You can add TinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik to the growing list of those in the gaming industry that have a problem with gaming website G2A. In a blog post on the companies website, Nichiporchik outlines how he believes G2A is allowing rampant scamming within the game industry and hitting studios where it hurts. Here's basically what he thinks is going down...
People are purchasing stolen credit card information online.
Those people go and purchase a ton of Steam game keys over the internet using stolen information.
They then create a G2A account and resell those keys at 1/2 price.
People who have had their information stolen issue chargebacks which are then refunded by the developer.
After doing the math Tinybuild discovered that in a very short time over $450,000 (retail price) of their product had been sold on G2A for around $200,000. When they contacted G2A (who they were in negotiations with about partnering up weirdly enough) they were told essentially that they would not investigate what happened unless TinyBuild would enter a partnership with them, and whatever the case there would be no compensation for what happened. Pretty s*****, but this is the same company that regularly sponsors e-sports teams and then balks on payment after their advertising is out there.
Obviously, it's a tight spot. Either TinyBuild revokes keys and makes a community of their fans mad, or they enter a partnership with G2A and, as G2A suggested, further undercut the price of their games to stay competitive with the black market scammers.
I know you're sitting here thinking "what does this have to do with me" and while you may enjoy those cheap games the site is peddling, they may single-handedly destroy one of your favorite indie developers one day thanks to negligence in business ethics.
