Where shady keyshops get thousands copies of PoE 2?

[Valko]

Hello, Obsidian! Where shady keyshops like G2A, Kinguin.net and many others get thousands of cheap Pillars of Eternity copies for 10-15 Euro to sell them? Are they legit licences or stolen from someone?

https://www.allkeyshop.com/blog/buy-pillars-of-eternity-2-deadfire-cd-key-compare-prices/

[Wormerine]

Keys on those “grey market” stores come from various sources and it would take a lot of effort to track each and every key. Polygon attempted it once:

https://www.polygon.com/2015/2/9/8006693/the-truth-behind-those-mysteriously-cheap-gray-market-game-codes

 

Probably the most extreme cases were keys bought via stolen credit card information. Ubi made a big fuss about it a while back.

 

Another dirty trick is buying a key in an area with a lower pricing or during a deep sale and reselling it for a profit.

 

Keys might be also spare ones - someone receiving a gifted copy, getting key from a bundle he owns/isn’t interested in. Or as in the case of Polygon article someone selling a key distributed for promotional purposes.

 

Whatever, the keys come from, those “grey market” sellers are not authorised shops - they don’t get keys directly from developers. They act more like an e-bay - just a platform for transaction. How dodgy the source is may vary.

 

If you wonder if buying from those sites is an acceptable thing to do - well, I don’t think there is any chance Obsidian will gain anything from those sales. Overall, I would recommend avoiding those, especially when new releases are concerned.

[xzar_monty]

As far as I know, this phenomenon is in no way restricted to Deadfire, i.e. you would find the exact same dodgy keys for many, many games. (I once made a short search and found several very cheap keys. But they looked so dubious I didn't even consider buying.)

[Valko]

As far as I know, this phenomenon is in no way restricted to Deadfire, i.e. you would find the exact same dodgy keys for many, many games. (I once made a short search and found several very cheap keys. But they looked so dubious I didn't even consider buying.)

Thousands of cheap steam keys for famous titles is a very very rare case. In this case it could be some fishy reseller or marketing source. Moreover that could be a reason of financial failure of the game.

Edited January 19, 2019 by Valko

[Valko]

I hope at least Obsidian PR and top managers know it's source

[Triple - A Foxy Lad]

Another dirty trick is buying a key in an area with a lower pricing

 

ye, this. i know folk who make a few quid trading in the price gaps between regions. theres a little bit more chicanery involved that i dont care to know, but thats the core of it.

[baldurs_gate_2]

It's obviously shady, if you can get brand new games that cost 60 euro / dollar in retail or on steam / gog, for 35-40 after the release.