More publishers claim Green Man Gaming are selling their games unauthorised

even though a lot of people claim that GMG is a legit reseller, I've personally never bought anything from them...they seem shady...how do they sell every single new game for so much cheaper then retail?...every single new game!...they don't pass the eye test to me and I'd rather pay extra for peace of mind...I buy a lot of game codes nowadays through people selling their Nvidia bundle codes (Nvidia bundles a lot of popular AAA titles) and it's always cheaper then GMG anyway
 
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I've always been curious about this because you have to wonder how they get by constantly selling brand new AAA releases at 20% (or even more at times.) That being said I've bought numerous things from them since they launched so I'd be bummed to see them get shut down.
 
polonyc2 said:
even though a lot of people claim that GMG is a legit reseller, I've personally never bought anything from them...they seem shady...how do they sell every single new game for so much cheaper then retail?...every single new game!...they don't pass the eye test to me and I'd rather pay extra for peace of mind...I buy a lot of game codes nowadays through people selling their Nvidia bundle codes (Nvidia bundles a lot of popular AAA titles)
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It is authorized to sell games for certain publishers.

Also EA is an authorized dealer for GMG.

But i'm sure your random online Nvidia codes are a "safer" bet.. :rolleyes:
 
Authorized by some publishers, but not others. Ooook.

Resellers like Steam make big margins on sales, so just speculating... GMG can get by with less probably cause their operating costs might be way cheaper I'd guess. However that creates pricing disparity and might be making Valve angry. Maybe since EA are not on Valve's Steam system they probably don't care, as long as they get a sale.

Interesting to see...
 
polonyc2 said:
even though a lot of people claim that GMG is a legit reseller, I've personally never bought anything from them...they seem shady...how do they sell every single new game for so much cheaper then retail?...every single new game!...they don't pass the eye test to me and I'd rather pay extra for peace of mind...I buy a lot of game codes nowadays through people selling their Nvidia bundle codes (Nvidia bundles a lot of popular AAA titles) and it's always cheaper then GMG anyway
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It is worth noting that while Green Man Gaming is not authorised to sell Activision or Ubisoft games, it is authorised to sell EA, Bethesda, WB Games, Devolver Digital and ArenaNet games.
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They're fine, I've been using GMG for as long as they've existed and never had an issue.
 
Yakk said:
Authorized by some publishers, but not others. Ooook.

Resellers like Steam make big margins on sales, so just speculating... GMG can get by with less probably cause their operating costs might be way cheaper I'd guess. However that creates pricing disparity and might be making Valve angry. Maybe since EA are not on Valve's Steam system they probably don't care, as long as they get a sale.

Interesting to see...
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Valve only controls the pricing on Steam for their own products ... the publishers/developers have direct control of their own pricing on services like Steam (and probably GOG) ... so although developers might be unhappy with GMG reducing their margins to sell very low I doubt that Valve is involved in the argument one way or the other
 
kbrickley said:
Valve only controls the pricing on Steam for their own products ... the publishers/developers have direct control of their own pricing on services like Steam (and probably GOG) ... so although developers might be unhappy with GMG reducing their margins to sell very low I doubt that Valve is involved in the argument one way or the other
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Yeah, I took Valve as an example because they are a big deal. GMG generally give the option on the discount, meaning some people may forget to use them (silly, but if we deal with averages it probably happens x% of the time). I always figured the discount was GMG giving away part, or all, of their margin they make on a sale in an effort to increase market share. If that's the case the publishers still get their profit, and technically the sales price is still per msrp before reseller discount.

Now if they purchase and resell grey market keys that's another story.
 
Yakk said:
Yeah, I took Valve as an example because they are a big deal. GMG generally give the option on the discount, meaning some people may forget to use them (silly, but if we deal with averages it probably happens x% of the time). I always figured the discount was GMG giving away part, or all, of their margin they make on a sale in an effort to increase market share. If that's the case the publishers still get their profit, and technically the sales price is still per msrp before reseller discount.

Now if they purchase and resell grey market keys that's another story.
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The business term for it is "loss leader". The idea behind it is to sell some popular products low enough that you either lose money or make very little (potentially just breaking even) in order to bring in customers. The hope is that customers will then continue to shop and buy products that you make a lot more on. Microcenter actually does the same thing with some of their deals, which is why they are in-store only.
 
I've bought from Green Man Games before without issue, I find it a bit troubling that publishers are saying that they're not an authorized reseller. I may avoid them in the future, but I'm not stopping from shopping around for a discount on games. I've saved so much money recently on games since I started shopping around online instead of buying direct from Steam every time that I'd be crazy to go back.

P.S. Buying Nvidia bundle codes is actually much shadier, because they come with a "only to be provided with hardware" condition that makes their resale a violation of their software agreement, which means the publisher can terminate your license any time they like.
 
Quix said:
I've bought from Green Man Games before without issue, I find it a bit troubling that publishers are saying that they're not an authorized reseller. I may avoid them in the future, but I'm not stopping from shopping around for a discount on games. I've saved so much money recently on games since I started shopping around online instead of buying direct from Steam every time that I'd be crazy to go back.

P.S. Buying Nvidia bundle codes is actually much shadier, because they come with a "only to be provided with hardware" condition that makes their resale a violation of their software agreement, which means the publisher can terminate your license any time they like.
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It appears as if the information is coming from Tier 1 support at publishers, so it's questionable. Heck, WB had to email the mods to inform them that GMG is an authorized seller and the information they got from T1 support was wrong.
 
Dion said:
It is authorized to sell games for certain publishers.

Also EA is an authorized dealer for GMG.

But i'm sure your random online Nvidia codes are a "safer" bet.. :rolleyes:
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Well the problem is not with the publishers that they are authorized to sell for, but with those that they are not. You are going to lose people's trust when you are selling unauthorized codes. If they want to be a 100% legit site, then they should only sell games from publishers they are authorized to do so.

Graphic card codes are legit codes, obtained through proper deals between AMD/nVidia and the game publishers, they are not some random codes taken from Russia.


Quix said:
P.S. Buying Nvidia bundle codes is actually much shadier, because they come with a "only to be provided with hardware" condition that makes their resale a violation of their software agreement, which means the publisher can terminate your license any time they like.
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That is the very definition of 3rd party shady deals. nVidia codes are legit for the users of the hardware, similar to how Russian keys are legit for Russian users. The problem is when someone take these legit code and resell them, that's when you'll get into trouble.
 
Hornet said:
Well the problem is not with the publishers that they are authorized to sell for, but with those that they are not. You are going to lose people's trust when you are selling unauthorized codes. If they want to be a 100% legit site, then they should only sell games from publishers they are authorized to do so
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well said...you can't be half-legit...half-legit means half-illegal/shady
 
"Authorized" is a simple wording by publishers meaning "they did not buy the game keys directly from them". In other words, the publisher has NO CONTROL over the min sell price for the game because they are not in a direct contract with the retailer. This whole idiotic discussion is simply the publishers wanting to exert their control onto GMG. The publishers can fix this themselves it happened before. I remember clearly one game I could not buy at GMG for less than MSRP at launch because I was in the US. The problem is the publishers want their cake and to eat it to. They want the immediate profits by selling a bunch of keys to resellers, then balk at the idea that these resellers resold the keys to other sites that discount the games that they have no control over via the contracts they made. So publishers label them "unauthorized" in hopes the buying public won't take them up on the deals they offer. Remember these are NOT stolen keys. They are the same "international" keys they sell at every online shop like GameStop, GamersGate, D2D, Humble Store, etc... The only difference is GMG is skirting the contractual obligation of having to sell the keys for a minimum price that the publisher would dictate if GMG were to have bought it directly from them.
 
I've been buying fron them for some time but rot regularly. I did buy CoD Black Ops Ill from them on launch day which apparently they aren't authorized to sell but the key activated fine on Steam. Hoping there's no issue down the road.
 
I've bought from them in the past with no issues and I think my brother bought our copies of Fallout 4 from them since it was only 40 something a copy.
 
Never had an issue buying games from them, other than a delay on my Battlefront key today. They said we will get a 30% off coupon which makes me even happier.
 
I'll keep using GMG, this is all about bunch of sensational drama. I'm been getting keys a lot cheaper from them for years and Battlefront has been the only hiccup. I think i can keep my panties untwisted waiting 1-2 days for my key that was only $30.
 
I'm not convinced there is a real problem here. At least not yet.
 
Surely if they were doing something that publishers were legally opposed to they would receive multiple cease and desist orders.
 
So they are no better then G2A and all those other sites, what a suprise...
 
eurin said:
I'll keep using GMG, this is all about bunch of sensational drama. I'm been getting keys a lot cheaper from them for years and Battlefront has been the only hiccup. I think i can keep my panties untwisted waiting 1-2 days for my key that was only $30.
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Feels a bit too clickbaity honestly, Ive spoken directly techsupport at length (I messed up my accounts) and they've always been ok by me.


Inregards to g2A, NO they are nothing like G2a which is apparently more like a tradehoster of grey keys. GMG is a part of the original wave of digital resellers like Direct2drive. They've been around forever. The article makes the "claim" that GMG is reselling greymarket keys but I didn't see any proof in the article just rumor stuff.
 
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I've bought from GMG for years without issue. Publisher whining intensifies but trying to paint vendors like GMG in the same vein as stolen accounts is disingenuous. They aren't a "marketplace" like G2A (which is fine when selling keys directly, but also sells from third parties which opens up to shiftyness. However, the vast majority of most G2A transactions even arent' "stolen" keys. If anything, they're purchased out of region, but are always clearly labeled as the region they will activate within). I know that the digital publishers and content makers absolutely hate doctrine of first sale and have worked to obliterate the concept of ownership, but if these keys are sourced from legit purchases that just don't happen to be direct from said publisher (ie buying an item from a reseller who purchased from a large volume reseller etc..), then I don't see a problem. Publishers insisting on minimum prices and whatnot are the bigger issue; if a vendor can sell an item at sale and make it up via volume or otherwise benefit, let them.
 
people rationalizing that 'I've been using GMG for years without any issues' does not mean that the place is using legit non-stolen keys...I've been robbing banks for years and have never gotten caught, must mean that it's OK to keep doing it
 
mr_zen256 said:
Surely if they were doing something that publishers were legally opposed to they would receive multiple cease and desist orders.
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Or maybe this is just legal grey area and it's not that cut and dry. A lot of the greymarket keysellers are also in crappy places that don't exactly abide by international copyright laws.

What is undeniable is that GMG has at least partially traded and profited in selling keys intended for cheap regions to non-cheapregion customers. That's greymarketing. If publishers mind, I'm sure we'll see region locking get even more rigid.
 
odditory said:
Or maybe this is just legal grey area and it's not that cut and dry. A lot of the greymarket keysellers are also in crappy places that don't exactly abide by international copyright laws.

What is undeniable is that GMG has at least partially traded and profited in selling keys intended for cheap regions to non-cheapregion customers. That's greymarketing. If publishers mind, I'm sure we'll see region locking get even more rigid.
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GMG is based out of the UK.
 
Whatever, region locking is bullshit and has no place in a digital economy. Sell your games at a fair price worldwide and this ceases to be an issue. The prices GMG offers on all new titles does nothing but expose publisher greed. If they are able to offer almost everything at a 20% discount by obtaining the keys from other channels, retailers and publishers are taking an extra 20% without providing any additional value over what GMG offers. Lower the launch price of AAA PC titles to $48 and watch as this issue fades out of relevance and PC market share makes a bigger dent into consoles.
 
If I can't pay less than $59 for a digital copy of a game, I'll opt to acquire by other means instead.
 
I think this is just a lot of hoopla over nothing because some people didn't get their Battlefront pre-order keys. I've got a lot of games from GMG and never had any issues with them. Even if they aren't authorized for certain publishers, who really cares? Their prices always beat Steam/Origin and they tend to have a lot of discount coupons floating around. It's funny to see people jumping on the bandwagon to vilify them just because some power drunk moderators on a subreddit banned them.
 
Derangel said:
GMG is based out of the UK.
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Just want to add that if they are doing something illegal in the UK, then they would get shut down faster than a person can blink their eye. So it would seem that they aren't a part of some elaborate CD Key Mafia.
 
cageymaru said:
Just want to add that if they are doing something illegal in the UK, then they would get shut down faster than a person can blink their eye. So it would seem that they aren't a part of some elaborate CD Key Mafia.
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Exactly. They're the largest multi-platform game retailer in the UK. It's not like they're some fly-by-night operation that would be under the UK government's or publisher's radars.
 
cageymaru said:
Just want to add that if they are doing something illegal in the UK, then they would get shut down faster than a person can blink their eye. So it would seem that they aren't a part of some elaborate CD Key Mafia.
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Thats a good point, in the UK their DMCA stuff is a million times harsher than ours.
 
Never bought anything from GMG. I do get free games from them sometimes. I usually wait to get games from Steam sales. I've always questioned how GMG can be cheaper than every other legal avenue on day one launch of games.
 
scojer said:
Never bought anything from GMG. I do get free games from them sometimes. I usually wait to get games from Steam sales. I've always questioned how GMG can be cheaper than every other legal avenue on day one launch of games.
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The same way that Microcenter can offer crazy good deals during CPU launches.
 
Given that steam moved to local pricing in dirhams and wants 82 bucks for Fallout 4, I will continue to use cd key sites. Steam can eat my dick for all I care.
 
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