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They are. One of the developers claims: > In other cases, Mr Rose said, dealers cancelled the credit card transaction with which they had bought a key, after s

They are. One of the developers claims: > In other cases, Mr Rose said, dealers cancelled the credit card transaction with which they had bought a key, after selling it on. > By the time Steam chased this up and voided the sale, gamers may have tried the title out and moved on, never noticing they had lost access as a consequence, he said. So maybe the chargeback process just needs to be faster. Or the games need to be longer maybe. I'd be curious to know how long the current process takes.

buildzr 7y ago
Interesting, I buy keys from G2A regularly and haven't lost access to any titles yet. If this was a significant problem I'd expect to at least have a few lost titles out of dozens I've bought personally and for friends.
- Ajedi32 7y ago
  Per the article, G2A claims only ~1% of transactions on their site have problems like that. So assuming they're not lying, it's no surprise that you haven't lost any titles yet.
  - knd775 7y ago
    G2A lies about quite a lot, though. Also, they have no way to check the status of the keys. So, if a user doesn't report an issue, they'll never know about it. Given that the article says that most users don't notice keys being revoked, it wouldn't be surprising at all if the majority of issues never get reported.
    - cloakandswagger 7y ago
      I think the devs claiming that users simply never notice that the license was revoked are the ones who are lying. Every time that's happened to me (for example, a time-limited version of a game or a beta), Steam presents a notification that the game has been removed from my library.
      - knd775 7y ago
        That is for legitimately owned games. They don't notify you when a key is revoked for fraud.
        cloakandswagger 7y ago
        Do you have a source for that? Here's an example of the notification Steam gives you when a key is revoked due to fraud: https://content.invisioncic.com/r273030/monthly_2017_05/Untitled.png.7495f7003c3bd0445a3f2b483de5a210.png https://content.invisioncic.com/r273030/monthly_2017_05/Unti...
        knd775 7y ago
        Huh, interesting. That must be a relatively recent addition. I've had keys revoked (that I got through a trader), and did not get any notification.
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - EpicEng 7y ago
        Point being that if they player has already moved on to other games they may not care, i.e., G2A never find out, and they're numbers are wrong (assuming they're being honest in the first place, which is a big assumption.)
    - shawnz 7y ago
      > G2A lies about quite a lot, though Are you basing this off the recent stunt they tried to pull getting people to publish favorable articles for them? That was unacceptable of course but also I see why they are desperate to improve their reputation given the recent smear campaign against them. Do you have examples of other instances where they were shown to be dishonest?
      - knd775 7y ago
        They've always been this way. My opinion on them is not new. A bunch of esports teams dropped them as sponsors years ago after realizing they not an honest business. Their buyer protection service (G2A shield) is a scam. There's also this fun AMA they did https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5rg9mo/we_work_for_g2acom_global_digital_marketplace/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5rg9mo/we_work_for_g2... There's more here: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/wiki/keyresellers https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/wiki/keyresellers
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
Aozi 7y ago
Chargebacks can take anywhere from a few weeks to over 6 months, it really depends on the case and how far back the chargeback is along with a bunch of other things. So yeah if I bought some small indie game form G2A and it gets revoked 3 months later, chances are I'd never notice.
tinodotim 7y ago
> By the time Steam chased this up and voided the sale, gamers may have tried the title out and moved on, never noticing they had lost access as a consequence, he said. That is not true. For years now (or maybe even forever?) you get a big fat notification popup [0] when a license gets revoked in Steam, which you also have to acknowledge by checking a box and pressing a button. > By the time Steam chased this up and voided the sale Also, I'm pretty sure the revocation of a license is more or less instantaneous. So that also seems untrue. It's not even Steam's job to chase this up, but the developers. 1. Developer detects fraudulent transaction 2. Developer matches game key to that transaction. 3. Developer revokes key/license on Steam. [0] https://i.imgur.com/R4OL8ki.png https://i.imgur.com/R4OL8ki.png
- Ajedi32 7y ago
  > It's not even Steam's job to chase this up, but the developers. That's only for keys purchased on the developer's own website though, right? Surely if the key was bought directly from Steam, then Steam would handle voiding the key? Worth noting that G2A claims to compensate developers "10 times the sum lost" if the key was bought on the dev's own website, and the dev in the article is claiming that isn't really the issue.
  - dkersten 7y ago
    G2A claim that if you can prove that you lost the money due to a chargeback, but I imagine its a pretty difficult thing to prove. Seems similar to having a bug bounty with a lot of restrictions on what's allowed and then claiming you're software is bug-free because nobody ever claimed the bounty.
  - tinodotim 7y ago
    > Surely if the key was bought directly from Steam You can't buy keys directly from Steam. There is steam gifting to gift games directly to accounts, but that got heavily restricted over the years. (You can't "hoard" gifts anymore in your account without activating them - on neither end, you can't gift when the price difference is too big between regions, if you decline a gift it automatically gets refunded for the giver, and so on...)

buildzr 7y ago

Interesting, I buy keys from G2A regularly and haven't lost access to any titles yet. If this was a significant problem I'd expect to at least have a few lost titles out of dozens I've bought personally and for friends.

Ajedi32 7y ago
Per the article, G2A claims only ~1% of transactions on their site have problems like that. So assuming they're not lying, it's no surprise that you haven't lost any titles yet.
- knd775 7y ago
  G2A lies about quite a lot, though. Also, they have no way to check the status of the keys. So, if a user doesn't report an issue, they'll never know about it. Given that the article says that most users don't notice keys being revoked, it wouldn't be surprising at all if the majority of issues never get reported.
  - cloakandswagger 7y ago
    I think the devs claiming that users simply never notice that the license was revoked are the ones who are lying. Every time that's happened to me (for example, a time-limited version of a game or a beta), Steam presents a notification that the game has been removed from my library.
    - knd775 7y ago
      That is for legitimately owned games. They don't notify you when a key is revoked for fraud.
      - cloakandswagger 7y ago
        Do you have a source for that? Here's an example of the notification Steam gives you when a key is revoked due to fraud: https://content.invisioncic.com/r273030/monthly_2017_05/Untitled.png.7495f7003c3bd0445a3f2b483de5a210.png https://content.invisioncic.com/r273030/monthly_2017_05/Unti...
        knd775 7y ago
        Huh, interesting. That must be a relatively recent addition. I've had keys revoked (that I got through a trader), and did not get any notification.
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - EpicEng 7y ago
      Point being that if they player has already moved on to other games they may not care, i.e., G2A never find out, and they're numbers are wrong (assuming they're being honest in the first place, which is a big assumption.)
  - shawnz 7y ago
    > G2A lies about quite a lot, though Are you basing this off the recent stunt they tried to pull getting people to publish favorable articles for them? That was unacceptable of course but also I see why they are desperate to improve their reputation given the recent smear campaign against them. Do you have examples of other instances where they were shown to be dishonest?
    - knd775 7y ago
      They've always been this way. My opinion on them is not new. A bunch of esports teams dropped them as sponsors years ago after realizing they not an honest business. Their buyer protection service (G2A shield) is a scam. There's also this fun AMA they did https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5rg9mo/we_work_for_g2acom_global_digital_marketplace/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5rg9mo/we_work_for_g2... There's more here: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/wiki/keyresellers https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/wiki/keyresellers
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]

Aozi 7y ago

Chargebacks can take anywhere from a few weeks to over 6 months, it really depends on the case and how far back the chargeback is along with a bunch of other things. So yeah if I bought some small indie game form G2A and it gets revoked 3 months later, chances are I'd never notice.

tinodotim 7y ago

> By the time Steam chased this up and voided the sale, gamers may have tried the title out and moved on, never noticing they had lost access as a consequence, he said. That is not true. For years now (or maybe even forever?) you get a big fat notification popup [0] when a license gets revoked in Steam, which you also have to acknowledge by checking a box and pressing a button. > By the time Steam chased this up and voided the sale Also, I'm pretty sure the revocation of a license is more or less instantaneous. So that also seems untrue. It's not even Steam's job to chase this up, but the developers. 1. Developer detects fraudulent transaction 2. Developer matches game key to that transaction. 3. Developer revokes key/license on Steam. [0] https://i.imgur.com/R4OL8ki.png https://i.imgur.com/R4OL8ki.png

Ajedi32 7y ago
> It's not even Steam's job to chase this up, but the developers. That's only for keys purchased on the developer's own website though, right? Surely if the key was bought directly from Steam, then Steam would handle voiding the key? Worth noting that G2A claims to compensate developers "10 times the sum lost" if the key was bought on the dev's own website, and the dev in the article is claiming that isn't really the issue.
- dkersten 7y ago
  G2A claim that if you can prove that you lost the money due to a chargeback, but I imagine its a pretty difficult thing to prove. Seems similar to having a bug bounty with a lot of restrictions on what's allowed and then claiming you're software is bug-free because nobody ever claimed the bounty.
- tinodotim 7y ago
  > Surely if the key was bought directly from Steam You can't buy keys directly from Steam. There is steam gifting to gift games directly to accounts, but that got heavily restricted over the years. (You can't "hoard" gifts anymore in your account without activating them - on neither end, you can't gift when the price difference is too big between regions, if you decline a gift it automatically gets refunded for the giver, and so on...)