, when that retailer bought d2 from them.
Hmmmm, I don’t know. It’s a valid remark, I agree, however in this case I was refering more to Overwatch which is clearly advertized as “Digital Product”, “Download from Battle.net” and “Pre-order” on Kinguin’s network. Even if they got the keys in actual boxes, they are still selling it as a digital product which is prohibited by big B, thus it still is dishonest.
I agree there may be prescription on older games, but newer games ? Any angle I look at the problem, I can still find that spot of shadiness that can’t be really scratched.
1 Like