Ubisoft deactivating keys it says were "fraudulently" obtained and resold

spoffle said:
The problem is that such matters are yet to be tried in a court of law (except for the EU with regards to software licenses in general, rather than interactive media specifically).

However, the publishers or developers typically like to fall back on the terms they set out in their EULAs, and state that you are not entitled to re-sell keys, and if you do it voids your license to use said software.

If taken to court, this wouldn't stand up at all. The problem is getting it there.
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I agree with that, but as I was typing this to say that punishing the end user isn't right I realised that all the companies are to my knowledge are offering refunds therefore Ubi are passing the cost of a dubious EULA onto the reselling companies. None of them are going to be able to afford the refunds on tens of thousands of refunds.

Maybe the fact that companies could possibly go out of business due to enforced digital rights issues it will get dragged into court, at least we as end users will know where we stand then.
 
Just a random quote taken from the game informer article "This is ********. I sold a Far Cry 4 key that I got free with my new GPU on G2A and the guy who purchased it from me still got it banned... Screw Ubisoft. Seriously WTF"
 
EA is also saying that they were purchased with fraudulent cards:

Update: EA has confirmed Ubisoft's assertion that the fraudulent keys in question were purchased from Origin. The company provided us with additional detail.

"A number of activation keys for Ubisoft products were purchased from Origin using fraudulent credit cards, and then resold online," an EA representative told us via email. "We identified the unauthorized keys and notified Ubisoft. If you are having trouble with an activation key, we recommend you contact the vendor who sold it to you for a refund. We strongly advise players only purchase keys from Origin or trusted resellers. For more information on our policy is available here: http://help.ea.com/en/article/should-i-purchase-my-ea-downloadable-games-from-cd-key-sellers/."
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But there's been sources saying they bought directly from Ubisoft and redistributed, and codes from other places. Not just Origin. This is well dodgy.

I also like how that Origin article has no clear definition what is legit. Some sites are, some sites aren't? OK, how can the average consumer tell?
 
It wouldn't surprise me if Ubisoft, like the bunch of charlatans they are, just lied and made up the stolen credit story in order to fend of some of the furious criticism being thrown at their shoddy practices.
 
ci_newman said:
If the Ralph Lauren clothes were known to be stolen (i.e. purchased fraudulently) then yes, it is probable that the clothes would be impounded by the police.
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except these arnt stolen.

they're just bought in a country where they are sold for less.
 
I've always stayed well clear of these cheap and nasty looking key sites . . not suprised this has occured. Legit places like gmg are cheap enough but steam sales have made pc gamers real penny pinchers over the years.
 
Another reason for me never buying a Ubi game again.

Said it before Black Flag - got burned,

Said it before Watchdogs - got burned,

Said it before FC4 - got burned.

Won't purchase for them at all now, I'm not going to pay £49 for a badly optimized game.
 
I paid for a key from Kinguin 34euro Inc key protection... The same gold edition game key from Ubi in the UK is a shade under £80 quid! Which I why I went to Kinguin in the 1st place... I have never had a problem with a game key from Kingpin.

Why is it Ubi sell a game in the UK at nearly twice the price than it does in other European countries???

My game got banned at the weekend I sent Ubi and email it took them 4 days to reply... I sent Kinguin an email at the same time I got a new game key within 24 hours.
 
Ultimately the real loss is for the customer and Ubisoft have a bad rep already as it is.
They should have taken it on the chin or taken legal action against these sites directly for compensation if they feel money was lost.

They don't want to keep the customer happy, cool - let it bite them on the behind.
While some do know they were buying probably dodgy keys, I can't imagine everyone did - we call those uninformed buyers but still, not cool on Ubisoft.

Speaking of ubisoft, I wanted to check my account and got this when trying to reset my password because I distinctly remember ubisoft not letting me use one's I remember because of odd amounts of required numbers/special characters etc
A year on they still haven't fixed it! Cheap or what?
ubicaptcha.jpg


When I did find some backward way of doing it, the account page only shows "what game do you want to add". Literally no other link.
 
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How would anyone know that they're buying dodgy keys from somewhere like G2A and Kinguin? I've seen numerous posts on here from people saying they've never bought from these two sites before, asking whether they're legit and the response is always that they are fine to buy from. So certainly from that point of view they're made out to be ok, why would anyone make the assumption that it's so much cheaper so therefore must be dodgy? It's the same with the Origin Mexico and India purchasing for EA games. It's so much cheaper in those regions, and there are many posts in here that go through what needs to be done in order to purchase a game at the lower price. Sure, it's a workaround, but nobody views it as illegal and I certainly wouldn't expect to lose a key over it. I did the same with World of Warcraft, I bought it in USD and gifted the key to myself which was significantly cheaper than it was in Sterling. I saved about £10 doing it that way, and I didn't for once think that what I was doing was shady, it's a workaround that saves me money, so of course I'm going to do it!

Sites like Kinguin and G2A are advertised on numerous Twitch streams and Youtube gaming channels. They're everywhere, and those streams and channels target gamers so of course many will check them out and buy keys from there.

At the end of the day, Ubisoft have handled this all wrong and hopefully this will be another nail in the coffin for them. They're constantly releasing unpolished games and they never seem to suffer for it. I haven't bought an Ubi game for about two years, and I certainly won't again after this debacle.
 
As expected the keys were purchased with stolen credit cards - you should all be whining to your dodgy key sites and not UBI.
 
n111ck said:
As expected the keys were purchased with stolen credit cards - you should all be whining to your dodgy key sites and not UBI.
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We need some delicious sauce with concrete evidence?

In all honesty this is starting to sound like they are basically eliminating most distribution channels where people can get a discount.
 
It has nothing to do with where the keys come from, all to do with Ubi wanting you to pay their obscene prices for sub par games.

If i didn't get mine free with the 970's i wouldn't have bought them anyway. I certainly won't buy a Ubisoft game in the future.

Also what proof is there? We have the word from a company whose latest releases have been disgusting in the way that they simply were not fit for release or not what they advertised.

They're a cancer of the gaming world and sooner they go under the better.

FarCry 4 - £45 download and doesn't run properly for a lot of people.
The Crew £45 download and very average.
AC: Unity £45 download and was just broke beyond belief.
Watch Dogs £23 download, on release was probably the above prices yet looked nothing like the game we saw advertised.
 
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neoboy said:
We need some delicious sauce with concrete evidence?

In all honesty this is starting to sound like they are basically eliminating most distribution channels where people can get a discount.
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From what I read, the stolen cards were used to buy keys through Origin.. (Origin has taken all Ubisoft games off it's store apparently)

However, it doesn't seem to explain the keys that were bought through G2A/Kinguin etc... were they all bought using stolen cards?

The whole thing stinks of BS to me.
 
CHokKA said:
How would anyone know that they're buying dodgy keys from somewhere like G2A and Kinguin? I've seen numerous posts on here from people saying they've never bought from these two sites before, asking whether they're legit and the response is always that they are fine to buy from. So certainly from that point of view they're made out to be ok, why would anyone make the assumption that it's so much cheaper so therefore must be dodgy?
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I think the issue with those sites is they use keys from wherever they can get them. Sometimes legit sources, sometimes not. Ultimately the publishers and platform holders are only going to get tougher on this as more people try to save a bit of money by buying cheap CD keys either purchased fraudulently or not intended for sale in their region.

What Ubisoft have done isn't particularly customer-friendly at all, but on the other hand they have a responsibility to protect their own business and that of their retail partners who are doing things the right way; I can't imagine they're very happy about the likes of Kinguin and G2A selling games for half the price that they can.
 
Seems to me that Ubisoft are cancelling keys they see as breaking a "no reselling" licence, which is likely an illegal clause. Sure, some of that may be down to credit card fraud, but all of it, and at places like Origin?

A non-transferable clause is there to simply ensure keys only come through approved channels which have to stick to approved prices. No more cheap games for you, ex-Ubisoft customer!
 
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