-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
[Rumor] Ubisoft is removing games from UPlay bought from unauthorized retailers
- Thread starter dex3108
- Start date
Pyramid head
Banned
Ubisoft would be in trouble if their consumers bothered thinking before buying.
What do you mean more money? It would be the first time they see any money.
And if they are storefront that was defrauded then a legitimate purchase would just offset costs they already had to cover with credit card companies.
Schreckstoff
Banned
I didn't say 50% I said 25% but if an official seller like steam occasionally reduces a price by 25% why should you 2nd guess say 40 or 50% discount from a third party seller.
Honestly, I think quite a few streamers don't realise themselves. They probably jumped on the band wagon as many others were.
That seems like a lot of leg work.
I'm not cyber CC thief, but I would think that there's a better racket to maximize value out of a stolen CC # than video game keys.
It seems much much more plausible that this is exploiting regional pricing. A lot of these sites have operated for many years. You'd think the crime well would run dry or at the least not have a continually available stock of every new release on release day.
Why isn't regional pricing the most logical explanation? The prices line up almost perfectly with the lowest steam or retail prices of games in developing economies. You'd think if they were all stolen they'd just corner the market with $9 GTA5 keys.
Publishers have taken large steps to block abusing regional pricing.
Ubisoft and EA limits languages based on region.
Steam limits activation, playing and/or languages (depending on how publishers chooses to protect).
I'd imagine this has contributed to increase of 2 and 3.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
You know we have no confirmation whatsoever where or not Ubisoft is investigating and pursuing the resellers who purchased illegal keys. That being said, customers who use these sites are completely innocent considering the means they used to purchase a key.
Statements like this add absolutely nothing to the discussion whatsoever. Get out with that nonsense.
CharmingCharlie
Member
I mean going after the resellers would cost them a fuck load of money but just disabling the keys means the consumer has to go and buy the game again which would mean Ubisoft get money instead of having to spend money in litigation against these resellers.
They are taking their fucking sweet time about it then. These resellers have been around for years.
We had a GAFfer that confirmed to the administrator to have been defrauded and had his stolen keys sold on other platforms.
But continue to think this is just regional pricing and Ubisoft, Unknown Worlds and Devolver are the bad guys here.
The buyer just goes to the seller that his key was disabled .They even have disclaimer that if that happens we'll cover for you because they know they engage in shady shit.
And have been banned on GAF for years for exactly what happens to people that get the access to their games revoked.
hammertomb
Banned
What else could ubisoft have done in this case?
They obviously cannot shut down the site.
They obviously cannot shut down the site.
I'm biased toward thinking it's regional pricing, but I'm open to other explanations.
Do you have a link or google search terms for me to find one of those reports?
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
All of the above actually! They buy CDs in Russia in bulk for shit cheap, get rid of the CDs and sell the keys instead. Some are stolen, and some are pricing exploit.
That said, it's quite hard to get into retail partnership with the developers/publishers and get crazy discounts so they resort to this. However, the developers are in the right to cancel the keys (sadly?) as it clearly violates the terms of services.
So it's good for them to regulate the market. They have cheap games for countries that can't afford it and not so cheap for those that can.
Bought a couple of copies of the the Reaper of Souls expansion for me and my son when they were on sale for $20 on G2A, didn't realize the site was shady, because yeah, looking at it, they've had what looked like sponsored sales. That's all I've bought, guess that'll be all I buy.
I hardly own anything on UPlay, just FC3, 4 and a couple of old Assassin's Creed games.
I hardly own anything on UPlay, just FC3, 4 and a couple of old Assassin's Creed games.
25% off on AAA preorders/new releases rarely happens (and if it does, it's typically because a retailer like Greenmangaming offers you a discount code on a variety of full priced software). 50% off on AAA preorders/new releases pretty much never happens legitimately.
How does this differ from buying boxed games on eBay from an unknown seller?
Shining Sunshine
Banned
Wow G2A isn't legit?
I didn't buy anything from them, but this is all interesting news.
I didn't buy anything from them, but this is all interesting news.
Schreckstoff
Banned
G2A is a marketplace, some of the resellers on G2A aren't legit some of them are.
CosmicQueso
Member
The consumer should blame the reseller too.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
Not different; it's the same thing and those keys may get removed as well if they were bought illegally.
Be careful I suppose.
Bony Manifesto
Member
That's still grey importing unless you reside in Brazil though.
But people don't make blanket statements about all games from ebay being stolen and shopping on ebay contributes to game theft.
If a key get's banned, it should elicit the same reaction people would have if Ubi could ban a boxed copy of a console game that was purchased on ebay.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
I agree. It's a very grey area and it's very confusing but that's the digital world. It's the same as songs that you can buy for 10 cents from Russian websites but it's frowned upon by the industry.
Kurt Russell
Member
Not really, it's not legit at all. Legit resellers are sites like Steam, GMG, Nuuvem, GetGamesGO, etc.
whos to say what is legitimate and what isnt?
BibiMaghoo
Member
I think actually G2A could help out immensely by simply removing anonymous users. Like Ebay, force a reseller to have an account shown as the seller. This would enable Ubisoft to go after the reseller rather than the site and the customer.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Again, there's no indication that they're not doing this, but obviously they shouldn't allow illegal keys. Especially since it doesn't seem to be a bulk ban but only for those with illegal keys.
Dongs Macabre
aka Daedalos42
Legitimate sites are authorized to sell the games. G2A isn't.
I don't know about g2a, but Kinguin has seller accounts for every key you buy from them. Just like ebay.
And how do you know they are not also doing this?
Canis lupus
Member
What a shitty move if true, punishing gamers instead of those that sell the keys. My mind is blown they can just remove a game from your library and Ubisoft would actually do this. They should look into how their keys end up with unauthorized sellers in the first place.
Then gaf is illegal? We have a marketplace here where people sell keys as well.
Then gaf is illegal? We have a marketplace here where people sell keys as well.
Nuuvem and GetGamesGO don't look any less shady then G2A just browsing the sites.
I've actually never bought anything at Nuuvem because I assumed that having to right click to translate probably meant not everything was completely above board.
If Ubisoft or any other company is going to lay down the hammer on this, they should make it abundantly clear ahead of time which sites do and don't make the cut.
because what they have done is fucked over end users?
look at who is partnered with the site
Steam GMG nuuvem are all partners with Ubisoft and have ubisoft badge on there page. G2A on the other hand does not
Orniletter
Banned
We are dangerously close to piracy excuses here.
These are basically auction sites, so who are they going to go after? G2A will likely claim they have no way of knowing a key is legit or not and insist that they dont endorse illegally obtained product. It'd be like going after torrent sites. The unfortunate truth is that the more effective approach is to revoke the copies and discourage people from dealing with those sites.
AzureRonin
Member
Just because a company has made these demarcations does not automatically make reselling keys illicit.
There is a risk when you are purchasing from private resellers, and it's understandable that Ubisoft won't support keys that are not purchased from a reseller they have authorized, however that does not make the act of purchasing keys from private resellers "disgusting" or "scummy"
but that doesnt make any sense, because if I bought a game, I don't need anyones authorization to sell it.
if you attack me or my buyer over that, thats fucked up.
Pyramid head
Banned
Relax. It was a joke, not a statement. Low hanging fruit and all that.
Seems pretty dumb to turn customers into people who'll likely never buy from them again though; it's not like Ubisoft don't already give people enough reason to make that choice without punishing customers for trying to get a good deal.
Since when do sellers of keys need authorisation by Valve?
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
1.We should wait for official confirmation about whether or not they're looking into the site itself and also consmers should also look into the site and take it up with the reseller they got their now banned key from.
2.What usually happens to users who sell keys/codes/physical games to other users which turn out to not be legitimate?
Are you implicating ebay as well sir?
scoobidoo112
Member
And once again, people come out of the woodwork and bend over backwards to blame this on consumers. I can't say it surprises me anymore. Where is the proof that these banned keys were stolen?
Chittagong
Gold Member
I quickly misread the title as 'Ubisoft is removing Uplay from games' and my heart jumped of joy
CharmingCharlie
Member
Someone must be in charge of the Auction site then go after them, they are facilitating the distribution of stolen goods. But like I said it is much easier for Ubisoft and Co to go after the consumer and what's more there will be plenty of people cheer leading and whooping whilst they do it.