Buyers usually walk away satisfied having spent bottom dollar on a game they were interested in.

It’s no wonder why tinyBuild argues that G2A profits off the misfortune of publishers and developers. In its case, tens of thousands of cd-keys for Punch Club, Party Hard, and SpeedRunners were stolen and immediately published on G2A, leading to quick sales and valuable transaction funds for G2A.

G2A is an official sponsor of many professional gaming teams and events. Instead of addressing the issue, G2A has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorships involving Twitch streamers and professional eSport events. While the obvious response is to open a lawsuit, such proceedings have immense costs and unsatisfactory success rates. It’s a cycle that has become increasingly prevalent and is killing small developers and resellers alike. Meanwhile, the thief will have already sold the cd-key through G2A to a buyer who was oblivious to where the cd-key came from. The credit card company will cancel the transaction, and the reseller will lose the money and the cd-key.

Put them up onto G2A and sell them at half the retail priceĮventually a credit card chargeback is filed.

Go to a bundle/3rd party key reseller and buy a ton of game keys.

Get ahold of a database of stolen credit cards on the darkweb.

Within the post tinyBuild explained that merchants on G2A have been able to make upward of $4,000 per month using the following method: Two days ago indie developer tinyBuild published a large blog post on its site titled “G2A sold $450k worth of our game keys”. G2A’s storefront is full of low-priced games. Unsurprisingly, this week it yet again finds itself thrust into the spotlight. It’s made millions off providing a platform for these transactions, earning bad press in the process. These sales typically include transactions of cd-keys acquired through various means of theft, most commonly credit card theft. A significant portion of its revenue stream comes from taxation of what many call “black market sales”. This has been achieved through deregulation of transactions and sellers. In the case of G2A, its core competency is affordability. These websites have quickly become responsible for millions of dollars in cd-key transactions per year, spurred by low price points that major platforms like Steam and GOG haven’t been able to compete with. In response to market demand, cd-key market websites such as G2A and Kinguin have popped up. Many have grown used to paying a minimum for games as the industry standard $59.99 MSRP has become increasingly less attractive. For many PC gamers, getting good deals on games is a life-long effort.

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