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Banned
I advice you to check the full article for tweets and videos. It's worth it.
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Controversial PC game key reseller has endured a PR nightmare in recent weeks. Today, the nightmare got worse.
During a session at the Reboot conference in Croatia today, a representative of G2A - which has been accused of operating a protection racket - defended the company's divisive policies, and faced tough questions from an audience made up largely of developers.
The session, chaired by Dan Pearson of Eurogamer sister site Gamesindustry.biz, began in combative mood, with G2A senior account manager Mario Mirek insisting his company did not operate within a grey market. This, as you'd expect, did not go down well.
The tough line of questioning continued, with Mirek reiterating many of the points his company made in a recent statement issued after Borderlands company Gearbox broke off a business partnership with G2A following a public complaint by YouTuber Total Biscuit about a G2A-exclusive edition of the Bulletstorm remaster.
The session went downhill as the audience was given the opportunity to ask questions. It's fair to say Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell got stuck in.
But the standout moment of the panel was a question from Bithell that crystallised the general feeling that G2A simply does not have the interests of developers at heart. Here's his question (we've captured the exchange in the video, below):
"You charge the customers who want to avoid fraudulent stuff with the Shield system. You ask us to contribute our time and energy to detect fraud on your system in exchange for 10 per cent. I'm interested what the 750 people - 40 per cent of whom are women - are doing to earn the 90 per cent of the transaction?"
"There are people working in marketing...," was Mirek's response.
"Is it mainly marketing?"
"No. IT and security."
"Good job."
Although Mirek doesn't commit to any new policy on the part of G2A in response to questions, or explain existing policies in any meaningful way, it's worth watching the session to get a sense of the animosity many within the development community hold for the company. Clearly, G2A still has much work to do.
Lock if old.