Subnautica developer claims key reseller G2A owes them $300,000

Subnautica developer Unknown Worlds has asked grey market key reseller G2A to pay them $300,000 in restitution. The developer claims the amount represents the $30,000 it had to spend to cover chargebacks from fraudulent credit card purchases of Natural Selection 2. G2A had previously promised to pay 10x the amount of any costs lost via fraudulent purchases on their site, as long as there’s proof such a thing occurred.

Charlie Cleveland of Unknown Worlds bullishly believes he’s owed that money, popping up on GamesIndustry.biz to support the current swell of developers who feel that G2A are profiting from their misery. After publisher Mike Rose of No More Robots stated that he’d rather players pirate their games than buy them through G2A, Cleveland agreed: He said: “Mike Rose is right - it IS better for players to pirate than buy a key off G2A. We paid $30,000 to deal with credit card chargebacks because of G2A.

“So, G2A, if you really want to put your money where your mouth is, you will now pay us (Unknown Worlds) $300,000.”

After Rose's claims, G2A had promised to build a key blocking system that would enable developers on their platform to block sales of ill-gotten keys, but that seems to be floundering. The software has yet to be developed, with G2A stating it would only begin developing the system when 100 developers signed up to use the system, and the current count is at 19. G2A has extended the deadline for sign-up from August 15th to after Gamescom next week so they can talk to developers in person, but it does seem that their self-imposed limit will sink their proposal. They could just build it, but they claim it’s expensive and time-consuming to do so - a claim Cleveland calls "a load of crap."

If Unknown Worlds provides proof that the chargeback costs incurred were a consequence of illegitimate sales via G2A, it will be interesting to see G2A's response.