Gearbox demands G2A change their ways (or forfeit newly formed partnership)

[Shawn Knight]

Gearbox Publishing earlier this week announced a partnership with controversial game key auction site G2A to sell a special collector’s edition of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition. The community, to put it nicely, wasn’t thrilled with Gearbox’s decision to work with G2A.

Well-known YouTube gaming commentator John “TotalBiscuit” Bain chimed in on the matter, saying he would no longer cover Gearbox games on his channel. The influencer has more than 2.2 million YouTube subscribers so that’s kind of a big deal… big enough to get the attention of Gearbox and convince them to reconsider the partnership.

Bain worked directly with Gearbox’s head of publishing Steven Gibson to hammer out the following proposal and deadlines:

• Before Bulletstorm Steam launch, G2A makes a public commitment to this: Within 30 days, G2A Shield (aka, customer fraud protection) is made free instead of a separate paid subscription service within terms offered by other major marketplaces. All customers who spend money deserve fraud protection from a storefront. To that end, all existing G2A Shield customers are notified by April 14th that fraud protection services are now free and they will no longer be charged for this.

• Before Bulletstorm Steam launch, G2A makes a public commitment to this: Within 90 days, G2A will open up a web service or API to certified developers and publishers to search for and flag for immediate removal, keys that are fraudulent. This access will be free of charge and will not require payment by the content holders.

• Before Bulletstorm Steam launch, G2A makes a public commitment to this: Within 60 days implement throttling for non-certified developers and publishers at the title, userid, and account payable levels for a fraud flagging process. This is to protect content providers from having large quantities of stolen goods flipped on G2A before they can be flagged.

• Before Bulletstorm Steam launch, G2A makes a public commitment to this: Within 30 days, G2A restructures its payment system so that customers who wish to buy and sell legitimate keys are given a clear, simple fee-structure that is easy to understand and contains no hidden or obfuscated charges. Join the ranks of other major marketplaces.

If G2A doesn’t comply with Gearbox’s demands, the company will withdraw from its Bulletstorm deal, a spokesperson told PC Gamer.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/68846-gearbox-demands-g2a-change-their-ways-or-forfeit.html

 

[Kenrick]

G2A is alive and kicking because of the low prices. I wonder what this special collectors edition game can do to influence the way this online store operates. I doubt it will be a crazy deal that will make me buy it.

I joined a game group where some G2A deals are posted and bought and never have bad experience. The rule is never use your credit card rather use paypal. I dont have loyalty to stores, I buy where the cheapest is for my hard earned money.

 

[Lurker101]

I wonder what this special collectors edition game can do to influence the way this online store operates.

It's more to do with what being publicly shunned and shamed by a big AAA publisher will do to G2A and how big a knock on effect this could have on any other company that would have considered doing business with G2A. TB does a good job of fully explaining this in his video on the matter and it will be interesting to see how things transpire from this point.

 

[Zormac]

G2A is alive and kicking because of the low prices.

Absolutely not. G2A is alive and kicking because of their shady business and obfuscated fees. They're just like Kinguin, and profit from the ignorance of the average user.
Bulletstorm itself might not mean a lot, but Gearbox does. Also, not complying to the rather common sense rules of e-marketplaces will flag G2A as untrustworthy, because they would rather not be transparent about their business.
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if these grey market pages were all part of a huge criminal scheme involving piracy and money laundering.

 

[Zormac]

And by the way, Kenrick, have you never asked yourself how pages like G2A get their "super special" prices? There's no way to confirm the origin of they keys you're buying. So far, you've been lucky, but they might as well have been purchased using stolen credit cards and resold to you, or some other sort of way to cheat the market. Either way, you might have one of your keys revoked by the devs one day.

 

[Kenrick]

And by the way, Kenrick, have you never asked yourself how pages like G2A get their "super special" prices? There's no way to confirm the origin of they keys you're buying. So far, you've been lucky, but they might as well have been purchased using stolen credit cards and resold to you, or some other sort of way to cheat the market. Either way, you might have one of your keys revoked by the devs one day.

No, I dont ask that question. Its not my responsibility to investigate them. I always get G2A shield always.

It is all speculation at this point even you are not sure about those credit card fraud.. So far, it has given gamers alternative in purchasing games and that matters. If they are a shady business, make a case and present evidences. I dont support shady businesses but at this point they are not guilty until proven my dear. curse me if you want if I buy games at a deal there like I said I dont have loyalty for stores, I get my games from my hard earned money.

 

[ForgottenLegion]

Bulletstorm itself might not mean a lot, but Gearbox does.

Excuse me but Gearbox is just as scummy and deceptive.
Does Colonial Marines or bait and switch ring a bell? Randy Pitchf**k. Never forget. Don't believe his lies.

It's a perfect partnership made in Hell. Hope they both go under.

 

[stewi0001]

I never heard of either of them before lol, I guess I've been living in a cave.

 

[howzz1854]

I too, like Kenrick, will buy any game at the best price. no loyalty to any store whatsoever. the problem burden with G2A and Developers, shouldn't be placed on the consumer. if anything, this only exposes the elephant in the room that no one wants to confront. there's an inherent problem and price discrepancy between what the price demand for the games are, vs what the customer is willing to pay. G2A exist because game prices have been on the rise for too long, and what customers are getting in return have been less and less and with broken releases. too many times are gamers burnt with broken games they spent $60 on. and the fact that there no longer is a "demo" from the publisher only pushes folks who are unwilling to take the risk on the full-price, to buy it at a substantial discounted rate. if I go to a movie theater, and the movie sucked, too bad I lost $10. but if I buy a game and it sucks within the first 10 mins, I am down $60 and no return. did you know that with movies, you have until half way through to demand for refund, and they will refund it to you. G2A is the by product which fills the gap between that price vs risk discrepancy. until the market and industry addresses itself, there will always be gap filler merchants like G2A, G3A, G4B to fill the gap.

more than half of my current collection of games in my library are all purchased from G2A. and sometimes I would even just buy a game from G2A because I wanted to check out the graphics, without actually playing the game. I only once had a problem with a game that got taken away. but that's like 1/50. I am willing to take that chance. the other time I had a problem with a purchase, and said game turned out to be not in stock, G2A was able to refund me the money, and that's without having purchase additional Shield protection.

I do think there're rooms for G2A to improve tho. for one the G2A Shield is blatant non-sense. as a merchant, you should have a basic guarantee for your customer.

 

[howzz1854]

Provide me with a proper demo, and if I like the game, I have no problem with purchasing it directly from the developer at full-price. or have a decent return policy in place, so I know I can return a game if it's another dud. this is what game publishers don't want you to talk about. they're afraid that if they give consumers a return policy, the burden will be placed on them to put out quality products.

 

[mrjgriffin]

Maybe g2a just gives you low prices based on their opinion on how well received the game is? I got arkham knight premium for like 25 usd a week or so after it launched while it was still on steam for 60 usd despite being a broken mess. I bought mad max on g2a for 17 dollars while it was selling for 60 on steam. perhaps I'm wrong but I, like others here just buy my games where they're cheapest at the time. I've never had an issue with g2a.