Hmm... I have no email. I don't know if that's good or bad news.
Thanks - I hadn't seen that.
GreenManGaming selling unauthorized Ubi/Acti/WB keys
- Thread starter nynt9
- Start date
Hmm... I have no email. I don't know if that's good or bad news.
Thanks - I hadn't seen that.
YianGaruga
Banned
GMG now lists where their keys are coming from on a game by game basis
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...g-will-now-tell-you-where-game-keys-come-from
The facebook post
https://www.facebook.com/GreenManGaming/posts/10153832262152216?_rdr=p
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...g-will-now-tell-you-where-game-keys-come-from
The facebook post
https://www.facebook.com/GreenManGaming/posts/10153832262152216?_rdr=p
Awesome! They did basically what we wanted them to. Good on them. Updating OP.
Ok, that is awesome.
Wow. I guess they are officially embracing being both an authorised and unauthorised retailer. Good for them.
This middle ground is probably going to be a growth area over the next few years, although I expected to see it more in the other direction, ie retailers who previously sold games without authorisation doing deals with devs and publishers in some cases.
I think the industry will tolerate it, much like how many publishers still deal with retailers who aggressively engage in trade of preowned games.
My primary concerns with how GMG were doing it was the lack of transparency. Hopefully that will no longer be an issue.
GMG should offer refunds for mis-sold games. They sold many keys under the false pretence they were authorised to do so by the publisher.
This middle ground is probably going to be a growth area over the next few years, although I expected to see it more in the other direction, ie retailers who previously sold games without authorisation doing deals with devs and publishers in some cases.
I think the industry will tolerate it, much like how many publishers still deal with retailers who aggressively engage in trade of preowned games.
My primary concerns with how GMG were doing it was the lack of transparency. Hopefully that will no longer be an issue.
GMG should offer refunds for mis-sold games. They sold many keys under the false pretence they were authorised to do so by the publisher.
Someone should do a price comparison of the games they sell and look at whether the "authorized retailer" games are usually significantly cheaper than the "from pub" games and whether they correlate with cheap-region prices, out of curiosity.
This also goes as a crow-eating point against those who said the subreddit is whatever and they shouldn't do anything to appease them, GMG basically changed their core policy to appease the subreddit.
edit: after some brief digging, most of their "too good to be true" prices are from "authorized distributors" and not from the pubs. So as I suspected people who said they just sell from the pub and eat the cost were wrong. That would be a crazy way to do business and wouldn't be profitable.
The funny thing is, good second hand "unauthorized" deals are mostly going to be only on new releases. The mainline sales where things go 75% off and such all come from the publisher, which is why gmg hasn't had good deals on Ubi or Activision games in any of their sales. That's probably also why gmg didn't think this was a big deal, as it likely affects maybe a couple dozen of all their titles, if even that.
Sound right to me, was inline with my expectations following these revelations.
Weirdly, even though it says they're an authorized vendor for EA on their about page, their Battlefront keys aren't from EA. So under their previous policies this was extremely misleading. At least now we know which keys we can buy with a clear conscience and which keys we'll have to take GMG's word that they buy from a legit vendor. (Personally due to how this all developed and how GMG tried to bury it I still don't 100% trust their process of getting keys from other vendors because they're too vague, but that's just me and anyone else can feel free to trust them)
You should probably read the updates. Literally right in the post above yours I showed that some keys they sell form other sources even if they have a deal with the pub too.
I saw this post on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GameDealsM...ng_they_will_name_the_source_of_every/cx4mv92
I don't necessarily agree with the speculation part, but the difference in delivery time between publisher keys and third party keys is interesting. And here's an amusing comment from Reddit:
VibratingDonkey
Member
This is certainly a positive step.
Doubt there's anything remotely illegal or properly grungy going on with the keys sourced from authorized distributors, but technical or moral complications could arise, so I'd just rather not. And now with this change I can make an active, informed decision to avoid those.
I like GMG, and I believe them when they say they get their games from authorised distributors. I'd buy more from them but I always seem to have problems when it comes to the buying part. They have a weird setup that always complains about how I'm getting my information wrong, or it just fails in another way.
What exactly do you mean by these terms? It sounds like you're still taking a shot at them for doing something illicit.
Was there ever anything morally questionable about buying the keys from someone who got them from the publisher rather than them buying directly from the pub other than not being pleasing to the publisher? Is there evidence they have been doing cross-region buying to exploit regional pricing differences? From my understanding the codes have always been from the proper regions. Please correct me if wrong.
I mean, I get that it's comforting to have direct publisher support should issues arise, but I think the implication that there was something morally reprehensible about this is a little over the top.
What is your stance on used games or people selling keys that came with their hardware bundles?
razgriz417
Member
Good change, and with this, I'll continue buying from GMG. I have no qualms buying used games, nvidia promo codes and from gaffers on B/S/T/ and as long as GMG is buying legitimate keys from authorized retailers, its good enough for me.
You can't really source where keys are coming from on Steam right now can you? Unless they make a region specific version. I think what he means is that he looked over some of their prior deals that undercut everyone else quite a bit and they all came from an authorized retailer source. This suggests they are getting them from a cheaper region. I guess some people prefer not to work around region pricing for a moral reason.
Again, correct me if wrong, but my understanding is that this just means a third party got it from the publisher, and GMG bought them from the third party. It doesn't necessarily mean they were sourced from other regions. It's possible, but I don't think that's the only conclusion.
I would like some further insight on this. If you bought from them before, can you tell what region the code you got is from? I think I only bought Capcom games from them at 25% off, and they appear to work directly with them.
Right, so they may buy direct from the publisher for some games, but if they can get a better deal through a middleman who bought from the publisher, they do that?
Going through the middle man would also let them set their own profit margin since they have complete control over what price they sell at
Schweinehund
Member
I always assumed they were authorized, especially since they just refunded my AK key for full price (actually I think they gave a couple dollars more back). They either took a massive hit on that or WB reimbursed them.
Yes, we've been talking about this the entire page, look up.
There are still issues with this approach, as we discussed.
CambriaRising
Member
Just saying Autherized Dealer is not really progress. I'd like to know who, considering the amount of keys bought with stolen credit cards that go around.
They're probably not stupid enough to buy from dealers who buy with stolen credit cards (though obviously we can't know unless they disclose their sources) but they most likely buy from out-of-region dealers who are supposed to sell only to disadvantaged regions.
Schweinehund
Member
When that happened I emailed them and they said my bank rejected it, so they ended up crediting it to my paypal. Was kind of dumb that they didn't contact me when that happened but I hope that's just because they're swamped with refund requests.
Do you buy your cars from a car jacker?
What a nonsensical post. Perpetuating the idea that not being "authorized" somehow means illegal or stolen is just spreading misinformation. Have you even read any of this thread? Care to explain what you think the "authorized/unauthorized" tag means?
How do you know this is most likely? Is there any proof of this? If just speculating, out of region keys actually seem to cost much less than what they sell most of their games for. I'm legitimately curious about this, because I always prefer same region keys, but at this point there doesn't seem to be much proof that they're going out of region to make such claims.
How many keys bought using stolen cards go around? What percent would you estimate? And do you think that one of the biggest sellers on the net that also buys directly from publishers is also buying "hot" keys on the side?
Them stating the sources they way they do now is actually more information than other sellers provide. Of course they're not going to name the distributor they get their keys from because they're probably ultimately going for less than what the publisher wants them to sell for and the pub won't do business with them if they did. Even physical disc games go though multiple parties' hands in the chain and similar things happen with publishers only wanting games to be sold on their terms. Just look back in this thread where someone posted about their experience with a mom and pop game store. This is not limited to just games either.
GatticusFinch
Member
Jesus, you are still all worked up about this? How many times are you going to move the goal posts? First it was "OMG THEY ARE JUST G2A IN DISGUISE" then it was "FALSE ADVERTISING" then it was "NOT GOOD ENOUH CHANGE" and now it is "THEY COULD ALL BE STOLEN CREDIT CARD KEYS!"
Seriously, which Reddit mod are you? There is no other legitimate reason for you to want this to be a scandal.
runnin_blue
Banned
Exactly this. This has gone beyond ridiculous and into stupidity. If the OP doesn't want to shop at GMG, then don't, but enough with the vendetta already, it's getting tiresome.
Used car sales are a massive industry. There are plenty of reputable (and less reputable) places to buy used cars from.
I would not trust someone selling a used car that was pretending I was buying a new car that the original manufacturer had granted them permission to sell.
I would trust a used car seller with an excellent track record for customer service, and who provided me reasonable guarantees and assurance regarding the vehicle meeting my standards and matching their advertised specification.
You can't usually tell the region, no. Many games have no region locks, and the ones that do usually are locked on a couple of regions only. The keys will usually be the exact same between disadvantaged regions and the others. To think they aren't getting them from the cheapest possible source is quite naive.
YianGaruga
Banned
You really think an "authorized distributor" will supply keys that were bought with stolen credit cards? Or are you just accusing them of lying? Are they supposed to give you the name and contact information of their source?
"Authorized" here is supposed to mean "authorized by the publisher" and should really be good enough.
I'm honestly not sure why people are still not happy now. If that's too vague for you, don't buy there. They make it very easy now.
No sign of it here (UK). Ordered on the 7th. Starting to get very close to VPNing...
Impulsor
Member
I have a friend that bought on GMG but has not received the key yet. I bought on Origin and have been playing since Monday.
I recommended him to buy it at GMG and I feel bad for him now as he's really hyped and can't wait.
Regardless of where the keys come from, I'm not preordering or recommending anyone to preorder from them again.
I mean, if you have an alternative theory about how they sell new AAA games for like $30 and make a profit, I'd love to hear it, but that's my best guess. And yes, I'm speculating, and your observation that out of region keys are much cheaper than what GMG sell for is correct, which would give them quite a healthy profit margin, no?
I'm being pretty reasonable and having a conversation here. You're the one who appears to be worked up. Maybe you should take a breather. I explicitly said several times that I don't think they'd be stupid enough to sell stolen keys. I also applauded them for the change, and I'm not the only one who thinks they could do better. Your post is just embarrassing.
If it's a key from an "authorized distributor", they probably need for the source to provide them with keys, then they send it to the buyer, so there's some legwork to be done in between. If this process involves cracking open physical copies and taking the keys (which may or may not be the case) that would take even longer. At this point there is no definitive way to say what their process is, but their site states that publisher keys will arrive before or on the day of release but third party keys will arrive on the day of or soon after release.
YianGaruga
Banned
What could they do better in your opinion?
Impulsor
Member
Send keys in time? XD
They never reveal their source.
If they did then other people would buy from them and undercut GMG. Not only that, but the Publisher would find out who sold to GMG.
want transparency, they can state the source/nature of third party keys they're selling. So that people know if it's out of region or whatever. I mean, what do they lose by telling people where they get the key?
Well, since we're arguing for the power of the consumer here and that a consumer is entitled to buy keys as cheap as possible as long as they're not flat out stolen, wouldn't you like to know where they get those keys so you can get them as well?
I mean, if GMG are indeed selling out of region keys or have some sort of deal with a vendor where they somehow get keys a lot cheaper than anyone else could, GMG can still hold on to this advantage and be a more legitimized way of buying keys from those sources as most buyers would be unwilling to go through those processes or lack the knowledge to buy from, say, Russian stores, so GMG would have a reason to exist. They can bill themselves as a place to find keys the cheapest you legally can with the minimum hassle, and that would still be a profitable business.
I just checked the subreddit that started this all and it seems like this change isn't good enough for them and they won't allow GMG because they're still not disclosing their sources or whether those sources are legitimate.