Several game developers have banded together to say that they’d rather players pirated their games instead of giving any sort of payment to G2A.
The pro-piracy-in-certain-situations sentiment arose after Mike Rose, ‘the No More Robots guy’, tweeted that G2A had taken out premium sponsored ads on Google.
The ads can’t be deactivated and show up above the developers’ own links. It’s important to note that devs get no revenue from games purchased via adverts.
Lost in the shuffle of all of this was a statement by indie developer Dan Teasdale, co-founder of No Goblin, that functioned more as a stinging plea in regards to people who may buy their games via G2A: pirate it instead.
In the latest episode of Fuck G2A:
G2A has taken out sponsored ads on Google, which mean that when you search for our games, you get G2A popping up above our own links — and we make zero money on our games if people buy through the ads.
And when you try to turn their ads off… pic.twitter.com/hSiIkaOLle
— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) 29 June 2019
“If you’re going to buy our games on G2A for peanuts, please just pirate it instead and use that money to donate to a good cause,” Teasdale Tweeted.
G2A is a digital marketplace that specialises in selling videogames and game keys, often at a cheaper price.
However, G2A also has a habit of getting into trouble after it’s turned out on several occasions that some keys have been acquired either illegally or through morally dubious means.
Mass-selling these sorts of keys has an incredibly negative impact on smaller developers, who miss out on potential sale revenue.
Devs forced into such a situation also have to spend time sorting out the mess and tracking down and deactivating stolen keys, amongst other things.
Please torrent our games instead of buying them on G2A https://t.co/gktACBP1KZ
— RageSquid (@RageSquid) 29 June 2019
Descenders developer RageSquid was one of the first to quote Mike’s tweet and plead with players to just torrent games instead of buying them on G2A.
The sentiment was echoed by Rami Ismail, who said that he’d rather see players who are unable to afford a game opt to pirate it instead of buying them from a key reseller.
If you can’t afford or don’t want to buy our games full-price, please pirate them rather than buying them from a key reseller. These sites cost us so much potential dev time in customer service, investigating fake key requests, figuring out credit card chargebacks, and more. https://t.co/25NWxrj8f8
— Rami Ismail (@tha_rami) 30 June 2019
“These sites cost us so much potential dev time in customer service, investigating fake key requests, figuring out credit card chargebacks, and more,” Ismail added.
Many involved parties allege that G2A allows keys that have been fraudulently purchased to be sold on their website. Despite G2A’s assurance that this doesn’t happen, there is a mountain of evidence that suggests otherwise, including someone who actually did it to prove G2A wrong..