The makers of Darkwood [official site] have uploaded a full version of their wonderfully dreadful new horror game to a torrent site. Acid Wizard Studio say it’s for people who want to play Darkwood but don’t have enough money to buy it, giving them a “safe” version to download. They also hope that this will dissuade people buying the game from key resellers, who they call a “cancer that is leeching off this industry”. Blimey. Read the rest of this entry »
Bulletstormers Gearbox have dropped out of a deal to sell their remastered shooter on G2A.com, following a spat over the key reseller’s business practices. They were selling Bulletstorm: Full Clip [official site] and its expensive, statue-sporting collector’s editions through the site but following complaints and a backlash focusing on the reseller’s less-than-wholesome history of complaints, that has fallen apart.
Last week we saw that Gearbox seemed to listen to those complaints and had openly given G2A a list of demands, including better protection against fraud for both developers and customers. Gearbox have since decided those demands were not met and have now cut ties with the reseller completely, taking their game off the shelf. Obviously, it’s more complex than all this. If you really want to dive into this slurry pit of videogame distribution, come with me and I’ll try my best to explain.
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Days after launching an exclusive physical ‘Collector’s Edition’ of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition [official site] on key reseller marketplace G2A, Gearbox Software have reeled and demanded that the controversial store change its practises. Gearbox’s list of demands for G2A includes stopping selling fraud protection as an extra, and letting developers find and remove fraudulently-bought keys on G2A. If not, Gearbox will… do something. The demands sound sensible, given that G2A have long been accused of enabling shady shenanigans. However, even the briefest of Googlings before launching a high-price exclusive edition — costing around £226 — with G2A would have uncovered all of those complaints. None of these problems are secrets. Read the rest of this entry »
Last week G2A, a sort of eBay but for video games keys, and tinyBuild, the publishers of Speedrunners and others, had a bit of a tussle after tinyBuild accused G2A of facilitating the sale of $450,000 worth of fraudulent game keys. Both sides exchanged demands, and today G2A seems to have pulled back on their stance and is now rolling out a program that will, in part, offer developers and publishers up to 10 percent royalties on each sale of their game. But is that going to be enough?
Ubisoft have returned Far Cry 4 and other games to the accounts of folks who’d unknowingly bought game keys from resellers selling a load obtained “using fraudulent credit card information.”
Cast your mind back to January, when Ubisoft up and removed games from people’s Uplay accounts without notice or warning, only explaining later that the keys were iffy, bought from Origin with wonky details. Ubisoft’s initial stance was that folks should seek a refund from the reseller who sold them the key, but they’ve changed their minds. Folks who activated their iffy key and had started playing now have their game back.
Ubisoft last week deactivated copies of games including Far Cry 4 and Watch Underscore Dogs for a number of folks who had bought them from game key resellers, later briefly explaining the keys had been “fraudulently obtained”. Now they’ve said a bit more. The keys in question were bought from EA’s digital store Origin with fraudulent credit card details then sold on by resellers, Ubi have explained. EA confirmed this, and have also removed Ubi’s games from Origin to somehow “protect against further fraudulent purchases”, which seems a bit weird. Ubi are directing folks to their resellers to get refunds, and at least one plans compensation.
