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dex3108 · Jan 25, 2015

Based on this article

http://www.gamersftw.co.uk/ubisoft-removing-games-uplay-librarybought-3rd-party/

And Ubi Forums:

lashman said:
19 & 21 said:

Great question. Also, is there a source for this outside of that article?

Click to expand...

Concerning Far Cry 4 removal from our libraries - Open letter

Games bought on G2A and similar unauthorized key resellers are being removed from UPlay Library over the weekend.

Kezen · Jan 25, 2015

People buying from those sleezy sites deserve what is coming to them. It's plain obvious that anyone should avoid doing that.

BibiMaghoo · Jan 25, 2015

Wow, well fuck them then.

Kezen said:
People buying from those sleezy sites deserve what is coming to them. It's plain obvious that anyone should avoid doing that.

G2A is just an auction site for keys though right?

badb0y · Jan 25, 2015

Kezen said:
People buying from those sleezy sites deserve what is coming to them. It's plain obvious that anyone should avoid doing that.

Why? Why should companies be the only ones who are able to reap the benefits of globalization?

Jonnax · Jan 25, 2015

Kezen said:
People buying from those sleezy sites deserve what is coming to them. It's plain obvious that anyone should avoid doing that.

Why not give this a read?http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.ph...removal-from-our-libraries-Open-letter-Forums

mtodavk · Jan 25, 2015

Kezen said:
People buying from those sleezy sites deserve what is coming to them. It's plain obvious that anyone should avoid doing that.

Care to elaborate on that? I don't really think there's anything wrong with trying to find a good deal...

Now, if those keys are somehow stolen, then it's a different story...

Zatoth · Jan 25, 2015

Heard that of some people on a another message board who lost their uplay games they bought at G2A.

mtodavk said:
Care to elaborate on that? I don't really think there's anything wrong with trying to find a good deal...

Now, if those keys are somehow stolen, then it's a different story...

From last year:

https://twitter.com/devolverdigital/statuses/466577590606520320

Jawmuncher · Jan 25, 2015

I wonder how they know which keys are from G2A.
Wonder if there was a key leak or something.

Nydus · Jan 25, 2015

Kezen said:
People buying from those sleezy sites deserve what is coming to them. It's plain obvious that anyone should avoid doing that.

i use g2a because they sponsor a lot of streamers. i guess this sponsorship is over now and 40 down the drain. i also dont see myself rebuying those games or buying another ubisoft title without a heavy discount.

Kezen · Jan 25, 2015

BibiMaghoo said:
G2A is just an auction site for keys though right?

It's a site selling stolen keys, fucking publishers and developpers in the process. Avoid at all costs. Many intelligent people have already warned anyone and everyone about this site, it is widely known they are barely legal and use every dodgy tactics to sell keys at a price well below everyone else.

badb0y said:
Why? Why should companies be the only ones who are able to reap the benefits of globalization?

Jonnax said:
Why not give this a read?http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.ph...removal-from-our-libraries-Open-letter-Forums

mtodavk said:
Care to elaborate on that? I don't really think there's anything wrong with trying to find a good deal...

Now, if those keys are somehow stolen, then it's a different story...

Read above. I can't feel sorry for anyone falling into such an obvious trap. Their desperate search for the lowest possible key led them to contemplate supporting fraudulent sites.

iNvid02 · Jan 25, 2015

thats scummy, they should leave whats already been done but prevent future activations if they want to clamp down on this stuff

Nokterian · Jan 25, 2015

Like TB said.

Reminder, places like G2A, CJS, Kinguin etc are UNAUTHORISED grey market resellers and as a result some of their keys may not be legitimate.

https://twitter.com/Totalbiscuit/status/559294853918760960

Please do not believe that just because G2A threw out a bunch of sponsorships to streamers that they are above board. They are not.

https://twitter.com/Totalbiscuit/status/559297705525379072

And looking at how a youtuber like Levelcapgaming is promoting G2A..well that is a huge mistake he did. Don't buy from shady websites like them.

Lechuq · Jan 25, 2015

mtodavk said:
Care to elaborate on that? I don't really think there's anything wrong with trying to find a good deal...

G2A and most key resellers operates in a grey area, buying key from cheaper country (mostly eastern europe) and selling them at a discounted price.

But you have no way to know for sure the origin of the key (stolen/from a bundle/legit) so buying from them you must be prepare to have it removed at some point.

j0hnny_385 · Jan 25, 2015

No words...

Nzyme32 · Jan 25, 2015

IvanI said:
No words...

Or rather they are right to do it when the keys are illegitimate, as plenty of other pubs/devs have done against keys from places such as g2a

CozMick · Jan 25, 2015

Good, how dare people get digital content cheaper from an illegitimate vendor when model citizens like myself buy from official vendors for extortionate prices.

badb0y · Jan 25, 2015

If the keys are stolen and are being removed that's fine.

If the keys are just bought at the grey market and resold then I see no problem with it.

sueil · Jan 25, 2015

I'll never get tired of watching twitch streamers do all kinds of mental gymnastics to defend g2a when someone points out they are shady as fuck. Seems like half the people on twitch have g2a links in their streams.

Kezen · Jan 25, 2015

Nzyme32 said:
Or rather they are right to do it when the keys are illegitimate, as plenty of other pubs/devs have done against keys from places such as g2a

In that case it's the right thing to do.

Zatoth · Jan 25, 2015

Unknown Worlds (Natural Selection, Subnautica) also had a post on this topic that showed how they got screwed by unauthorized key resellers, two years ago.
http://unknownworlds.com/blog/beware-shady-key-resellers-and-discount-steam-keys/

BibiMaghoo · Jan 25, 2015

Kezen said:
It's a site selling stolen keys, fucking publishers and developpers in the process. Avoid at all costs. Many intelligent people have already warned anyone and everyone about this site, it is widely known they are barely legal and use every dodgy tactics to sell keys at a price well below everyone else.

I wasn't aware this was the case. My understanding is that they are essentially, an Ebay for keys. I can sell a key on that site, as can you. Would Ubisoft remove all keys bought through Ebay? Because they have just as much chance of being stolen / unauthorised.

deoee · Jan 25, 2015

Is only Ubi doing this kind of stuff?

Alessandro · Jan 25, 2015

Why not proceed in legal actions against the retailers involved instead?

Consumers paid for their products and there's no way to tell if they bought them knowing the risks.

Mr.Miyamoto · Jan 25, 2015

Oh, geez. I've been buying 90% of my PC games there because of the super weak Canadian dollar and how everything digital costs like $15-$20 more than it should now.

Edit: My games still seem to be fine, this is troubling news for what I thought was just a site with good deals. They would always save me like $20, but it never felt illegally cheap, or cheap enough for me to think something was wrong.

Robin64 · Jan 25, 2015

Okay, cool, but what about innocent consumers that just looked around on the internet for a good deal and have no idea about the source of their key? Punishing the wrong people here.

Zatoth · Jan 25, 2015

Alessandro said:
Why not proceed in legal actions against the retailers involved instead?

Consumers paid for their products and there's no way to tell if they bought them knowing the risks.

They are registered in Hong Kong. Don't think it is easy (possible?) to get to them.

j0hnny_385 · Jan 25, 2015

I bought several high profile AAA games from G2PLAY (a division/subsidiary of Kinguin, AFAIK).
DA:I (Origin)
AC:IV, AC:U, Watch Dogs, Splinter Cell: Blacklist (Uplay)

All working, all present and accounted for (for now).

Bought them for 30 EUR a piece (give or take), day one.

AFAIK, G2PLAY operates in a way of buying physical games in bulk (which all have Steam/Origin/Uplay codes these days anyway) and then they sell you the keys.
Is it legal or not, frankly I don't care. I know they're not authorized resellers ala GMG.

Never had any issue with this, and no, I don't plan to pay 60 EUR day one for a game on Steam/Uplay/Origin.
If G2PLAY falls through, I simply won't buy these games day one, I'll wait for a GOTY ed./Steam sale and get them then. ¯\_(&#12484

_/¯

Really interested to see how this resolves.

Alessandro · Jan 25, 2015

traube said:
They are registered in Hong Kong. Don't think it is easy (possible?) to get to them.

And removing products that consumers have paid for is easier? Companies definitely have the right to defend themselves against this kind of practices but not at the expense of the final user.

Nydus · Jan 25, 2015

Lechuq said:
G2A and most key resellers operates in a grey area, buying key from cheaper country (mostly eastern europe) and selling them at a discounted price.

But you have no way to know for sure the origin of the key (stolen/from a bundle/legit) so buying from them you must be prepare to have it removed at some point.

thats not strictly true. its not 2010 where you have global keys for everyone. the keys from cheaper regions often come without english language and need either a vpn to unlock, an english language "patch" or even both. if an AAA key has native EU languages and needs no vpn bs it is a key for the eu market. if a key is really stolen it a) wont work to begin with or b) will get revoked shortly after.

this whole situation just looks very anticonsumer to me and like an empowerment to pirates.

it mabye well within ubisofts rights to do so, but im also gladly in the right not to buy anything from them in the future. (and no this doesnt mean ill pirate it, backlog for years)

Zafir · Jan 25, 2015

Nokterian said:
And looking at how a youtuber like Levelcapgaming is promoting G2A..well that is a huge mistake he did. Don't buy from shady websites like them.

A lot of streamers are sponsored by them. Kinguin as well have started sponsoring streamers now too.

The issue with both G2A and Kinguin is they're marketplaces, so anyone can be selling on them. Which makes it even harder to know where they get their keys from. At least some cd key sites (Gamekeysnow as an example) show you pictures of retail boxes trying to prove they weren't stolen(though they're still illigitimate in the eyes of Valve).

Zatoth · Jan 25, 2015

Alessandro said:
And removing products that consumers have paid for is easier? Companies definitely have the right to defend themselves against this kind of practices but not at the expense of the final user.

Check out this link I posted above:
http://unknownworlds.com/blog/beware-shady-key-resellers-and-discount-steam-keys/

The company even had to pay fees because someone bought keys from their site with stolen credit cards.

In that case they would have paid for the key the customer received.

This may not affect big companies too much, but for smaller ones this can be a big hit.

heringer · Jan 25, 2015

Is nuuvem.com.br legit?

Zafir · Jan 25, 2015

heringer said:
Is nuuvem.com.br legit?

Yeah, they're an authorised seller for Brazil.

crimsonheadGCN · Jan 25, 2015

heringer said:
Is nuuvem.com.br legit?

Yes, it's an official reseller.

pelican · Jan 25, 2015

Kezen said:
People buying from those sleezy sites deserve what is coming to them. It's plain obvious that anyone should avoid doing that.

This is a rather naive statement.

You are assuming that customers on these sites would even know they are dodgy in the first place. Plus, if there is a problem Ubi should be going after the distributor not the customer who has purchased the titles in good faith.

Klyka · Jan 25, 2015

IvanI said:
I bought several high profile AAA games from G2PLAY (a division/subsidiary of Kinguin, AFAIK).
DA:I (Origin)
AC:IV, AC:U, Watch Dogs, Splinter Cell: Blacklist (Uplay)

All working, all present and accounted for (for now).

Bought them for 30 EUR a piece (give or take), day one.

AFAIK, G2PLAY operates in a way of buying physical games in bulk (which all have Steam/Origin/Uplay codes these days anyway) and then they sell you the keys.
Is it legal or not, frankly I don't care. I know they're not authorized resellers ala GMG.

Never had any issue with this, and no, I don't plan to pay 60 EUR day one for a game on Steam/Uplay/Origin.
If G2PLAY falls through, I simply won't buy these games day one, I'll wait for a GOTY ed./Steam sale and get them then. ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

Really interested to see how this resolves.

Yep, I have bought basically every PC game of the last years on G2Play.
Never had a single issue.

Nokterian · Jan 25, 2015

Zafir said:
A lot of streamers are sponsored by them. Kinguin as well have started sponsoring streamers now too.

The issue with both G2A and Kinguin is they're marketplaces, so anyone can be selling on them. Which makes it even harder to know where they get their keys from. At least some cd key sites (Gamekeysnow as an example) show you pictures of retail boxes trying to prove they weren't stolen(though they're still illigitimate in the eyes of Valve).

Oh boy this is pretty dangerous territory there stepping in.

heringer · Jan 25, 2015

Zafir said:
Yeah, they're an authorised seller for Brazil.

crimsonheadGCN said:
Yes, it's an official reseller.

Thanks! I've bought a couple of games over there, glad they are ok.

Isurus · Jan 25, 2015

If you buy from unauthorized sellers or the gray market, unfortunately, this is the risk you run. You see this type of thing in other industries too. For example, there is a large gray market for photography gear made by Canon. However, if you purchase from those types of sellers, Canon offers very limited, if any, support. Not exactly the same thing (as it is a physical good as opposed to digital), but the concept is similar.

Often times when you purchase something for a price below the typical market price, you run this type of risk. Is what it is.

TheLegendOfMart · Jan 25, 2015

Isurus said:
If you buy from unauthorized sellers or the gray market, unfortunately, this is the risk you run. You see this type of thing in other industries too. For example, there is a large gray market for photography gear made by Canon. However, if you purchase from those types of sellers, Canon offers very limited, if any, support. Not exactly the same thing (as it is a physical good as opposed to digital), but the concept is similar.

Often times when you purchase something for a price below the typical market price, you run this type of risk. Is what it is.

Yeah but Canon doesn't update your camera to block the use of them or takes the item off you.

Wulfram · Jan 25, 2015

heringer said:
Is nuuvem.com.br legit?

Nuuvem is legit. But the terms and conditions require that you live in south america, so if you buy from elsewhere then that isn't so legit.

Alessandro · Jan 25, 2015

traube said:
Check out this link I posted above:
http://unknownworlds.com/blog/beware-shady-key-resellers-and-discount-steam-keys/

The company even had to pay fees because someone bought keys from their site with stolen credit card.

In that case they would have paid for the key the customer received.

This may not affect big companies too much, but for smaller ones this can be a big hit.

I think they bought in bulk and then made a charge back, the press release doesn't mention stolen cards (I'm being pedantic).

The main argument here is that companies shouldn't recoup the losses with the final users but with the company that sold the keys. Shops already received their money, by deactivating keys you're just hurting the one who already paid.

CosmicQueso · Jan 25, 2015

Jonnax said:
Why not give this a read?http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.ph...removal-from-our-libraries-Open-letter-Forums

I read it... what am I supposed to take away from that?

wumster3000 · Jan 25, 2015

If it violates their terms and services, then they should remove them. They have every right to do so.

If it doesn't, then they should leave it alone.

kswiston · Jan 25, 2015

Those talking about "benefiting from globalization", I think it is pretty obvious that India, Russia, and other territories only get heavily discounted games as an effort to make in-roads to markets that are traditionally havens for piracy. These games are budgeted based on launch price being $60 (or the EU equivalent). Companies allow a small subset of sales to go for much less, because it is better than everyone stealing the title in those regions.

Region locking sucks. Some regions get screwed out of certain titles due to censorship and other factors, and who doesn't love saving money. However, everyone getting what is supposed to be a $60 title for $15-25 is not a realistic option. If region locking became illegal tomorrow, publishers would just stop selling titles at discounted rates in developing markets, and the long term growth of the industry would be stifled in much of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

If you don't want to spend $60 on some AAA title, wait 3-6 months and get it at $20-40.

samn · Jan 25, 2015

It would make more sense customer-service/PR-wise to let them off with a warning.

Visualante2 · Jan 25, 2015

Kezen said:
People buying from those sleezy sites deserve what is coming to them. It's plain obvious that anyone should avoid doing that.

Yes blame the customers for flaws in a publishers distribution network.

Heigic · Jan 25, 2015

I don't know why G2A is advertised by the majority of top twitch streamers when it is known to be selling illegitimate keys. Even Cloud9 is sponsored by them.

BlackBuzzard · Jan 25, 2015

Sorry i don't plan to pay full price for games. If they want to stop this they need to price their games better.

Klyka · Jan 25, 2015

Heigic said:
I don't know why G2A is advertised by the majority of top twitch streamers when it is known to be selling illegitimate keys. Even Cloud9 is sponsored by them.

Because they get tons of money from it.
You make like, what, 2 or more from every referral? That adds up.

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