TouchMyBox
Member
What's up with nuuvem?
GreenManGaming selling unauthorized Ubi/Acti/WB keys
- Thread starter nynt9
- Start date
What's up with nuuvem?
Aretak
Member
I'm not interested in their approval process. If I were running a business, I wouldn't be sending copies of my contracts with publishers to a bunch of reddit moderators, redacted or not. Whether they turn out to be right about this or not, I'm fully on GMG's side in not feeling the need to bow to the whims of some jumped-up forum moderators on a power trip.
x1000. I run a subreddit with 100,000+ subscribers, trust me, I am a nobody.
This post which is on the bottom of the last page deserves more attention:
As for this:
Ok, there's nothing I can say to you then, if you choose to die on this hill. Literally every other reputable key seller has a deal with the moderation team of the subreddit. GMG have been called out and given options to prove the accusations wrong, yet all they've done is respond with passive aggression.
And WE KNOW they're selling unauthorized keys, Black Ops 3 and Witcher 3 are examples of this, and this is in direct violation of their own messaging. There is nothing to defend here.
Ubisoft's approved vendor list doesn't contain them either: https://support.ubi.com/en-US/faq/9/3888/approved-retail-vendor-list/kA030000000ekN9CAI You can't dismiss this as "support said so". This is their official list.
As for this:
Ok, there's nothing I can say to you then, if you choose to die on this hill. Literally every other reputable key seller has a deal with the moderation team of the subreddit. GMG have been called out and given options to prove the accusations wrong, yet all they've done is respond with passive aggression.
And WE KNOW they're selling unauthorized keys, Black Ops 3 and Witcher 3 are examples of this, and this is in direct violation of their own messaging. There is nothing to defend here.
Ubisoft's approved vendor list doesn't contain them either: https://support.ubi.com/en-US/faq/9/3888/approved-retail-vendor-list/kA030000000ekN9CAI You can't dismiss this as "support said so". This is their official list.
exmachina64
Banned
GMG is a grey market seller. The proof is literally in the OP.
Visualante2
Member
r/GameDeals turning into a mafia though. These stores can't hand over their private business dealings with every website out there that is referring customers. Also a concern that they become a king maker, providing competitive advantage to any store that buys favour with the moderators. I don't understand why we're not just using TrustPilot or something.
YianGaruga
Banned
Which is not illegal. The NeoGAF BST thread is basically a grey market for keys/games.
Maybe, but that doesn't change the objectively verifiable facts about GMG selling unauthorized keys.
Sites that sell gray market keys are banned on gaf. The BST thread has rules.
exmachina64
Banned
VPNs don't work anymore, they check the billing address. Therefore, using a VPN and PayPal with your U.S. account no longer works.
I thought it was on GAF, my mistake.
YianGaruga
Banned
Yeah I'm just waiting for a new subreddit with less insane rules to replace them
AHA-Lambda
Member
Except Funstock ran into major issues with its Black Ops 3 keys, which clearly were coming from retail copies, and that brings us back to the original issue.
"regional prices are being exploited" is an interesting way to frame "The free trade of goods that underpins the entire concept of capitalism".
Regional pricing discrimination doesn't occur out of charity or any other noble reasoning. It is a strategy to maximize revenue. If it no longer represents the most profitable strategy for publishers, yes they will likely stop doing it. There is no reason for any individual end user to base their purchasing decisions around these facts.
Regional pricing discrimination doesn't occur out of charity or any other noble reasoning. It is a strategy to maximize revenue. If it no longer represents the most profitable strategy for publishers, yes they will likely stop doing it. There is no reason for any individual end user to base their purchasing decisions around these facts.
They are already listed as unauthorised on Ubisoft's site, and still have Ubisoft as their official retail partner. GMG have been getting greedy with their position as the go-to site outside of Steam.
YianGaruga
Banned
The BST thread was used for almost nothing else but selling Steam gifts from Russia FOR MONTHS. That's as grey market as it gets. The thread rules don't say anything about that.
And everyone either got a refund or a working key in the end. I know that they come from retail copies. That's not illegal.
Take it up to the moderation team, I don't make the rules. Gray market sites are still banned.
StereoVsn
Gold Member
However is there evidence of GMG actually selling invalid keys? Even the Witcher debacle was resolved for customers' point of view? At least we do have evidence that GMG takes care of their customers and nobody got invalid keys from them.
Plus they are authorized vendor for some of the major publishers.
GatticusFinch
Member
Sounds to me like a bunch of power-mad Reddit mods who think they are a bigger deal than they really are. All you have to do is read the mod posts in the meta thread and you can see that they think they are on some holy quest to destroy GMG for the good of humanity.
Ok, bro. Let me know how tonight's shift at GameStop goes. Interesting that you didn't go after GetGames (the rep even posted in the thread saying that they aren't on this mystery list in the email the mod is relying on), Funstock, etc.
Ok, bro. Let me know how tonight's shift at GameStop goes. Interesting that you didn't go after GetGames (the rep even posted in the thread saying that they aren't on this mystery list in the email the mod is relying on), Funstock, etc.
MiguelItUp
Member
Yeah, I think the traffic they got with GTA V was enough to have them up the ante so to speak. So they're VERY tight about stuff now. Sometimes it seems like some games can be purchased without a VPN at all, but the majority require one. But even then it's really iffy, I mean, I've seen people say they've completed transactions. But who knows? My experience as of late has been that nothing goes passed the Paypal checkout screen.
What is so hard for you to understand? GMG have been showing themselves as an authorised retail partner of the major publishers, that has already been proven false for a lot of them.
"gray market" does not mean invalid. Also, they claim to be an authorized vendor, but we've seen how that goes.
Yeah, if you ignore all the other evidence and focus on the messenger instead of the message to discredit the facts.
YianGaruga
Banned
The reasons why grey market sites are banned are clearly listed in the FAQ and none of them apply to GMG or Funstock. A blanket ban doesn't benefit anyone.
The "keys stolen with credit card fraud" applies to G2A marketplace, but not to grey market resellers. It's literally impossible to buy 10000+ keys for a game with credit card fraud.
Evolution of Metal
Member
That is like... Someone's opinion. If you show me an evidence of a GLOBAL (Not Russian or Mexican) key being sold as described in the post, then I change my attitude at GMG/Cdkeys.
You must give a name of the store that bought cheap Global keys and sold them to GMG/Cdkeys. A statement by the publisher that some of the keys in GMG/Cdkeys were obtained at a lower (compared to what game shops/Steam pays) price. Something like that.
GatticusFinch
Member
You are trying way, way too hard to turn this into a scandal. Which mod are you?
I'm supposed to trust some Reddit mod and a few emails from some unknown, minimum wage CSR, instead of the official GMG rep stating:
Vincent Grayson
Member
This is my feeling. I owe nothing to the whims of publishers pricing methods.
I won't buy from GMG or anyone else if there is actual proof that they are doing something immoral like buying from places that get their keys via fraud/identity theft/etc, but if (as I suspect) the most going on here is them buying cheaper keys "meant" for other regions, then I see no reason to take issue with that.
What's your take on the ubisoft approved retailer list not containing GMG, activision not being on GMG's list, The Witcher 3 issue and GMG's TOS saying every key they sell is approved directly by the publisher to GMG?
accusations can go both ways, are you some GMG rep?
YianGaruga
Banned
I don't care. They're probably not being entirely truthful, but I don't see the huge problem with it.
In the retailer - customer relationship, GMG have always been great.
GatticusFinch
Member
How about how GetGames is also not on that list even though they are an "authorized" retailer? The mods certainly didn't storm out and ban them with no proof.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GameDealsMeta/comments/3t0p9m/rgamedeals_and_greenmangaming/cx22nej
"Approved," "authorized," and "supported" are all fancy buzzwords, but are meaningless. Just because they aren't on the "supported" or "authorized" retailer list does not mean the accusation being thrown at them is legitimate.
More importantly, why should I care? I've had nothing but good experiences with GMG, which is a hell of a lot more than I can say for all three of the shit-peddlers (Activision, Ubi, WB) that this crusade was launched to defend.
Not being on Ubis list doesn't really mean anything if gmg has a contract with them that we don't know about.
Activison was removed from gmgs list before the release of bopsiii. The problem is their about us section saying every game they sell is authorized by publisher. I'm sure they'll change that, or stop selling Activision games going forward. They should anyway, we'll see what happens.
So yeah they need to be more upfront about what pubs keys are authorized and what isn't going forward, or if they don't have publisher authorization to sell a game, they shouldn't sell that game going forward.
They aren't selling witcher 3, and my guess would be they'll stop selling black ops or any other Activision games. It's definitely a problem that it's taking that they get caught before they correct the issue.
family_guy
Member
Doesn't matter to me. IF one or more of my keys get revoked then I have recourse through GMG to get a replacement or get my money back. It's not like we're buying from Craigslist here.
When did this change? I bought Warhammer from them like two weeks ago.
arts&crafts
Member
So Funstock digital is unauthorized as well? That explains the fallout 4 mess.
Take that up to the sub's mods. I can't answer for them, I don't even use either sub in question.
Even if you somehow ignore the ubisoft list thing, which seems fairly comprehensive other than GG/GMG, there's also the fact that GMG themselves do not list Activision among their partners yet sell keys from them under the premise of being authorized. There's also Witcher 3. You keep deflecting back and forth between different arguments but there is enough smoke here to make people ask questions and GMG have failed to answer. When they got called out on TW3 they also failed to answer.
As for why should you care, do you care about G2A as well? You might have had good experiences with them, people have good experiences with G2A as well, but that doesn't mean something wrong isn't happening.
If they don't make any specific mention of being an authorised retailer then it's safe to assume they are not.
YianGaruga
Banned
I'll update the OP, even though this doesn't gel with some of the other info like Witcher 3
GMG can get fucked. I haven't been able to access my account for several months now and their CS keeps ignoring my case, or closing it when they consider it solved when it's not. It's all nice when everything works well for you, but as soon as you have issues with your account, a key, etc. just consider yourself robbed and don't look back. These guys give 0 shits about their customers.
WB obviously offered them a rockbottom price for the keys, while the other publishers (Ubisoft) did not. Hence them turning to the grey market to source those keys.
Vincent Grayson
Member
I still suspect the Witcher 3 thing was a simple case of GOG freezing them out on keys for what looked like one of the biggest games of the year, so they bought them elsewhere so as not to be a major games retailer missing a huge title.
Probably, but they should have notified people that the keys were not direct from the source. Their refusal to update their TOS or include notifications on store pages for items is concerning.
YianGaruga
Banned
Sure, just a good reminder not to jump to conclusions after a single piece of flimsy evidence. That really doesn't look good on GameDeals' "approval process"
There's still enough pieces of (flimsy or not) evidence that we should be asking questions - again, we should contact people who can better answer these questions, like jschreier or someone else who does this sort of journalism.
Edit: response to your edit:
The approval process is not dependent on emails from the publishers. It's based on the vendor providing evidence of legitimacy, which has nothing to do with what you're talking about. I don't understand why you are so invested in passive aggressively dismissing the questions here instead of being willing to dig deeper.
I just requested a refund through PayPal. It was a pre order as well.
I think someone said in the Steam thread that it depends in the game? That you can buy some games with a VPN while others you can't? I'm not sure, I have used Nuuvem a few times but I'm south american so I don't have to use a VPN.
Good post. We'll see if they stop selling Activision games or not. Either they will or they will have to change their entire model and say we are authorized for these pubs, and for any game not authorized they should notate clearly that they are not specifically authorized by pub to sell this game but code is from a 3rd party distributor but of course they guarantee it will work and provide a refund if it doesn't.
Seems like it would be easier to just not sell games they aren't specifically authorized to. Problem is they've lost a lot of credibility here as they've been caught by CDPR and now Activision for selling codes under the pretense that they were authorized to, so how do you trust anything going forward?
Maybe they would be better off to just go full gray market at this point and make no mention of being authorised on their website. I'm sure their mgmt team is trying to figure this out right now.
kitschykitty
Member
Didn't Bandai Namco publish Witcher 3 in Europe where GMG is based? So the Witcher 3 controversy wouldn't be relevant to their current relationship with WB?
Banjo-Kazooie
Member
Aren't you now in turn jumping to conclusions off of one piece of evidence?
Afaik all digital PC sales were handled by CDPR, may be wrong though - publishers were involved for physical copies and console versions to my knowledge.
YianGaruga
Banned
Where do you want to dig? GMG sells keys that are not sourced through official channels. I know that. The difference is that you see a problem and I don't. There really isn't more to this story.
Aren't you now in turn jumping to conclusions off of one piece of evidence?
I think it's much more important to have solid evidence when you accuse someone of wrongdoing. This second email just brings us back to where we were before regarding GMG and WB, so I find it easier to believe.