CD keys ?

[MauiWowyy]

What are these keys everyone is talking about. I purchased DD2 on steam

[Kaars]

Grey markets.

[Dradiin]

GreenManGaming

[wolfinston85]

There are key sites where you can buy keys for the game, some legitimate, some others that are classified as gray market sites, given they can't always prove how they got the key, or alternatively, they have unofficial ways of getting them; think of them as scalpers in a way.

[MauiWowyy]

Originally posted by wolfinston85:

There are key sites where you can buy keys for the game, some legitimate, some others that are classified as gray market sites, given they can't always prove how they got the key, or alternatively, they have unofficial ways of getting them; think of them as scalpers in a way.

Thank you for the information appreciate you

[SlugHead]

Think steam takes 30% of the sale value of games on their platform. GMG makes deals with the devs/ publishers etc., for keys and effectively cuts down on steams profits.

[Taddy Mason]

fanatical has capcom listed as one of their partnered publishers, so i trust them on that. they'd be sued by capcom if that weren't true, i bet.

[Wingnut Mcmoomoo]

i buy alot of games off humble because if you have choice a $70 game is usually like $58. Around the time games started going for $70 they started giving away 20% off for all the big AAA games (usually it takes some time for a game to reach the 20% off threshold that comes with choice).

But humble is like... one of the least shady key sites

[Wingnut Mcmoomoo]

Originally posted by SlugHead:

Think steam takes 30% of the sale value of games on their platform. GMG makes deals with the devs/ publishers etc., for keys and effectively cuts down on steams profits.

from my understanding GMG working directly with steam itself and not the publisher or dev. they get the keys from the storefronts and then sell them. From the publishers perspective it would be like a lot of their games sold at once as GMG buys them in bulk from steam at a discount (how would publishers have keys for the storefront without the storefront getting a cut? Hence being called a reseller, they buy the keys and resell them lol). At least now adays that they are more legitimate.

So it literally is just profits for steam lol.

[SlugHead]

Originally posted by Wingnut Mcmoomoo:

Originally posted by SlugHead:

Think steam takes 30% of the sale value of games on their platform. GMG makes deals with the devs/ publishers etc., for keys and effectively cuts down on steams profits.

from my understanding GMG working directly with steam itself and not the publisher. they get the keys from the storefronts and then sell them no from the publishers (how would publishers have keys for the storefront without the storefront getting a cut). At least now adays that they are more legitimate.

"Green Man Gaming (GMG) sources its CD keys from legitimate and authorized channels. Unlike some other key resellers, GMG ensures that the keys it sells are obtained directly from the publishers or developers of the games." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[KingOfFriedChicken]

Originally posted by SlugHead:

Think steam takes 30% of the sale value of games on their platform. GMG makes deals with the devs/ publishers etc., for keys and effectively cuts down on steams profits.

The question may be, "why does steam allow this?"
The answer is they simply put up with it because the more people with steam installed the better, eventually you'll make a purchase on steam even if you frequent keys, plus they don't count key purchases towards the offical reviews anymore. Mostly to stop devs from handing out mass free keys to bump their reviews but it is something that is true.

[Wingnut Mcmoomoo]

Originally posted by SlugHead:

Originally posted by Wingnut Mcmoomoo:

from my understanding GMG working directly with steam itself and not the publisher. they get the keys from the storefronts and then sell them no from the publishers (how would publishers have keys for the storefront without the storefront getting a cut). At least now adays that they are more legitimate.

"Green Man Gaming (GMG) sources its CD keys from legitimate and authorized channels. Unlike some other key resellers, GMG ensures that the keys it sells are obtained directly from the publishers or developers of the games." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yeah GMG is legit but its just a reseller, they aren't a different storefront that works with publishers and devs while taking a lower cut... thats epic games LMAO

[Wingnut Mcmoomoo]

Originally posted by KingOfFriedChicken:

Originally posted by SlugHead:

Think steam takes 30% of the sale value of games on their platform. GMG makes deals with the devs/ publishers etc., for keys and effectively cuts down on steams profits.

The question may be, "why does steam allow this?"
The answer is they simply put up with it because the more people with steam installed the better, eventually you'll make a purchase on steam even if you frequent keys, plus they don't count key purchases towards the offical reviews anymore. Mostly to stop devs from handing out mass free keys to bump their reviews but it is something that is true.

Steam directly profits off it what are you even talking about? they are the ones selling the keys to GMG in bulk at a discount who then sell it to people who wouldn't buy it from steam. its a win win for steam they'd be dumb not to use this type of way to move excess product

[KingOfFriedChicken]

Originally posted by Wingnut Mcmoomoo:

Originally posted by KingOfFriedChicken:

The question may be, "why does steam allow this?"
The answer is they simply put up with it because the more people with steam installed the better, eventually you'll make a purchase on steam even if you frequent keys, plus they don't count key purchases towards the offical reviews anymore. Mostly to stop devs from handing out mass free keys to bump their reviews but it is something that is true.

Steam directly profits off it what are you even talking about? they are the ones selling the keys to GMG in bulk at a discount who then sell it to people who wouldn't buy it from steam. its a win win for steam they'd be dumb not to use this type of way to move excess product

From my understanding they source the codes in bulk from the developers/publishers, steam has no involvement in it. Now that may be an old understanding of course, but nothing online indicates that they ever started working directly with steam.

Altough I'd gladly look at your source of info!

[SlugHead]

Originally posted by Wingnut Mcmoomoo:

Originally posted by KingOfFriedChicken:

The question may be, "why does steam allow this?"
The answer is they simply put up with it because the more people with steam installed the better, eventually you'll make a purchase on steam even if you frequent keys, plus they don't count key purchases towards the offical reviews anymore. Mostly to stop devs from handing out mass free keys to bump their reviews but it is something that is true.

Steam directly profits off it what are you even talking about? they are the ones selling the keys to GMG in bulk at a discount who then sell it to people who wouldn't buy it from steam. its a win win for steam they'd be dumb not to use this type of way to move excess product

What excess product? It's not like these are physical copies taking up space in a warehouse somewhere. Publishers may have excess keys for review purposes or sponsorship deals with streamers etc., it's their product. Steam is a platform they're selling on. I'm not sure how the system works or if there's even any consistency between publishers. The information I can find leads me to believe that the keys aren't coming directly from steam.

[KingOfFriedChicken]

Originally posted by SlugHead:

Originally posted by Wingnut Mcmoomoo:

Steam directly profits off it what are you even talking about? they are the ones selling the keys to GMG in bulk at a discount who then sell it to people who wouldn't buy it from steam. its a win win for steam they'd be dumb not to use this type of way to move excess product

What excess product? It's not like these are physical copies taking up space in a warehouse somewhere. Publishers may have excess keys for review purposes or sponsorship deals with streamers etc., it's their product. Steam is a platform they're selling on. I'm not sure how the system works or if there's even any consistency between publishers. The information I can find leads me to believe that the keys aren't coming directly from steam.

Developers even on steam have the right to generate and hand out keys at any time, steam allows this for giveaways, reviewers, etc... but they can just generate and sell keys to 3rd party sites.

I can't say for 100% sure this is the exact thing happening but that it's kinda what we know so 🤷