Don’t give G2A a get out of jail free card, sign the list and require them to take action.
Why Developers Need To Take Action
G2A is likely the most well known key reseller site that has no qualms about making money by taking it out of the hands of the developers and putting it in the hands of their sellers.
That is the role of the site, of course, to provide a means for people who have key codes no matter how they obtained them to sell them for cash. In a sense, G2A is a black-market that is public knowledge.
Due to much backlash that they continuously get from developers and the media they are promising to make a key blocker for their store so that you can protect a number of keys from being used on their site, but the catch is that they will not start developing this unless they get 100 developers to pre-sign for it.
G2A has made empty promises in the past, and this will be another one of those that we can’t hold them accountable for unless they meet their quota of 100 developers signing up. All they are asking for is Name/Position, Company Name, Studio Email, and a Steam URL to your game. While we admit that this isn’t a solve-all even if they do go ahead with creating it, it does allow developers to have some say and give us a foot in the door for change.
We highly recommend signing up, even if you do not plan on using this tool to hold G2A to the carpet, you can do so here:
G2A KEYBLOCKER DEVELOPER SIGNUP SHEET
Why This Screws Over The Developer
You maybe think that buying a key from someone who tricked a developer into thinking they were a reviewer just to get a couple of keys to sell is a small issue, and maybe it is, but what many people are not aware of is that G2A allows for people who steal credit cards to buy hundreds of keys a place to sell those stolen goods for legitimate money.
So not only are the thieves getting clean money to use, the developer is left to deal with the chargeback when the stolen credit cards get reported, meaning the developers not only are losing out on potential sales they are the ones that have to pay for people getting these keys! A couple of noteworthy developers who have shared this issue is Unknown Worlds, the developer of Subnautica reported $30,000 in fees was lost in chargebacks, and the indie developer Wube Software lost $6600 from its game Factorio
Why This Screws Over The Buyer
This also puts the buyer at risks, as any developer who receives a chargeback for a given key is going to VOID that key, leaving the buyer paying for a key that will be removed from their account while allowing those who stole the credit cards to have your money.
This is something that G2A doesn’t even protect their buyers from unless they pay additional funds for protection, if you don’t buy their protection then they side with the credit card thief and your out of luck.
This is why the site is so toxic to the gaming community, why streamers encourage their viewers to use other sites and why developers are so against it, the only people G2A is looking out for is the credit card thieves and themselves.
So please, tell the developers you know to sign up, don’t use this site, and make sure to let your friends know about why sites like these hurt the gaming community.