I guess this is irony
Hey, EviLore gotta eat.
In all seriousness, I'm sure once it's brought to the attention of a mod and/or EviLore, it'll get fixed pretty quick.
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[Rumor] Ubisoft is removing games from UPlay bought from unauthorized retailers
- Thread starter dex3108
- Start date
Hey, EviLore gotta eat.
In all seriousness, I'm sure once it's brought to the attention of a mod and/or EviLore, it'll get fixed pretty quick.
Wasn't that simplycdkeys not cdkeys? Very different places but both do very similar things.
Either way, another PSA wouldn't work, cdkeys was still being talked about in CAG days after the last PSA about them being banned again.
I'm pretty sure if you buy a stolen item and they find that it is stolen you still have to give it back and you are out the money. Regardless of if you knew it was stolen or not.
Which is why it is buyer beware if you buy from a sketchy seller.
So why should it be different digitally?
No, both are grey markets. Both of these are not so coincidentally Hong Kong based companies too.
AHA-Lambda
Member
Sorry, my mistake, yeah it was simplycdkeys.
Uplay key.
wumster3000
Member
They are the victims too. Right?
Pocky4Th3Win
Member
Anyone who feels that Ubisoft is in the wrong would so be upset if in the real world they found out they had bought a stolen item. If you are found to have purchased stolen goods the police can take the item away from you and you are out the item and the money until the thief taken to court for your reimbursement. This is no different, Ubisoft claims the keys sold by these sites are stolen so they revoke them, now its your job to be reimbursed by the theif (Grey Market Site) who sold you the keys.
I'm not at home so I can't get into the overarching discussion as much as I'd like, but in the interest of accuracy, Valve has itself, by its own accord, revoked keys only once and that was the release of the Orange Box, which was ultimately reversed because of the fact regional restrictions were previously unheard of. There's a case to be made that the situation with the OB is what lead Valve to make game distribution on Steam as hands-off as possible (at this point, to the best of my knowledge, there are just four things that publishers don't have immediate control over: release state changes, key generation, region-lock measures, and, yes, selective key deactivation).
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
More like Devolver is the victim here by not seeing the money from these sales.
Why do you think I put that sentence about obtaining their keys in questionable ways? What did you think I meant by that?
There are varying degrees when it comes to these companies. CDkeys is, like I said, not likely to rip you off, like a lot of these websites. But you always run the risk of having something like what is happening today to you when dealing with these sites. Some are just more likely than others.
And that's why i can not understand that a lot here blaming ubisoft instead of those illegal key selling websites. Like devolver there not getting any money at all.
Buyers can easily be victims too. This site is advertised on GAF (as per the picture posted before), sponsored by legitimate streamers and youtubers, and has a reputation of delivering keys and many fans on Facebook. It's as legitimate as a site can look. A consumer can easily buy from them without knowing they are not legitimate. This especially applies if you don't live in the USA and aren't familiar with AAA pricing of games due to the heavy taxes on games in many countries.
Not saying some people aren't aware of what they're buying, but it's very easy for a casual buyer to make this mistake.
Because it's hip to hate Ubisoft these days.
nibblemonkey
Neo Member
Surely Ubi has the ability to send an email to people who lost their copies telling them why it's been revoked rather then simply just revoking it?
As shitty as this whole situation, and Ubisoft has been lately, they weren't in the wrong. Especially if those keys were originally purchased with stolen credit cards / accounts.
True but i only blame them for broken games but that's different.
Oh come on people. If you buy a Rolex for 50 bucks out of a van on a side alley, should you really be surprised when you get busted for buying stolen goods?
Anyone who thinks it's "normal" for Triple A titles to be 18 bucks on launch day is clearly trying to rationalize what they KNOW is wrong.
And stop trying to compare this to Humble Bundle and other sites. Those are LICENSED websites that are (trying to) raise money for charity.
Ridiculous.
Anyone who thinks it's "normal" for Triple A titles to be 18 bucks on launch day is clearly trying to rationalize what they KNOW is wrong.
And stop trying to compare this to Humble Bundle and other sites. Those are LICENSED websites that are (trying to) raise money for charity.
Ridiculous.
Mad Season
Banned
going after the consumer is ridiculous. go after the site...
Mantiskilla
Neo Member
Never been to the site before so went to take a look and yep looks pretty damn shady to me.
Camp Freddie
Member
Grey market and stolen are not synonyms. Particularly when you have things like Mexican/Indian/USA origin/xbl/psn accounts being okay, but some cdkey sites maybe are not okay.
Then you have the EU which actively protects most intra-EU grey market trade (it's a free market after all).
We should make a clear distinction between grey market resellers and Credit card fraudsters.
Are g2a actually fraudsters? Because fuck them and the ad agencies/youtube celebs that promote them if it's true.
Then you have the EU which actively protects most intra-EU grey market trade (it's a free market after all).
We should make a clear distinction between grey market resellers and Credit card fraudsters.
Are g2a actually fraudsters? Because fuck them and the ad agencies/youtube celebs that promote them if it's true.
Messofanego
Banned
Goes back to the old adage that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is with some of the cheap prices. I think GMG is the cheapest you can get legitimately.
Well G2A is a marketplace, so it varies from seller to seller.
This. I've bought exactly 2 games ever from G2A and both were older, sub $10 purchases so if they get revoked (pre 2007 games, unlikely) I won't really be too shaken up about it.
That being said I bought keys from Canadian and American sources. Something tells me the key from Russia might be a higher likelihood of illegitimacy, just due to the higher cybercrime over there.
Most of my games come straight from the Steam store (or Origin for BF).
Pocky4Th3Win
Member
They are... by revoking keys they hope to stem the sales since they can't sell those keys. It's not their fault that you already bought those keys prior to them being revoked. Even if the key has been purchased and registered by someone the practice of revoking the keys hopes to inform the buyer that they are buying software from sellers who are not authorized to sell their products and hope that in the future you go through the proper channels.
If they could go after the sellers they would but its far more difficult since many are outside Ubisofts reach.
They went after the site by disabling all keys the site had.
I just checked the site out, and I can't see how you can possibility think it was a legitimate retailer
Three things instantly set off red flags.
1. The fact they're selling digital blizzard games
2. When I added a game to the cart, it allowed me to choose the VAT I wanted to pay (Seriously, it's not hard to calculate VAT based on a users location, if I saw that, the last thing I would be doing is giving them my Credit Card number)
3. I was offered "G2A Shield" basically saying if the key isn't legit, I was screwed, if you don't see that as a red flag, I don't know what would set off a alert.
Willy Wanka
my god this avatar owns
I've always been wary of something like this happening so I've stuck to official resellers/retailers. It definitely sucks for the people that were unaware of the risks though.
Watch this video from TB when Rebellion revoked 7000 keys for Sniper Elite 3 and shows why websites like G2A are not legit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08b3XzFGqJY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08b3XzFGqJY
How is G2A any worse then Ebay?
Ebay doesn't support the selling of digital items so I don't really see why would you compare the two.
fixed it for you
Garani
Member
And how does ubisoft which keys are coming from G2A if they are not a reseller being supplied by them?
and maybe not...
And why not? There are a number of ways that blizzard sells keys, on plastic cards as well.
This is quite a new addition, it is something new of this week, and it is something that came out on every key site out there. Actually with this change, there isn't anymore any interest on keysites: let's wait for Amazon's or someone else sales and we'll be better off.
Has been there for several years. G2A originally sold keys they owned, then they become a market place. That 75 cents for G2A shield just cover the fact that if the seller does not support you/reimburse you, G2A will.
Over the years I have saved myself a lot of moneys, especially by waiting the weekend sales, and never got a bad key that didn't work on steam, uplay, origin o SWTOR. Actually with SWTOR's 60 days cards I did save quite a bit of moneys.
Digital keys are sold on eBay all the time. I bought LBP3 digitally off eBay. And several other pc games.
flaxknuckles
Member
It's not protected at all though. Major buyer and seller risk.
badblue
Gold Member
Except the police will tell you that the item is stolen before taking it from you. And usually that is a physical object, not infinitely reproducible data.
Yes, Ubisoft is within their rights to deactivate the keys. But doing so with out even telling people why first, is almost like stealing for the people that feel they did nothing wrong.
At the start of the process, Ubisoft got money for the key.
Keys are bought keys from reseller X using stolen credits cards?
Thus they receive a valid key and when it's eventually chargebacked by owener of credits cards, reseller sends Ubisoft a request to cancel key.
Apperantly this used to launder money from those stolen credit cards.
Seems to be big problem on Steam too, Valve recently restricted trading and marketplace usage because of this.
Sure, but again, it's not supported and listings will be deleted if someone reports them. If you sell a digital key on ebay you have zero protection. If the buyer tries to chargeback/get a refund even if the key works they will get it.
Because key resellers buy from legitimate retailers and then issue charge backs etc, which is why these keys are "stolen", the original source of the key would have reported it stolen and ubisoft would have revoked it, see: the situation with the Natural Selection 2 devs here http://unknownworlds.com/blog/beware-shady-key-resellers-and-discount-steam-keys/
Because selling retail keys digitally is not legitimate, and no legitimate retailer will EVER sell keys from a physical copy, you don't see GMG etc opening boxes and giving people the Steam keys from inside
Except not paying VAT is classed as tax fraud and illegal
That should be part of a legitimate business anyways, if I buy through ebay and a seller screws me over, I can force a refund through paypal etc, the same happens with Amazon Marketplace sellers etc
This is not a feature, it should be something EVERY single retailer should include by default, and it shouldn't be something the consumer has to pay extra money for
That's great, but don't blame the publisher or developer of a game when they decide to take action on the retailer
kingwingin
Member
So are sites like gamedealdaily and boxed deals legit? I bought a bunch of psn cards on the cheap, last of us and lbp3.
I'm kinda worried now
I'm kinda worried now
AmaterasuOni
Banned
Ubisoft keeps delivering and people are still buying their products. Go figure. I guess humanity is overrated.
G2P was actually busted selling keys obtained illegitimately, yeah.
Ubisoft are in the right on this one so posts like this are just idiotic. I know it's cool to hate on Ubisoft now but don't let it blind you.
You clearly didn't read the thread title or what it is about.
Actually it's sites responsibility to collect at least two (non-conflicting) pieces of evidence that user supplied accurate location. So sites too at fault, if they allow you to select.
If the keys were generated illegally or the keys were stolen, then still Ubisoft should contact the users, collect information, give them free keys, remove the old ones then contact the police.
I appears that the way Ubisoft is handling this is the moronic way. Ubisoft should ask themselves "do we really want people to go back to pirating our games this badly?"
People actually pay a lot of money for their games even though it's grey market items (which isn't illegal in itself). Usually these money find their way back to Ubisoft anyway (again: unless they are stolen or connected to fraud).
I appears that the way Ubisoft is handling this is the moronic way. Ubisoft should ask themselves "do we really want people to go back to pirating our games this badly?"
People actually pay a lot of money for their games even though it's grey market items (which isn't illegal in itself). Usually these money find their way back to Ubisoft anyway (again: unless they are stolen or connected to fraud).