Do NOT buy from G2Play!

G2Play is an online retailer of game CD Keys, numerous Overclockers members had good experiences with them so I decided to buy Modern Warfare 2 from them for the oh so reasonable price of £27 on release day (It went up to £40 some hours later).

First of all, the site went down, so it took several hours to get in contact with them after my payment failed because of their downtime. When I eventually got in touch, they told me that they had no keys yet and expected them within a few hours.

So I told them to cancel my order so I could buy it elsewhere, and about 8 hours later received an email saying here is your key (No refund, not even acknowledgement of my email).

Next up I put the key into Steam, perfect ! Game installs and I'm online eventually. Played for about a week perfect.

Last night I go onto Steam and multi-player is gone, and single player simply says pre-loaded, with the option to buy it, NOT play it.

So I email steam, and this morning they reply with the following:

Steam Support said:

Hello,

A staff member has replied to your question:

Hello, Thank you for contacting Steam Support. Your Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 CD Key has been purchased from an unauthorized re-seller of Steam CD Keys. Your CD Key has been revoked. Please do not complete any purchases with this vendor. Only CD Keys included with retail copies or purchased from authorized retailers will be allowed. Let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.

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So now I'm £27 out of pocket, and because I used MoneyBookers I can't perform a charge back (My fault admittedly).

But guess what? They're website is down AGAIN so I can't even go on my account to find out if they've made any announcements.

So yeah, don't recommend buying from them or ANY online CD key sale site unless they have Steam approval, or you'll regret it!

I bought a MW2 key from there. I was also told they had ran out of keys and were waiting for more to come in. I waited ages and kicked off at them, they then eventually gave me the key. So far I've not had any problems with it - still works in Steam and hopefully stays that way. *touches wood*

Thank you, I probably wouldn't have purchased from them anyway, but I definitely won't now. I hope you get it all sorted out and what not, but it doesn't sound too good.

Secret_Window said:

I bought a MW2 key from there. I was also told they had ran out of keys and were waiting for more to come in. I waited ages and kicked off at them, they then eventually gave me the key. So far I've not had any problems with it - still works in Steam and hopefully stays that way. *touches wood*

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Essentially your key won't be valid, I don't know why it took steam so long to work it out, or why you haven't been affected by it to, but be glad you haven't! I gotta say though, if I was in your situation I'd rather get a refund and get the proper game (Though only get a refund once the retail version is a similar price!)

I've emailed them now, waiting for a response.

EDIT: Thanks naffa, hopefully my experience can save some people of the trouble! I'll keep you updated here

Same thing happened to me, I posted about it it the MW2 thread, awaiting my refund/response too.

Don't know why people even buy from this site. All it takes is a google and you'll find loads of people not recommending them.

It's obvious they beg/borrow/steal their CD keys.

On their site:

Attention all customers: If you have any troubles with your keys please contact our support by email [email protected]. All emails are being answered and all issues are being solved.

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http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1031758

Valves response to the above thread.
"I am sorry but you all did not purchase from a legitimate retailer. It is recommended that you contact the seller to request a refund.

In the future, you should only buy unopened retail boxed copies from legitimate retailers or purchase via legitimate digital download services such as Steam and Direct2Drive.

Future threads on the issue will be closed. If you have any questions/comments, please contact Steam Support."

I think this is the first time they have clamped down on keys like this, (IW's persistence in this?) places like G2Play and OnlineKeyStore buy there stock cheap from Asia/Russia for like $10 then sell them on at a profit.

Is Steam not available in those countries? That's the only legitimate reason I can see why Steam would block the keys here. They are real keys after all.

Kind of sucks that Steam ban imports like this. Not that it has affected me, wouldn't spend money on MW2 anyway.

It seems pretty stupid that Steam tie the game to their services and then decide what keys they will and won't allow, seems like they're just completely dominating the market by force, which is completely ridiculous. Fair enough they might of contracted the thing, but if this keeps up and they do it for all the major titles, they're going to ruin the games market for anyone who just wants to play the game without Steam.

A gmail account for contacting support? hmmm

I've never had any problems, (got most of my EA games from them) and EA havent bothered to ban my account, must just be Steam tbh.

Redgie said:

It seems pretty stupid that Steam tie the game to their services and then decide what keys they will and won't allow, seems like they're just completely dominating the market by force, which is completely ridiculous. Fair enough they might of contracted the thing, but if this keeps up and they do it for all the major titles, they're going to ruin the games market for anyone who just wants to play the game without Steam.

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You have no idea where those keys are coming from though. They might be using a keygen for all you know. Just because bob on the forums says they're Russian doesn't make it so.

True, I can't guarantee where the keys are coming from, but judging by the way Steam are dealing with the situation my point is still valid.

Redgie said:

True, I can't guarantee where the keys are coming from, but judging by the way Steam are dealing with the situation my point is still valid.

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Wouldn't say so, steam can't really do anything about it, the only thing they can do is block the keys. They can hardly allow people to continue to play the game with stolen, illegally obtained CD keys.

Should have done some research before buying from G2Play.

I did research, though admittedly on the OcUK forum where people were reviewing them as a great business.

From reading the steam thread...

I honestly see no fault of G2Play here, It's Activision and Steam revoking these keys.
Not "meant" for "insert region here" this also recently happened with a load of TF2 "grey import codes" from what I heard.

G2 Play appear to be supplying legitimate keys, if you go onto eBay or similar, or even buy from the states and then apply the code to an EU/UK account the from Steams example even tho you've paid for the game they can revoke the access.

Good examples given in the steam forum thread for this, especially steams retarded currency exchange rates, which would lead exactly to this situation. That and a hell of a lot of what appears to be 12 year olds kicking off going by some of the posts lol

Im betting that even if you have a full retail version that you got "not in region" and could prove to Steam you bought, owned and indeed had the item and key they would still leave the key revoked.

~Divine~Wind~ said:

G2 Play appear to be supplying legitimate keys, if you go onto eBay or similar, or even buy from the states and then apply the code to an EU/UK account the from Steams example even tho you've paid for the game they can revoke the access.

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Appearances can be deceptive though, I could set up a website selling keys, download a few keygens, say I buy the keys from Korea cheap and merrily fleece a load of people.

Aren't G2Play the same people who BloodBowl developers were banning keys from saying they were stolen? Or was that the other key selling site I saw mentioned on here a few months back that is now just gone?

edit - Yes, it was G2Play, http://www.cyanide-studio.com/forumBB/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3663

Always thought that place looked a bit *****

Undercutting Steam, and then letting Valve take the bandwidth costs.

You can hardly blame them for revoking the keys.

their site is still down, unprofessional