Rise of the Online Key Stores

[Durn87]

Good evening all,

I notice the last few months the amount of these online keystores is exploding.

Does anyone has any personal experience, are these trustworthy sites?

They do seem to have better prices then Steam which surprises me a lot.


Some examples are :

**LINKS REMOVED**

Can people with personal experience tell me more??

Thanks and rgds,

 

[SMOGZINN]

They are taking advantage of differences in pricing between different localities. Something large corporations are allowed to do but individuals are not.

 

[surfsatwerk]

What are you willing to do if I provide such information?

 

[Midwayman]

Word is that if you are using a RU key on a NA server the company can pull your key. In practice it doesn't really happened. However if they really take off companies may start cracking down on it. I don't think steam itself bans account over it, just the individual keys.

 

[BergeLSU]

I've bought from GMG and Get Games with no problems

 

[davie jambo]

Yeah I buy from these places all the time

How it works is they buy retail copies in poor countries where games are cheaper then just sell the key

Get loads of bargains on new games got AC4 black flag for £20 on release day for example (was just the uplay key)

 

[Jeeebus]

I used to buy Diablo 2 keys from various online sites many, many years ago. Was nice having a few dozen bots crunching away at finding loot. So there's nothing "new" about these sites as they have been around at least 10 years.

 

[jimrawr]

I've done it before to save some money. Had to download the ISO of the game and then use my paid key to play online. Not sure if its worth it to me to do that anymore to save $4-5

 

[BlueWeasel]

I've bought from GMG and Get Games with no problems

Both of those are trustworthy sites, not the questionable ones the OP is referring to.

 

[davie jambo]

Both of those are trustworthy sites, not the questionable ones the OP is referring to.

if it was CDJ keys and places like that they are not questionable at all

 

[smackababy]

I avoid these sites because I understand they are grey market vendors. This kind of stuff has been going on for years, and will continue to go on. I am an adult with a good job, so I can afford to "support the developers", even though I know the publishers are getting the money, as they've already paid the developers.

 

[xantub]

guess it's sort of like buying MP3s from those russian sites for like $2/CD. Problem in this case is that Steam could go and suspend your account, which means losing access to your whole library. Not sure I want to risk that.

 

[Dankk]

There is one time I bought from one of those shady "CD key stores". It was a Russian Steam key for CoD:MW3 purchased for $20 from CJS, back when the game had just come out. I had to use a Russian VPN to activate it but I never had any problems. Of course, it is a little risky and your mileage may vary. You have no recourse if Valve removes your game.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I avoid these sites because I understand they are grey market vendors. This kind of stuff has been going on for years, and will continue to go on. I am an adult with a good job, so I can afford to "support the developers", even though I know the publishers are getting the money, as they've already paid the developers.

This is not a grey market. This is a global market. The publishers are getting paid for these keys, because the company bought the keys from the publisher and a price the publisher agreed to sell them for.

Remember all that talk about globalization? This is the other side of that coin that companies would like to avoid.

 

[smackababy]

This is not a grey market. This is a global market. The publishers are getting paid for these keys, because the company bought the keys from the publisher and a price the publisher agreed to sell them for.

Remember all that talk about globalization? This is the other side of that coin that companies would like to avoid.

This is the exact definition of grey market. You are importing the keys, paying much less than intended by the publisher. While, it isn't illegal, I still avoid it. A lot of markets avoid this with things like region codes or even difference in cartridges (console gaming and movies, did this). CD keys aren't hard to regulate, it is just such a huge PR nightmare when they do that. Valve did this with Orange Box and saw a lot of backlash. The argument for not enforcing this a lot of consumers don't understand the keys are grey market and simply think they could be getting a good deal.

 

[SMOGZINN]

This is the exact definition of grey market. You are importing the keys, paying much less than intended by the publisher. While, it isn't illegal, I still avoid it. A lot of markets avoid this with things like region codes or even difference in cartridges (console gaming and movies, did this). CD keys aren't hard to regulate, it is just such a huge PR nightmare when they do that. Valve did this with Orange Box and saw a lot of backlash. The argument for not enforcing this a lot of consumers don't understand the keys are grey market and simply think they could be getting a good deal.

Alright. It is indeed a grey market. I guess what I'm saying is that grey markets are not immoral. They are not questionably legal. They are just not in the companies best interest.

Personally, I don't care about the company. Not one little bit. I don't care if they are profitable. I don't care if their shareholders are happy. Because I know that the company does not care about me. The companies goal is to give me as little as they possibly can while charging me as much as they possibly can. To do this they are happy to use price disparity between markets to their advantage. They will happily employee call site workers in India, and box and CD manufacturers in China, they will buy office equipment from Mexico.

So, I'm not overly worried when I buy a legitimate key from a legitimate company that has paid the publishers for those keys, just because the publisher would have liked me to have paid more.

 

[smackababy]

I don't abstain from grey markets out of morality as much as to avoid hassles that might come from using said market. If it was a physical good (like a book, or clothing, or something) I have no problem, as there aren't any real "drawbacks" like software. Valve could easily remove all those Russian CD keys again, same for Origin and UPlay. I'd rather not risk potential hassle (because, I'm sure they'd give me the game eventually after enough whining).