PSA: Don't buy the Witcher 3 through GMG. UPDATE!

[JSt0rm]

I know that, but the fact remains that CD Projekt believes the keys are being bought legitimately just not through them.

Oh, and businesses sell things at a loss at times. They're called loss leaders.

You should reread:

They might sell nVidia Keys (which are not to be sold but gifted with the nVidia promo), or they just bough Keys from gog just like a regular customer and now they resell them with a loss (we cannot prevent anyone from selling something).

So they gave 2 possible scenarios. They are speculating.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Kind of a dick move to cut GMG out of the distribution, and a real dick move to basically libel them.

 

[chimaxi83]

Meh, I'll continue to buy from GMG. I've had zero issues with them.

 

[ImpulsE69]

They own the content. They should be allowed to decide how its distributed. If it comes out all those gmg keys are gray market and get banned on steam there will be hell to pay. People will pirate the game saying they already bought it but the revenue only went to gmg and whoever sold gmg the keys.

Im interested in seeing how this plays out.

It was, and did. If they aren't faked (randomly generated) keys, then there is nothing wrong with what they are doing. Resell is not illegal, no matter how badly the entertainment industry wants it to be. As for choosing how, that is the biggest complaint about the entire entertainment industry and the only industry that still doesn't get it. When 100% of your customer base can simply grab it on the internet for free, you don't keep making it harder for them to buy from you, you look at every avenue. Stop giving them reasons (regardless of how you feel on the topic) to NOT buy it.

GoG may have jumped the gun with the accusations, so yes it will be interesting to see.

 

[Grooveriding]

Just release the fecking game already! 😎

 

[JSt0rm]

It was, and did. If they aren't faked (randomly generated) keys, then there is nothing wrong with what they are doing. Resell is not illegal, no matter how badly the entertainment industry wants it to be. As for choosing how, that is the biggest complaint about the entire entertainment industry and the only industry that still doesn't get it. When 100% of your customer base can simply grab it on the internet for free, you don't keep making it harder for them to buy from you, you look at every avenue. Stop giving them reasons (regardless of how you feel on the topic) to NOT buy it.

GoG may have jumped the gun with the accusations, so yes it will be interesting to see.

You can't compete with free. But in this case if gmg s buying from gog and reselling then I agree with you. If they aren't and getting keys from china and selling them to you then that would be a problem.

 

[IGemini]

Just get it through Steam or a known reputable site. Steam has a 20% currently for it as well.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/292030/

It's only 20% off from either GoG or Steam if you bought both Witcher 1&2 though their respective sites, 5% for each title. Otherwise it's just 10%.

 

[norseamd]

this is weird. So CD decided to push their own platform and the likes of steam and GMG went behind their back and bought up gray market keys and sold them? Kinda shady on GMG's part. Witcher 3 belongs to cdproject. They cant/should expect to do what they want if cdproject doesnt want to have them as a vendor.

Just as shady from the side of CDPR. And there are more than a few other shady problems besides this with CDPR.

 

[norseamd]

Kind of a dick move to cut GMG out of the distribution, and a real dick move to basically libel them.

Not surprising or unexpected from CDPR however.

 

[Cerb]

Yea, GMG is highly regarded. I've purchased probably 50+ games from them with no issues. Even Techbargains likes them.

Edit From CDProjekt:

http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/35436-Witcher-3-35-off?p=1635264&viewfull=1#post1635264


Just a few words of explanation:

We have worked with GMG in the past for w2 and they were a legit partner.
We control all digital and the codes, and because we decided not to sell Keys to GMG it came as a suprise that they are doing a special promo without buying Keys from us. We have reach out to ask for the source of they Keys but up until now there was no response. They might sell nVidia Keys (which are not to be sold but gifted with the nVidia promo), or they just bough Keys from gog just like a regular customer and now they resell them with a loss (we cannot prevent anyone from selling something).
They also list Bandai Namco as the published which is not true for w3 (namco is our box distributor in PAL), so GMG is not a CDPR partner for W3 but they still might sell Keys that will work.

As my earlier post may have been indicative of, keys are for non-regular customers, AFAIK. I sure don't have one, and I'm going on a year of, "having," TW3. Buying a gift gets a code that has to be redeemed at GoG's website, so that would make no business sense (pay full price then resell, only for the buyer to go through GoG anyway).

It was, and did. If they aren't faked (randomly generated) keys, then there is nothing wrong with what they are doing. Resell is not illegal, no matter how badly the entertainment industry wants it to be.

But, with licenses, rather than a sale of a thing, all you are able to buy/sell/resell is the key. A number. The vendor offering the content can freely refuse to honor it, if it violates their rules, so long as those rules are not themselves illegal. FI, they can do region locking, and deny out-of-region key activations. This type of control, with current laws (except those pesky bastards in the EU) is part of what publishers like about DD. It's not illegal, but there is still a risk.

 

[Puppies04]

They own the content. They should be allowed to decide how its distributed. If it comes out all those gmg keys are gray market and get banned on steam there will be hell to pay. People will pirate the game saying they already bought it but the revenue only went to gmg and whoever sold gmg the keys.

Im interested in seeing how this plays out.

and if it ends up that GMG bought the keys from a legitimate retailer that had purchased them from CDPR do you still believe that CPPR should be able to tell companies it sells bundles of codes to who they can and can't sell them to?

 

[Fingolfin269]

What should the title be?

CD Projekt stance is not to buy Witcher 3 from GMG.

I really couldn't care less what their stance is if GMG is selling legit keys bought elsewhere. As pointed out previously it's no different than a local mom and pop going to CostCo, loading up a cart with goods, then reselling those goods at their local store.

This assumes the keys are legit and I have not seen anyone prove they are not. What we do know is that GMG does sell legit keys for other products.

So perhaps the title should be something along the lines of "CD Project does not want you to buy Witcher 3 from GMG: Here's why" blah blah. Basically the way it's written now implies that GMG has done something wrong and could hurt their future business.

 

[Aristotelian]

I really couldn't care less what their stance is if GMG is selling legit keys bought elsewhere. As pointed out previously it's no different than a local mom and pop going to CostCo, loading up a cart with goods, then reselling those goods at their local store.

This assumes the keys are legit and I have not seen anyone prove they are not. What we do know is that GMG does sell legit keys for other products.

So perhaps the title should be something along the lines of "CD Project does not want you to buy Witcher 3 from GMG: Here's why" blah blah. Basically the way it's written now implies that GMG has done something wrong and could hurt their future business.

The thing is, when the local mom and pop store loads up a cart with Walmart goods, they normally resell at a significant markup. Hence why local mom and pop stores (at least where I live) are essentially dead. I find it difficult to believe that GMG bought keys for the Witcher 3 at such a discounted price, at this stage, that they can then pass on the savings to customers.

I'll be happy to pay full price for this game, whether or not it is CD Projekt pushing their own platform or not. And I wouldn't ever dream of using a VPN to try to buy a copy at a discounted price as if I live in Mexico (random example) either.

Having said that, I agree with the element in your post which argues for the need to clearly understand what the loss is for CD Projekt in customers buying keys from GMG etc. Having read through this thread, I don't fully understand what their problem is.

 

[norseamd]

The thing is, when the local mom and pop store loads up a cart with Walmart goods, they normally resell at a significant markup. Hence why local mom and pop stores (at least where I live) are essentially dead. I find it difficult to believe that GMG bought keys for the Witcher 3 at such a discounted price, at this stage, that they can then pass on the savings to customers.

I'll be happy to pay full price for this game, whether or not it is CD Projekt pushing their own platform or not. And I wouldn't ever dream of using a VPN to try to buy a copy at a discounted price as if I live in Mexico (random example) either.

Having said that, I agree with the element in your post which argues for the need to clearly understand what the loss is for CD Projekt in customers buying keys from GMG etc. Having read through this thread, I don't fully understand what their problem is.

The logos is sound in this one.

 

[xantub]

The thing is, when the local mom and pop store loads up a cart with Walmart goods, they normally resell at a significant markup. Hence why local mom and pop stores (at least where I live) are essentially dead. I find it difficult to believe that GMG bought keys for the Witcher 3 at such a discounted price, at this stage, that they can then pass on the savings to customers.

I'll be happy to pay full price for this game, whether or not it is CD Projekt pushing their own platform or not. And I wouldn't ever dream of using a VPN to try to buy a copy at a discounted price as if I live in Mexico (random example) either.

Having said that, I agree with the element in your post which argues for the need to clearly understand what the loss is for CD Projekt in customers buying keys from GMG etc. Having read through this thread, I don't fully understand what their problem is.

You're thinking of other stores that sell keys from who knows where and require you to use a VPN or something. GMG is a legitimate store like Amazon (Amazon also sells digital games too BTW). You buy the product, then they send you an email with the code. Simple.

As usual things are never black and white. There's probably some internal shenanigans going on here we'll never know the details of. I just hope they sort these things out.

 

[smackababy]

You're thinking of other stores that sell keys from who knows where and require you to use a VPN or something. GMG is a legitimate store like Amazon (Amazon also sells digital games too BTW). You buy the product, then they send you an email with the code. Simple.

As usual things are never black and white. There's probably some internal shenanigans going on here we'll never know the details of. I just hope they sort these things out.

This won't get sorted out unless GMG states how they got their keys. They didn't get them from the publisher. And, quite a few sites operate where they use a VPN to get keys from countries where it is lower, mark it up some (even a 100% mark up is still significantly cheaper than in the US), and profit.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

Um GMG is legit. They're based out of the UK. If you're in the UK you can also buy physical games from them. They bought playfire a few years ago, which is a gaming social network. Recently they started publishing their own games also.

http://www.pcgamesn.com/idol-hands/...publishing-games-instead-of-just-selling-them

 

[JSt0rm]

and if it ends up that GMG bought the keys from a legitimate retailer that had purchased them from CDPR do you still believe that CPPR should be able to tell companies it sells bundles of codes to who they can and can't sell them to?

No. If they bought the keys from legitimate sources then they should be able to resell them. WHY they would do something like that I dont know but they are a private company and can burn money however they want.

 

[JSt0rm]

This won't get sorted out unless GMG states how they got their keys. They didn't get them from the publisher. And, quite a few sites operate where they use a VPN to get keys from countries where it is lower, mark it up some (even a 100% mark up is still significantly cheaper than in the US), and profit.

This is another thing I dont understand. Why wont GMG say where they got the keys? It seems the easiest way to put this whole thing to bed would be for them to come out and say "despite not being a official distributor for witcher 3 we love the games so much that we decided to buy the keys from gog and sell them at a loss to all of you because...1.? 2.? 3.?"

 

[smackababy]

Exactly. They could easily say "Oh, we bought the keys from X. Here is our order confirmation." But, GMG decides to say something else, which is shady.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Can't CDProjekt just buy one of the keys and trace who they sold it to?

I wouldn't expect GMG to do much cooperating after the apparent difficulties and accusations.

 

[JSt0rm]

Can't CDProjekt just buy one of the keys and trace who they sold it to?

I wouldn't expect GMG to do much cooperating after the apparent difficulties and accusations.

Maybe the keys havent been delivered yet? As in you buy it and you get the key on the 16th or something. Not sure. Has anyone purchased a key from gmg? Did you get your key already?

 

[norseamd]

Exactly. They could easily say "Oh, we bought the keys from X. Here is our order confirmation." But, GMG decides to say something else, which is shady.

Not fully true. Given the hostile attitudes I might as well have acted the same way as GMG.

 

[JSt0rm]

Not fully true. Given the hostile attitudes I might as well have acted the same way as GMG.

So you would hide the fact that you were selling at a loss? Wouldnt the point of doing that be for good advertising and buzz in the industry?

Something isnt passing the smell test in this thing.

 

[norseamd]

So you would hide the fact that you were selling at a loss? Wouldnt the point of doing that be for good advertising and buzz in the industry?

Something isnt passing the smell test in this thing.

At this time I have no cause to believe any side of the story over every other possibility.