G2A Just Admitted to Selling Stolen Game Keys

G2A is notorious for shady practices for selling stolen keys. This hurt the indie market most of all as stolen keys that were shutdown would cost the developer time and money in customer service. G2A was quick to a response saying it would pay back 10 times the money lost in chargebacks to any developers who can prove that the company was selling stolen keys. Well, a developer has done that, and G2A is actually paying out what they promised.

As reported by Eurogamer.net, developer Wube Software was able to prove that G2A was selling stolen keys for their game Factorio. The company proved that 321 keys were stolen and 123 were sold through their site. The company then repaid the developer around $40,000 because of this.

In a blog post G2A stated:

Wube reported to G2A a list of 321 keys that it believed had been sold online illegitimately. After assessing a number of independent auditing companies and finding none that would meet our agreed requirements, Wube and G2A decided that G2A should proceed with an internal investigation. This investigation confirmed that 198 of Wube’s keys had been sold via its Marketplace between March 2016 – June 2016. It is assumed by both parties that the remaining 123 illegitimate keys were sold via other online marketplaces or other online stores.

Per the terms of the pledge made in the blog post here, G2A has agreed to compensate Wube ten times the value of any bank-initiated refund costs that Factorio paid in relation to each of the 198 illegitimate keys sold via its Marketplace.

The following paragraph made G2A seem like the victim.

When we launched this offer, we wanted to send a clear message to the gaming community that fraud hurts all parties. As we spell out in this blog, fraud directly hurts individuals who buy illegitimate keys, it hurts gaming developers and it ultimately hurts G2A because we are forced – as the transaction facilitator – to cover costs related to the sale. We wanted to amplify that message and capture people’s attention, so pledged to compensate developers ten times the value of any chargeback fees they incurred, despite the fact that we had nothing to with the illegal acquisition of these keys.

The gaming developer community has our solidarity and sympathies on this issue, and we want to continue building bridges. With our main point being made, about the seriousness of fraud in the industry, from now on we will compensate developers the full value of any chargeback fees they incurred for any keys sold via G2A Marketplace, if they are able to prove they were illegitimate.

For years G2A has been stating that selling stolen keys were impossible, even going as far as to get sites to write sponsored articles that reinforced this. 

Adam Siddiqui,
Managing Editor, NoobFeed
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