Key-reseller G2A has lashed out at accusations of piracy, saying it will hire an independent auditor to monitor sales of illegally obtained keys and pay developers ten times the amount in lost sales if proven.
“We will pay developers 10 times the money that lost on chargebacks after their illegially obtained keys were sold,” G2A said in a statement. “The idea is simple: developers just need to prove such a thing actually happened on their stores.”
G2A will handle the cost of the first three audits to be performed, it said, while subsequent audits will be split 50/50 between G2A and the querying developer.
“The auditing company will check if any game keys sold on G2A were obtained using stolen credit cards on a developer’s store compliant with card scheme rules from Visa and Master Card/payment provider rules,” G2A explaining, adding it would pay ten times the amount back when confirmed.
“We want this process to be transparent, so we will publicly report every step of the procedure. Meaning, you will get information such as who came forward, and what the verdict was, all of which will be published for everyone to see.”
In a lengthy post, G2A said it would like to work with publishers to removed illegally obtained keys from its inventory. It then asserted that most developers don’t inform G2A of said keys, and they’re then sold to customers at a loss to the developers themselves. Back in 2016, developer TinyBuild said it lost $450,000USD in sales over illegially obtained keys, prompting G2A to promise reforms in the form of its Game Developer Support System.
On the same day as G2A’s initial announcement, developer Mike Rose of No More Robots launched a petition against the reseller, requesting it stop sales of indie games.
“G2A’s platform hurts indie devs time and time again, by allowing anyone to sell illegitimate keys for their games online, with incredible ease, and no ramifications or checks,” Rose wrote, detailing the situation.
We’ll let you know if any developers request an audit.
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