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[FUNKNOWN iXi]

Fighting against these sites in legal ways is extremely hard; they are normally in countries were IP rights are hard a buy (Eastern Europe for example), they are only acting as a middle man (where the consumer acknowledges that the site in question is not responsible for the legality of the key), and the origins of the keys are hard to use as eveidence even though Ubisoft can be confident enough to disable them.

Ubisoft themselves do not make a nifty profit from these sites, we are really talking about a few percents of the whole products value (I can't remember where this number comes from, but it was a research/article on unauthorized resellers) and the problems that can come with the purchases (lack of language selection, locked regions) are something that the consumers hold Ubisoft themselves responsible most of the time.

There are business that sell stolen goods that look legitimate too. They aren't 'shady dark alleys' like we try to imagine, because people wouldn't go for that. Most look like legit businesses and are not. With the internet it's going to be even harder for consumers to tell what's legit and not. Suppose you could try to google it but might find mixed things? I doubt though that would find too many people claiming amazon.com or steam.com are doing fraudulent things.

Yeah, this is a poor position for any company to be in, that's for sure.

 

[Tunesmith]

G2A is legit for games that have the companies badge on it. Which is ironic because those companies either dont produce games or are free 2 play publishers

Games have the companies badge on it because G2A put it on there. It doesn't necessarily make them legit. G2A is not a legit reseller of keys from Steam, Uplay, Origin or Blizzard at the very least. At the same time not every key sold on G2A is necessarily stolen, just a large portion of them.

 

[RipperGrim]

Why blame Ubisoft? Looks like places like G2A are to blame for selling illegitimate keys to people. Basically looks like they may as well be selling pirated games if the pubs and devs aren't getting money from their sales.

 

[Polk]

It's not Ubi's responsibility, or anyone elses for that matter, to give out free games to people who unknowingly purchased stolen goods. Regardless of how upstanding looking the company that sold the stolen goods came from.

Of course it isn't.

But in Ubi's best intrest is to show good will. Give them something. 30% off (typical case of store margin) for the same game or upgrade them to digital deluxe edition. Next time those people would think if they want to risk another case of mandatory double dipping.

 

[Bricky]

What cheap key sites are legit?

Nuuvem is a Brazilian store that's both legit and offers amazing prices. Commonly seen at the top of /r/Gamedeals on Reddit these days (which doesn't allow unauthorized resellers like G2A and Kinguin) and I've bought multiple games from them without issue. The site itself isn't available in English, but it is pretty easy to navigate and they make it very clear when products are region-locked and such. Worth checking out.

Everything else (GMG, Humble Store, etc) should be well-known by most PC gamers I guess.

 

[Flying0Dutchman]

"hey potential consumers of out products, don't buy our stuff"

is what these companies say when they do this kind of stuff.

 

[Corgi]

surprised people bought farcry codes from those sites.

Where the keys cheaper than nvidia codes? Those sold for about $25.

 

[ttech10]

Some of you need to calm down.. I'm just trying to understand how people can be alright with a company taking away what you paid for. If G2A was widely known as some scummy site, Ubisoft should have made that painfully clear before attempting to deny people of their purchases.

This isn't some shady, dark alley dealer selling TV's out of their trunk.. you know what you're getting into when you look for that. Realize that there may be people who purchased from G2A who may not be as "hardcore" in knowing about the gaming industry as others.

"It's really not that hard to understand."

Doesn't matter if you're "hardcore" or not. Anyone can use Google or another search engine to do the most basic check of whether or not they are buying from a place authorized to sell these keys or not. You take a risk buying from these places.

People are seriously upset at Ubisoft for blocking illegitimate keys? Be mad at the people who sold you those keys. Also stop acting like Ubisoft owes those people who got their games revoked anything. Just because you bought a stolen key doesn't mean Ubisoft owes you a discount for buying from an unauthorized dealer. You guys are seriously letting your hatred of Ubisoft cloud judgement. The problem here are these places selling stolen and illegitimate keys, not the company getting ripped off.

 

[diamount]

"hey potential consumers of out products, don't buy our stuff"

is what these companies say when they do this kind of stuff.

If your buying keys from unauthorised resellers you might as well not be buying the game.

 

[JJD]

Devs and Publishers should go after the site and not the people who buy from then.

There are a lot of people who didn't know those keys could have been acquired illegally. Not everyone has a GAF account. On my country if you bought something in good faith you won't have trouble. Of course in a case like this there is no way to prove who thought the keys were legit and who knew that perhaps they aren't.

Revoking the keys is the easiest and worst way to deal with this.

Buying from those sites is not that different from people using VPN to buy stuff from Origin India or Nuuvem at prices they aren't supposed to get.

Also fuck Ubisoft.

 

[Kiriku]

Why wont Steam, Origin and UPlay etc just make official lists of authorized key sites to help people avoid this problem?

 

[captainraincoat]

I thought a lot of these sites sold keys from places like Russia and India where games were just a lot cheaper rather than selling outright stolen keys.

They source their stock from regions like russia where the price difference is massive.

Whats not clear is that some of these retailers actually buy physical stock from these regions and simply get the keys and sell them online

Places like cjs do this....by all accounts these are legitimate copies of the games...they were simply purchased in a different region

If ubi are banning keys from these sorts of sites its an indirect form of geoblocking which means a big fuck you again to ubi

Aussies get bent over quite allot over game pricing and its interesting to hear the behind the scene court actions that some of the aus distributers are engaged in with sites like play asia and ozgameshop
....they are trying to sue them because they are onselling cheaper stock from different regions....the difference in price is usually 30 to 50% .....they basically want to stop places like this so they can continue to rip us off

 

[Polk]

Why wont Steam, Origin and UPlay etc just make official lists of authorized key sites to help people avoid this problem?

You mean why sites won't advertise oher sites?

 

[_machine]

Devs and Publishers should go after the site and not the people who buy from then.

There are a lot of people who didn't know those keys could have been acquired illegally. Not everyone has a GAF account. On my country if you bought something in good faith you won't have trouble. Of course in a case like this there is no way to prove who thought the keys were legit and who knew that perhaps they aren't.

Again, they have limited ways of dealing with these sites and banning the keys pretty much sends the strongest message to the customers which is a more effective way than trying to fight them directly.

Fighting against these sites in legal ways is extremely hard; they are normally in countries were IP rights are hard a buy (Eastern Europe for example), they are only acting as a middle man (where the consumer acknowledges that the site in question is not responsible for the legality of the key), and the origins of the keys are hard to use as eveidence even though Ubisoft can be confident enough to disable them.

Revoking the keys is the easiest and worst way to deal with this.

I certainly don't think it is; in fact it's probably the most effective way to deal right now if it gets coverage and gives the customers real consequences.

Buying from those sites is not that different from people using VPN to buy stuff from Origin India or Nuuvem at prices they aren't supposed to get.

Yes it is, these are stolen keys that Ubisoft can and should legally deactivate. They are cutting into their revenue and only serve the criminals selling these keys.

Also fuck Ubisoft.

Ugh...I really, really hate these pointless comments about companies that are trying to defend themselves in a position where they are actually getting screwed by criminals and in turn serves to push the whole industry down the "race to zero" and F2P/DLC filled games where the publishers have to resort to microtransactions to keep the profit margins the same in an industry where risk in increasing constantly and the costs keep rising.

 

[Kiriku]

You mean why sites won't advertise oher sites?

Well, then why not make it possible for sites to somehow identify as authorized key sellers at least? Surely there must be better solutions than this.

 

[Nzyme32]

Nuuvem is a Brazilian store that's both legit and offers amazing prices. Commonly seen at the top of /r/Gamedeals on Reddit these days (which doesn't allow unauthorized resellers like G2A and Kinguin) and I've bought multiple games from them without issue. The site itself isn't available in English, but it is pretty easy to navigate and they make it very clear when products are region-locked and such. Worth checking out.

Everything else (GMG, Humble Store, etc) should be well-known by most PC gamers I guess.

Before recommending Nuuvem - keep in mind that the site is not meant to serve a lot of regions, and the prices are relevant to Brazil in particular, hence why the prices are lower to suit that area. If you intend to circumvent your own regional pricing via nuuvem, you have to use a VPN to add the game to your basket in the first place if you are not in the appropriate region.

While the site is legit, it certainly isn't meant for getting cheap games if you live in the US/UK etc etc, even though people like to circumvent this anyway to get cheaper games. Region locks are now on a whole lot more games to prevent such exploitation of regional pricing differences in the lowest cost regions

 

[Mononoke]

Well, then why not make it possible for sites to somehow identify as authorized key sellers at least? Surely there must be better solutions than this.

Yeah I do think this risks hurting Ubisoft even more further down the road. Apart of me wonders if they should have just issued a warning about buying from specific sites and then saying any key bought from them from this day forth, will be banned. That way there is no excuse and no one can get mad at Ubisoft as they gave a heads up that x site was selling stolen goods.

But they do have every right to ban stolen keys. Is what it is. I just wonder if taking away games from thousands is the best overall solution. Either way, it's not on Ubisoft to honor keys never paid for. IMO people should be mad at the site that sold them the key and not Ubisoft (assuming the key was stolen and never paid for. I have mixed feelings on people buying legit keys and selling them to others. IMO activating keys is when a license is issued and not someone buying the key. So the key is like any good that people have the right to sell once paid for.)

 

[Polk]

Well, then why not make it possible for sites to somehow identify as authorized key sellers at least? Surely there must be better solutions than this.

Let's say I'm running G2A and I buy 1000 keys from Valve, Origin and Ubisoft each. Does it make me authorized key seller even if I sell 100 000 keys from them?

 

[louiedog]

Well, then why not make it possible for sites to somehow identify as authorized key sellers at least? Surely there must be better solutions than this.

I think he said that because you listed stores rather than the big publishers behind them. You can't expect Steam to tell you all of the other stores that publishers they work with make their keys available at. That would literally be thousands of devs/pubs that they'd have to track because Steam will let them generate keys freely to distribute as they please.

If you want EA, Valve, and Ubisoft to provide a list of authorized stores for the games they publish, that's more reasonable.

 

[SirJackDaniels]

I don't think there is EU law that allows you can keep stolen good even if you bought it in good faith. I'm sure in some countries (ie. Poland) you can still be prosecuted for such.

Actually there is. If a consumer buys a stolen good in good faith, the consumer becomes the owner of the good.
If the actual owner claims the stolen good, the new owner has no contractual obligation towards the first owner. The first owner has to claim damages on the seller. It's interesting to see it play out legally.

I really think that Ubisoft played their cards very wrong. If there were stolen goods, Ubisoft had the possibility to track the source by contacting the consumers.

G2A and Kinguin do have their shady practices but they are legitimate businesses. I know this for a fact because they buy from me on a weekly basis.

 

[Messofanego]

Why aren't we consumers going after G2A? Where are the thousands of tweets and hashtag campaign against their twitter account demanding for refunds? Put the hurt on the culprit, not the company trying to protect itself. Drop the "FUCK UBISOFT" hat for just one second cause it's invalid in this case.

 

[Kiriku]

I think he said that because you listed stores rather than the big publishers behind them. You can't expect Steam to tell you all of the other stores that publishers they work with make their keys available at. That would literally be thousands of devs/pubs that they'd have to track because Steam will let them generate keys freely to distribute as they please.

If you want EA, Valve, and Ubisoft to provide a list of authorized stores for the games they publish, that's more reasonable.

Yeah, you're right. Just thinking there has to be a better solution than this. Probably not my suggestions then, but something else than forcibly removing games from people's accounts at least.

 

[pahamrick]

Why aren't we consumers going after G2A? Where are the thousands of tweets and hashtag campaign against their twitter account demanding for refunds? Put the hurt on the culprit, not the company trying to protect itself. Drop the "FUCK UBISOFT" hat for just one second cause it's invalid in this case.

Because, sadly, that's not how the average consumer (which is the type that is going to be most affected by this) operates.

I worked support at a retail company for a long time, and I can't tell you how many times someone would come in with a broken item they bought second-hand and demanded that we repair or replace it at no cost because it had the company's name on the box.

 

[CambriaRising]

Devs and Publishers should go after the site and not the people who buy from then.

There are a lot of people who didn't know those keys could have been acquired illegally. Not everyone has a GAF account. On my country if you bought something in good faith you won't have trouble. Of course in a case like this there is no way to prove who thought the keys were legit and who knew that perhaps they aren't.

Revoking the keys is the easiest and worst way to deal with this.

Buying from those sites is not that different from people using VPN to buy stuff from Origin India or Nuuvem at prices they aren't supposed to get.

Also fuck Ubisoft.

The keys are stolen property, you do not get to keep them.

 

[MUnited83]

Before recommending Nuuvem - keep in mind that the site is not meant to serve a lot of regions, and the prices are relevant to Brazil in particular, hence why the prices are lower to suit that area. If you intend to circumvent your own regional pricing via nuuvem, you have to use a VPN to add the game to your basket in the first place if you are not in the appropriate region.

While the site is legit, it certainly isn't meant for getting cheap games if you live in the US/UK etc etc, even though people like to circumvent this anyway to get cheaper games. Region locks are now on a whole lot more games to prevent such exploitation of regional pricing differences in the lowest cost regions

That depends on the game though. There's many games on Nuuvem that you don't need a VPN to buy.

 

[Nzyme32]

Let's say I'm running G2A and I buy 1000 keys from Valve, Origin and Ubisoft each. Does it make me authorized key seller even if I sell 100 000 keys from them?

Publishers are probably the only source of being able to tell you who they have authorised to sell keys.

Valve let publishers/devs who put their game on Steam, generate their own Steam Keys at no cost (ie no 30% cut taken by Valve like the Steam Store), and the Devs/Publishers decide who to authorise to sell those, also authorising when the keys can be released to customers for pre-load etc if this is pre-launch. Meanwhile retail games can also be sold with keys.

If someone then buys a whole bunch of keys with stolen credit cards, then the original owner of said card reports/reverses/cancels the charge, the publishers/devs go through Valve to ban those illegitimate keys leading to this:

Valve have only done this for their own game once (orange box I think). The point is, pubs/devs make the choices. In this case though, Ubi knows who they authorised/keys that are disputed, those get banned and the posts from users effected happen to mostly be G2A ie the source of illegitimate keys

 

[Bricky]

Before recommending Nuuvem - keep in mind that the site is not meant to serve a lot of regions, and the prices are relevant to Brazil in particular, hence why the prices are lower to suit that area. If you intend to circumvent your own regional pricing via nuuvem, you have to use a VPN to add the game to your basket in the first place if you are not in the appropriate region.

While the site is legit, it certainly isn't meant for getting cheap games if you live in the US/UK etc etc, even though people like to circumvent this anyway to get cheaper games. Region locks are now on a whole lot more games to prevent such exploitation of regional pricing differences in the lowest cost regions

This is only the case for certain games. Those games are either shown to be region-locked on the page itself or unavailable to buy at check-out, everything else doesn't require a VPN. Can be seen as a grey area nonetheless, but in the case of Nuuvem I personally consider it no different from importing a physical product from China or (as a European) shipping something in from a neighbouring country with cheaper pricing.

 

[Caffeine]

Valve have only done this for their own game once (orange box I think). The point is, pubs/devs make the choices. In this case though, Ubi knows who they authorised/keys that are disputed, those get banned and the posts from users effected happen to mostly be G2A ie the source of illegitimate keys

that's pretty much what u get when u contact ubisoft support about information

 

[Nzyme32]

That depends on the game though. There's many games on Nuuvem that you don't need a VPN to buy.

This is only the case for certain games. Those games are either shown to be region-locked on the page itself or unavailable to buy at check-out, everything else doesn't require a VPN. Can be seen as a grey area nonetheless, but in the case of Nuuvem I personally consider it no different from importing a physical product from China or (as a European) shipping something in from a neighbouring country with cheaper pricing.

For sure, but would you not think that a site, entirely in another language than your native one, is likely not targeting you? Hence my generalisation

 

[Doctoglethorpe]

Typical, punish the user, not the dealer.

If the keys are legitimate (not stolen or illegally generated), then it shouldn't matter how they are bought or sold, that code is an existing copy of the game, playable by whoever redeems it, period. This sounds like the equivalent of Ubisoft sending out agents to peoples homes to smash used-purchased disks with hammers.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Actually there is. If a consumer buys a stolen good in good faith, the consumer becomes the owner of the good.
If the actual owner claims the stolen good, the new owner has no contractual obligation towards the first owner. The first owner has to claim damages on the seller. It's interesting to see it play out legally.

Good faith also means that there were no signs that this might be a stolen good. Selling a game for far less then it's retail price is such a sign. At the very least Ubisoft could claim that.

What would actually be an interesting question is if Ubisoft is legally obligated to validate a stolen key on their service. I'm curious if they could argue that you might have bought that key legally but you bought nothing more then just a key. I doubt they need to fulfill any promises an unoffical third party seller made. Again, just a thought experiment. I'd like to know how that would end.

If the keys are legitimate (not stolen or illegally generated)

That's what this is about though.

 

[Spacejaws]

You're really directing your ire to the wrong company. If Kinguin sold you stolen product you should go complain to them and attempt to reclaim your money.

But even so a consumer conscious platform should at least contact me and let me know. Outright removing content with no contact shows a complete lack of respect as a long time customer. It nothing but basic decency to touch base and explain the situation rather than treating me like a thief.

 

[Nzyme32]

that's pretty much what u get when u contact ubisoft support about information

Yeah it is pretty brutal for the customer that bought the key, but the issue can only get resolved on G2A's end.

Part of the problem always is that this will be an on going thing till people actually stop shopping at such places to get their keys, and actions like this are probably the only way that happens. Most pubs/devs seem to have a zero tolerance policy to these issues

 

[Costia]

Actually there is. If a consumer buys a stolen good in good faith, the consumer becomes the owner of the good.
If the actual owner claims the stolen good, the new owner has no contractual obligation towards the first owner. The first owner has to claim damages on the seller. It's interesting to see it play out legally.

I really think that Ubisoft played their cards very wrong. If there were stolen goods, Ubisoft had the possibility to track the source by contacting the consumers.

G2A and Kinguin do have their shady practices but they are legitimate businesses. I know this for a fact because they buy from me on a weekly basis.

Could you link to that law? can't find anything of this sort.

 

[Mononoke]

Typical, punish the user, not the dealer.

If the keys are legitimate (not stolen or illegally generated), then it shouldn't matter how they are bought or sold, that code is an existing copy of the game, playable by whoever redeems it, period. This sounds like the equivalent of Ubisoft sending out agents to peoples homes to smash used-purchased disks with hammers.

If the keys were paid for legitimately, then I agree the license only comes in play once the key is activated. So people should have the right to sell the key they purchased. Ubisoft already got paid for they key, so it doesn't matter who activates it. But once they do, they should honor it.

If the key was stolen or never paid for, the okay. I get the bans.

 

[madjoki]

Typical, punish the user, not the dealer.

If the keys are legitimate (not stolen or illegally generated), then it shouldn't matter how they are bought or sold, that code is an existing copy of the game, playable by whoever redeems it, period. This sounds like the equivalent of Ubisoft sending out agents to peoples homes to smash used-purchased disks with hammers.

How would you punish dealer without revoking key and without knowing where it's sold?

Because sites for sure don't tell they sell stolen keys and if they do it knowingly, they are sure to have legit keys too thrown into same bin. :/

 

[Caffeine]

damn now im worried about the 6 or so other games i got from g2a prior on my steam account :S

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Could you link to that law? can't find anything of this sort.

I can't link to it either, but I can verify that this law exists.
However, as most laws, it was created at a time when there were no digital goods. And highly doubt it would be appliable in this case. We'll never know though cause I doubt somebody is going to sue Ubisoft. Or G2A which would be the obvious company to sue.

 

[meanspartan]

I literally just saw a g2a ad on Gaf just now.

I was not aware it was so "obvious" they were seedy.

 

[Costia]

I can't link to it either, but I can verify that this law exists.
However, as most laws, it was created at a time when there were no digital goods. And highly doubt it would be appliable in this case. We'll never know though cause I doubt somebody is going to sue Ubisoft. Or G2A which would be the obvious company to sue.

Looks like only Italy has such a law. And there are some strict rules that apply to the good faith buyer. Saying "i didn't know it was stolen" isn't enough.

It is becoming of increasing relevance at EU Case Law the diligence shown by the bona fides purchaser in making appropriate enquiries about the valuable good he is about to buy

So it would probably be the buyer's responsibility at the very least to check the seller's legitimacy. And if you google for G2A - you will find a lot of complaints and cases where they sold stolen keys. So it would be extremely hard for someone who bought from them to claim good faith and due diligence.

http://www.boglione.eu/it/chi-siamo...stolen-valuable-goods-the-eu-perspective.html

 

[Doctoglethorpe]

How would you punish dealer without revoking key and without knowing where it's sold?

Because sites for sure don't tell they sell stolen keys and if they do it knowingly, they are sure to have legit keys too thrown into same bin. :/

If these companies were really doing something illegal, like generating fake keys for profit, they should be shut down and investigated. Sincet hey aren't, that tells me they have legitimate codes and are just reselling them under the table, which isn't illigal. Ubisoft may not like it, but boo fuckign hoo.

These resellers might be a little shady, but if Ubisoft are making a penny off these codes then what they are doing is far worse. "We took the money for that game, be we don't like what you're doing with it, so were gonna take it back and keep the money." Theres anti-consumerism, and then there's straight up theft.

 

[Polk]

Good faith also means that there were no signs that this might be a stolen good. Selling a game for far less then it's retail price is such a sign. At the very least Ubisoft could claim that.

Maybe when those games would cost friction of the price it would be easy to see. But for most of the time they are 10-20% of lowest legit price. It doesn't rise red light bright enough for many of people.

Publishers are probably the only source of being able to tell you who they have authorised to sell keys.

Considering there are dozens of bigger and smaller publishers that's pain in the ass from buyer's perspective. Do I have to check publisher's site every day to check if site is still authorised seller? And what about sites that are both resellers and marketplaces?

Actually there is. If a consumer buys a stolen good in good faith, the consumer becomes the owner of the good.
If the actual owner claims the stolen good, the new owner has no contractual obligation towards the first owner. The first owner has to claim damages on the seller. It's interesting to see it play out legally.

Good to know I thought it was per country to country basis.

 

[Costia]

If these companies were really doing something illegal, like generating fake keys for profit, they should be shut down and investigated. Sincet hey aren't, that tells me they have legitimate codes and are just reselling them under the table, which isn't illigal. Ubisoft may not like it, but boo fuckign hoo.

These resellers might be a little shady, but if Ubisoft are making a penny off these codes then what they are doing is far worse. "We took the money for that game, be we don't like what you're doing with it, so were gonna take it back and keep the money." Theres anti-consumerism, and then there's straight up theft.

They are doing something illegal. They are reselling keys that were bought with stolen credit cards.
Not only that the publishers don't get the money, in the case of Natural Selection 2 the devs had to pay 30k$ for the chargebacks.

yeah peeps will stop buying keys and start pirating the shit out of it again.

 

[Nydus]

Yeah it is pretty brutal for the customer that bought the key, but the issue can only get resolved on G2A's end.

Part of the problem always is that this will be an on going thing till people actually stop shopping at such places to get their keys, and actions like this are probably the only way that happens. Most pubs/devs seem to have a zero tolerance policy to these issues

yeah peeps will stop buying keys and start pirating the shit out of it again.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Looks like only Italy has such a law. And there are some strict rules that apply to the good faith buyer. Saying "i didn't know it was stolen" isn't enough.

So it would probably be the buyer's responsibility at the very least to check the seller's legitimacy. And if you google for G2A - you will find a lot of complaints and cases where they sold stolen keys. So it would be extremely hard for someone who bought from them to claim good faith and due diligence.

http://www.boglione.eu/it/chi-siamo...stolen-valuable-goods-the-eu-perspective.html

I know for a fact that this is also a law in Austria. Otherwise everything you say is corret.

If these companies were really doing something illegal, like generating fake keys for profit, they should be shut down and investigated. Sincet hey aren't, that tells me they have legitimate codes and are just reselling them under the table, which isn't illigal. Ubisoft may not like it, but boo fuckign hoo.

These resellers might be a little shady, but if Ubisoft are making a penny off these codes then what they are doing is far worse. "We took the money for that game, be we don't like what you're doing with it, so were gonna take it back and keep the money." Theres anti-consumerism, and then there's straight up theft.

They don't. That's the point. This entire thread is about how many keys on G2A are straight up stolen.

 

[CosmicQueso]

If these companies were really doing something illegal, like generating fake keys for profit, they should be shut down and investigated. Sincet hey aren't, that tells me they have legitimate codes and are just reselling them under the table, which isn't illigal. Ubisoft may not like it, but boo fuckign hoo.

These resellers might be a little shady, but if Ubisoft are making a penny off these codes then what they are doing is far worse. "We took the money for that game, be we don't like what you're doing with it, so were gonna take it back and keep the money." Theres anti-consumerism, and then there's straight up theft.

So you don't understand what's happening. Cool.

 

[dani_dc]

If these companies were really doing something illegal, like generating fake keys for profit, they should be shut down and investigated. Sincet hey aren't, that tells me they have legitimate codes and are just reselling them under the table, which isn't illigal. Ubisoft may not like it, but boo fuckign hoo.

These resellers might be a little shady, but if Ubisoft are making a penny off these codes then what they are doing is far worse. "We took the money for that game, be we don't like what you're doing with it, so were gonna take it back and keep the money." Theres anti-consumerism, and then there's straight up theft.

Here's an example where a developer not only doesn't make money, but actually loses it.

We don’t know how exactly these sites obtain their Steam keys. It seems likely that they were originally obtained from our store using stolen credit card information. Keys were then sold through a handful of questionable sites to people using legitimate credit cards. The owner of the stolen credit card ultimately disputed the charge and we lost the sale. In total, we lose ~$45 per transaction of this kind, due to the charge-back fee (~$22 fee + $25 game price). Meanwhile, the unauthorized key reseller kept the money from the player who ultimately received the bad key.

 

[pestul]

If these companies were really doing something illegal, like generating fake keys for profit, they should be shut down and investigated. Sincet hey aren't, that tells me they have legitimate codes and are just reselling them under the table, which isn't illigal. Ubisoft may not like it, but boo fuckign hoo.

These resellers might be a little shady, but if Ubisoft are making a penny off these codes then what they are doing is far worse. "We took the money for that game, be we don't like what you're doing with it, so were gonna take it back and keep the money." Theres anti-consumerism, and then there's straight up theft.

It's not that 'easy' to shut down some of these sites based out of Hong Kong and other areas you know. If UBI is blocking the keys, then one can assume that they are stolen. They'd have no other reason to shut them down.

 

[Nzyme32]

If these companies were really doing something illegal, like generating fake keys for profit, they should be shut down and investigated. Sincet hey aren't, that tells me they have legitimate codes and are just reselling them under the table, which isn't illigal. Ubisoft may not like it, but boo fuckign hoo.

These resellers might be a little shady, but if Ubisoft are making a penny off these codes then what they are doing is far worse. "We took the money for that game, be we don't like what you're doing with it, so were gonna take it back and keep the money." Theres anti-consumerism, and then there's straight up theft.

Sure but it isn't easy to reach such companies and shut them down or put them in court room. Plenty of industries have such issues. Illegal streaming sites for sports, tv and film have existed for years and are practically impossible to take down

 

[Mononoke]

Here's an example where a developer not only doesn't make money, but actually loses it.

Yeah if they are being bought this way that is not legitimate and Ubisoft didn't receive money for the key. So in that case they have every right to ban a key not paid for.