The latter option does leave you with the game in your Steam account though, which is infinitely more convenient than downloading a repack made by some Russian somewhere in 15 parts from 5 different filesharing websites
…I mean, I assume. It’s not like I’ve ever bought a game… or several games… from resellers
downloading a repack made by some Russian somewhere in 15 parts from 5 different filesharing websites
Never had this problem with fitgirl but rinru users unfortunately end up using some awful rate limited site usually. It’s always a pleasant surprise when it’s a drive link tho
The latter option does leave you with the game in your Steam account though
This is why I use them. Someone hosted a zomboid server on here but it’s set to steam only, I don’t want to give any money to valve if possible and I’m definitely not buying the game a third time at full price so I just used a gift card and got it for ~$7.
Honestly if I end up in a similar situation I’ll probably just do it again
It’s even better when you click through all the captchas and countdowns and get that juicy, juicy link only to be greeted by “This file can be downloaded by Premium Users only”
I almost always buy games from resellers as long as it’s the best price. I’d rather have something cataloged in my Steam/Epic/Origin/etc library than deal with having to deal with the installation manually.
I usually end up buying from resellers in cases where I’ve been waiting for one of the big Steam sales for a game, only to discover the price not discounted as much as I’d hoped.
Or, in the last case where I used cdkeys.com, I waited until the last day of the Steam Summer Sale to get a game but found out that game’s discount had already ended, presumably due to timezone shenanigans or something. Went to check cdkeys and the game was still there with the discounted price so yeah, I ended up getting a grey market key.
Does cdkeys.com really count as grey-market? AFAIR, they directly purchase all their keys from legal sources. Unlike G2A and the like who shove fingers in ears and say “we’re just a key marketplace”.
somewhere in 15 parts from 5 different filesharing websites
Why not torrent it?
I don’t have a VPN, which is apparently a requirement to torrenting games, movies and TV shows in this day and age.
I do still torrent things, but I try to stick to older/obscure stuff. Guess I’m averse to getting disapproving letters from the copyright police
The old school pirate philosophy. Pirate the game. If you like the game, buy it. If you loved it, pay full price. The best games are being released by indie devs that could use the money.
I wonder where sites like GreenManGaming, Fanatical, Humble and IndieGala fit into the mix as I understand it are legit keysellers?
ELI5, Why are resellers bad? Do they acquire the keys in a shady way?
Here’s a dev explaining it: https://lemmy.ml/comment/2618947
Apparently they do chargebacks, which costs the gamedevs money.
This is something that should have been in the opening post.
It explains why using these sites actually causes harm.
Instead of getting a game at a reduced rate without harming the dev much (just losing a sale) you’re actually harming the dev.
This is something I didn’t know and now I’ll look more at discounted games on official platforms instead of these key sites.
Yes.
They steal a credit card, buy the game with it, and sell the game. Then the owner of the credit card (or the credit card issuer) discovers this and demands a refund from the game seller. Processing this refund requires extra work and additional money from the game seller.
For a longer explanation, with successful results, you can read https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-303 .
I sorta blame big media companies for this. They have been trying to kill used movie/game sales for decades, moving to these (should be illegal) licensing models, etc. In doing that, they have failed to allow an infrastructure to form that would keep used or third-party purchases “legit” so you end up with sites that have no choice but to live in the grey area, even cdkeys.com that (allegedly) sources their keys 100% first-party legitimately.
Ultimately, credit card fraud will always be a risk. Someone installed a barcode copier on a local gas station machine a while back, and they bought 5 PS4s on it before the Bank got wise. It’s a little easier in other countries because there’s no physical shipping to deal with, but it’s not really creating the market. As a defrauded individual, you just can’t chargeback a playstation that was sold anonymously on ebay and already shipped.
