DONT Use G2A, it's Cancer.

[Patrick Bateman]

TLDR
PIRATE VIDEO GAMES, But don't buy from G2A regardless of the price, You are being a cancer for gaming industry by doing so, Buying Keys From G2A is equal to piracy.

https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/amp....e_work_for_g2acom_global_digital_marketplace/

what is G2A?
A Grey marketplace where you can buy game keys obtained from unintended sources.
In last 24 Hours, G2A Team did an AMA (Ask me anything) session on Reddit and Basically crossed all levels of stupidity.

I will provide a summary of why below-

1. G2A Shield = Paid customer support

You are paying Money to ensure You Get your Money Back in case the transaction goes wrong.
Also they Never refund more than one product, since there is "No chance of of two incorrect codes" in any way.

You get amazon customer support regardless of Amazon Prime, It's not RESERVED for prime members.

They Offer A FAKE 50% Discount on shield When you try to cancel it, also threaten to double the price if you leave, DONT fall for it, its FAKE.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterra...is_offering_fake_50_off_shield_also_threaten/

2. It's a Grey Market

Definition of Grey Market-
"A Grey Market is a place where trade of a commodity
Through legal distribution channels unintended by the manufacturer takes place."

G2A's response on this.

"G2A is not facilitating Anything illegal, we oppose it but we allow you to sell your goods on the marketplace"

both are the same thing.

Why does it matter?
Keys on G2A are obtained from third party sources, that includes Money laundering, Illegal sources or shady stuff.

They can Be Blocked, Your Steam account Banned, Land you in Trouble at Any time
If the developer Acts.

You Will also Not receive Support from the Dev in case you experience any Problems in the future,


3. NO seller Verification.

In case you were wondering, G2A lacks any seller verification at all, in 5 minutes, I can create a listing, have it verified and sell it.

They claim to rather have Hidden Verifications over a time period, that's NOT how you verify a sale.

This guy got Banned by G2A and Money in his account Seized for Reporting the above.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/5rtv2q/im_the_person_who_recently_exposed_g2a_i_need/

This is "THE" Definition Of Robbery.
You gurls following me so far? Good.

4. Money Laundering and Tax evasion

They were a European company but now have their Head office in Hong Kong, With offices In India, and a few other countries.

Basically you don't pay Tax,
they don't pay Tax,
They failed to meet EU Guidelines,
and are now Operating from Hong Kong


5. Their pricing policy

you are shown a price when you place your order, but you are billed for transaction charges in the end, why?

I brought Overwatch, the price was 2800, I paid 3100.

Also by the way, they refused to disclose the number of transactions that go wrong but say they are doing slightly better than industry standard,
Wut?

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...y-reseller-g2a-com-fights-fires-in-reddit-ama
http://kotaku.com/how-the-controversial-steam-key-marketplace-g2a-got-so-1784669708
http://www.pcgamer.com/digital-marketplace-company-g2a-hosted-a-reddit-ama-and-it-was-heated/
https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.pcgamesn.com/g2a-reddit-ama?amp
https://www.pcgamesn.com/how-to-cancel-g2a-shield

 

[krugur]

I have bought from G2A twice and haven't got burnt yet. But that said, it is a shady place and i wont recommend it.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

I have bought from G2A twice and haven't got burnt yet. But that said, it is a shady place and i won't recommend it.

even I have used G2A in the past, The point is Not to use them Anymore,
A Site that Bans people For criticizing it, Allows the sale of Illegal Keys and Does Not Offer refunds?

The thing is by supporting them, You are being a terrible person, You are giving money to a cancer and not the people who deserve it.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

Just asking, can we post a warning or something to discourage people from using G2A, they are cancer for gaming industry who do everything from money laundering to Harassing people who speak up against them, they ban users for exploit flaws in their system and a large about of keys are obtained from illegal sources.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/wiki/keyresellers

One thing to remember is that even if you receive a working key from a reseller, this doesn't necessarily make them "legit". It's a bit like claiming that winning at Russian Roulette makes it a "safe game". When working with resellers there's always the chance of getting a bad key, or having a game later revoked from your account. And for many people it's a hard lesson learned.

You Having a positive experience with G2A doesnt change anything,

 

[Emrebel]

Thoses keys are legit since they are obtained from developers but they are obtained by scamming where the guy ask for 5-100 keys to provide a positive review on steam/ for friends /xyz excuse which are then sold on g2a.
So, yeah they are definitely illegal.

 

[adventureguy]

^
The keys they sell are part legal and part illegal.

I bought quite a few games from them before I realised their scam. I got to know them from popular youtubers.

Few games I bought were automatically removed from my steam account saying they were obtained from illegal means. I did get replacement keys from G2A tho.

 

[RJ0713]

Was a user of G2A but after going through this thread I won't be going to it. I did try reapershop.in as an alternative and its got good deals.

 

[Chaos]

Found recently that Gamersgate has lower prices than G2A most of the times and they sell india specific keys. Why bother with G2A.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

Also i would like to point out that many of the points about G2A apply to other some Key resellers in General

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterra..._market_key_resellers_and_what_they_mean_for/
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/wiki/keyresellers

these 2 reddit threads do a very good deal of explaining it, If you cant find a game anywhere else, or the price is truly high, i would say Key resellers are worth a shot.

Always keep in mind that they might not have the lowest price or the best products, overwatch for instance can be obtained by using a VPN for around 1700 from argentina/Hong Kong B.net store and is region unlocked, its 2.8k on G2A, reapershop and friends, and Blizzard downright refuses support on those copies, mechanical keyboards sold on reapershop (motospeed CK) is not even considered mechanical by reddit, keys have wayy too much variance.

 

[pretttt]

So, regarding buying Blizzard games by using a VPN, keep in mind that Blizzard can language lock those games. Not saying they will do it, but if they want to, they can. I'm saying coz I had experienced it with Diablo 3 back when it had released. They locked all copies brought from their Russian store to Russian language only because it got posted on Reddit and other places and lot of people started buying it. They did similar thing with Brazilian copies as well. This was in the first week of release of D3 so maybe they were more careful then. Afaik, they haven't done anything like that for Overwatch till now.

Also, I feel this G2A thing is being blown out of proportion. It is obviously risky buying from there, but that risk exists in buying any second-hand product on ebay or even TE for that matter. Same risk exists in doing key trades on /r/igs. /r/sgs may be slightly better as it only allows steam trades, but there is no way to know if the person bought those games with stolen credit cards or hacked accounts. If steam gets charge-back for those stolen copies, they will delete it from your account.