Steam prices! Grey key sites! and the I love/hate developers thread - Enter if you dare!

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TheVoice said:
The sorts of increases you're talking about in order to raise that revenue above and beyond what they'd be getting if the game was 'full price only' are completely unrealistic and out of proportion though. For every 'lost' full price sale, the cheap CD key price would have to be luring in maybe 3 or 4 people who otherwise would never have bought the game for your numbers to make any sense. That's quite a number.

If the game was going to stay full price forever then yes, I would be inclined to agree with the point you're making. We all know that isn't the case and that Steam sales etc mean games do eventually (and sometimes fairly quickly) get cheap and gamers know that, so who are these masses of people who only buy games when they're both new and cheap but otherwise wouldn't buy anything?
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I only buy games when they are cheap, However if I am looking forward to a game I will buy a key code if it cheap enough.

Examples, I wanted Witcher 3 but I wanted it on Steam and you could not get a Steam key cheap so I did not get it until it was roughly 30 quid on Steam. Just cause 3 & MGSV are examples of games I won't buy until they are cheap and in that I mean cheaper than code sites provide meaning I may not buy them for a year or more because they don't really interest me enough.
ROTTR, I got that for around 25 quid from a key site, If that had not possible I would not own it, Take into consideration that the Steam store did a pre-order price and then on the day it released they reduced the price and justified doing so with the excuse that they gave a free copy of TR2013 (which 99% of pre-orderers would already own or could have bought in the last Steam sale for less than half of the pre-order to release day cost difference) and a couple of skins with no real value (one of which was in the release day bundle anyway) and I have to say I feel quite justified in buying the game from a key code site. It is not an illegal transaction and they would not of been able to do it if Square Enix was not willing to sell codes in bulk in advance.
I do'nt think I'm taking advantage of anything, I have a price I'm willing to pay for games and I get the game when it's available for that price if I want the game. Witcher 3 and Project cars are example of games I bought once available at my price limit and have not got around to playing so if I'd of waited I could now get them even cheaper but I bought them anyway, Others include Unity & Watchdogs. If I want a game I get it once it's in my price range regardless of if I'll play it now or in a years time which I think overall balances things out, At least in my mind.
 
if you buy a key issued in a eu member country, it cant be considered "a grey key". banning the use of European keys on steam would be a legal minefield for valve and the publishers., keys are also bought in bulk, which makes them far , far cheaper.( no way they pay £45 when you buy 1k keys)
 
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lordfletch said:
if you buy a key issued in a eu member country, it cant be considered "a grey key". banning the use of European keys on steam would be a legal minefield for valve and the publishers., keys are also bought in bulk, which makes them far , far cheaper.( no way to pay £45 when you buy 1k keys)
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Well that's the other thing. You only have the word of the grey sellers that their keys are from the EU.

I had a look at CJS CD Keys, who you might think are selling only EU keys:

Our company functions by importing the games from main distributors within the EU
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That sentence is quite vague, tbh. Does not say that the keys are intended for EU region.

And if you look, they are selling Russian keys also that need a VPN to activate.

Do you trust them? A quick Google suggests you shouldn't.
 
Vonhelmet said:
If it were tha much of a problem then I'm sure it would not be beyond Steam to track the use of keys in the UK to resellers in Bulgaria or wherever. One could reasonably assume that they know which particular keys have been sold to which resellers and which country they're intended for. If it were a problem they could crack down on the resellers selling outside their borders by refusing to sell keys to them.
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On top of that places like G2A advertise quite a lot (on things like Twitch) so they're not exactly hiding.
I'd have thought if hard drugs were being advertised like this, or slave trafficking or general piracy then they would get shut down pretty quickly. Yet nobody seems to be shutting down G2A. They're not some underground site that keeps closing down and popping up under a new name.
They're not hard to find. If they're doing such illegal things then why haven't all the game studios and publishers shut them down already?
 
GoogalyMoogaly said:
On top of that places like G2A advertise quite a lot (on things like Twitch) so they're not exactly hiding.
I'd have thought if hard drugs were being advertised like this, or slave trafficking or general piracy then they would get shut down pretty quickly. Yet nobody seems to be shutting down G2A. They're not some underground site that keeps closing down and popping up under a new name.
They're not hard to find. If they're doing such illegal things then why haven't all the game studios and publishers shut them down already?
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No one ever said they were illegal. I don't think that's been said even once in any discussion on the topic.
 
GoogalyMoogaly said:
On top of that places like G2A advertise quite a lot (on things like Twitch) so they're not exactly hiding.
I'd have thought if hard drugs were being advertised like this, or slave trafficking or general piracy then they would get shut down pretty quickly. Yet nobody seems to be shutting down G2A. They're not some underground site that keeps closing down and popping up under a new name.
They're not hard to find. If they're doing such illegal things then why haven't all the game studios and publishers shut them down already?
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Amnesia said:
so every single game that has ever been pirated, the users have had the funds to purchase the games at full price and were willing to purchase these games had they not been available by other means.

did you check every pirates pockets as they download the games to see if they had enough money for the game ?
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spoffle said:
Can you describe in detail how piracy is a definite "loss" of revenue, ignoring the fact that you can't lose something you never had?
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I'm not saying piracy is a definite loss of revenue, I'm saying it can be seen as one. My point is very simple: piracy and key sites share important similarities that should not be ignored. If you believe piracy is wrong and that it should not be done then purchasing from key sites is also wrong and should not be done. If you don't believe piracy is wrong then key sites are ok to use too.

Many people frown on piracy but they have no problem using key sites, despite the fact that it can be seen as a revenue loss for the developer (like piracy) and that it inflates prices in developing countries (thus indirectly increasing piracy).
 
Steam made themselves the standard for game distribution, and charge the earth for it, which of course bumps up the price (a source of endless lol Steam jokes). My last two release purchases have been Fallout 4 and X-Com 2, both for £26. Considering my own tight personal finances, I consider that a fair exchange, which is enough for me.

The way I see it, if you're paying £40 (or more!) for a game in the digital age, you're being taken for a ride. Or worse, you are a blind developer/publisher fan boy that somehow feels likes of EA & Ubisoft need all the money. I will hunt down the best legitimate price I can, or wait for the inevitable sale.

I like to think I have something of a moral code. I won't pirate, but I won't slavishly throw all my money at huge corporations either. I'm not buying in to the whole subsidizing the rest of the world thing either.
 
happy to buy from cdkey sites/grey/"loophole" , it's a legit sale better for my wallet and the devs get cash (Their company, they still got paid a wage)
 
Zethor said:
I'm not saying piracy is a definite loss of revenue, I'm saying it can be seen as one. My point is very simple: piracy and key sites share important similarities that should not be ignored. If you believe piracy is wrong and that it should not be done then purchasing from key sites is also wrong and should not be done. If you don't believe piracy is wrong then key sites are ok to use too.

Many people frown on piracy but they have no problem using key sites, despite the fact that it can be seen as a revenue loss for the developer (like piracy) and that it inflates prices in developing countries (thus indirectly increasing piracy).
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This is such bizarre logic. Even most people that believe that it is less moral somehow to purchase a cheaper key don't believe that it is no better than piracy. I would hope.
 
murah said:
happy to buy from cdkey sites/grey/"loophole" , it's a legit sale better for my wallet and the devs get cash (Their company, they still got paid a wage)
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Hmm, OK so the programmers, artists, engineers get paid a wage. And got paid that before the game was released.

So then if the studio goes out of business nobody loses, right? The coders, etc, will find/found another studio, get paid for making another game... and then if that studio makes no money and goes bust, still nobody loses...

...and this will just keep going on and on, and new studios won't struggle to find the investment necessary to start up, because... erm... logic?

And for all the people who say studios are giant, greedy, money-grabbing profiteers, are you just making sure EA/Ubi get less of your money, or are you using grey key sellers for all your games?
 
FrenchTart said:
This is such bizarre logic. Even most people that believe that it is less moral somehow to purchase a cheaper key don't believe that it is no better than piracy. I would hope.
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If you consider only that transaction, then of course not. But if you start to think that consumers in one country can influence prices, and therefore behaviour, in another country... things aren't so black and white any more, are they?

I won't claim to know that this is actually happening, or might happen in future, but I don't think any of us can just discount the possibility.
 
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