Several game developers have taken to Reddit to ask fans to pirate their games instead of buying them from shady retailers such as G2A.
"I'm a game developer with a game on steam and please just torrent my game instead of supporting shady resellers," wrote RageSquid founder Lex Decrauw. "I'll even give you the download link."
"I understand people aren't always able or willing to pay full price for a game, but seeing people play my game is the most important thing to me," he added. "Just torrent it instead of putting money in the wrong hands."
Decrauw's plea was echoed by other game developers, implying a rotten state of affairs.
G2A is a game keys reseller. It operates by buying unused individual game keys from players who got them as part of a bundle. Everybody wins in this model except the game developer. One gamer gets to make a couple of bucks off a game he never intended to play, another gamer gets the game at a great price and G2A skims a couple of bucks off the transaction. The game developers however is left only with a lost sale. Moreover, TinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik accused the company of facilitating a black market economy where a lot of the keys are bought using stolen credit cards.