Most of the keys are obtained illegally (stolen accounts and/or credit cards) so eventually the money gets taken back. So not only was the game stolen but the indie has to go through processing the takeback which costs them money on top of it.
And since the takeback issue can occur the person purchasing could lose their game without even realizing it and then complain to the devs when it wasn’t even their fault.
You’re basically double-dipping and ensuring that actual costs are involved.
edit: brain fuzzy. Chargeback is the word.
I’ve also heard that this is a myth, and while there might be some fraudulent purchases, the majority are just picked up in other regions where games are cheaper and maybe during sales. Devs who tell you to pirate their game instead of using resellers may be actually making more money off resellers than they think, but there isn’t really any way to confirm it. Without a mass study.
It’s hard to know because both sides are arguing that it’s 100% their side. Game companies are claiming it’s basically all pirated keys. G2A (in court) used to argue that it was basically no pirated keys. The truth is somewhere in the middle but nobody is talking.
In some cases, the fraudulent purchase route is less profitable than just buy-selling across countries and abusing sales. I can’t imagine in those cases that we’re looking at fraudulent purchases.
Exactly, devs need to prove that resellers are an overall net negative on their income before they can use this as a talking point. Fraud happens in every industry, the existence of fraud doesn’t make a service net negative overall.
For what it’s worth, I’ve used G2A plenty of times for games I otherwise wouldn’t have purchased and I’ve never had an issue once.
