Is the recent rumor of "Retail Keys Activation Issues" true?

[Infin-Vec]

Some of my friends tells me that they are suffering from some sort of "retail keys activaction issues" in recent days, which means they brought retail keys through retail stores but having some sort of issues that makes them unable to activate those keys.
Is that real? Are there anyone else also suffering from that?
I was considering to buy some games through retails, those cannot or difficult to buy DIRECTLY through the Steam store, but if the rumor is true...

[Darren]

Crazy Tiger님이 먼저 게시:

Infin-Vec님이 먼저 게시:

not "uplay", I mean"-", what's wrong with this link?

It's blocked, which often means that it's a site where shady things happen.

Hence your friends ending up with keys that have already been redeemed (which is what they are telling you).

[Satoru]

Its true

If you use shady cd key shops that steal games using stolen credit cards, you will indeed have 'activation problems'

On the other hand, if you use legitimate resellers this 'problem' goes away

Its almost as if the rumors arent true

[Wolfpig]

Satoru님이 먼저 게시:

On the other hand, if you use legitimate resellers this 'problem' goes away

If you read the description for what platform the key is and don't assume that every key can be activated on steam.

So other problems, besides of shady reselling sites, could just be that they bought keys for games which cant be activated on Steam.....and "ignored" it on the store page.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Infin-Vec님이 먼저 게시:

Killroy was here님이 먼저 게시:

Maybe he is meaning uplay. Just a thought.

It's "https://yuplay.ru/", some of my friends (not Steam friend) said that they usually (?) buy retail keys there.

Use PROPER spacing!

https://yuplay.ru/

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Infin-Vec님이 먼저 게시:

JPMcMillen님이 먼저 게시:

I assume you are taking about 3rd party key resellers when you say retail stores. If the keys don't work then either the key was never a good key to begin with, or it was but was obtained fraudulently and had already been canceled by the publisher. The latter usually happens when keys are bought with stolen credit card numbers and the charges get reversed by the bank.

Do you mean that "gamesplanet" and "humble", or even “yuplay” should be categorized as so-called "3rd party key resellers"?
And they are selling invalid keys so I should avoid them?

To my knowledge, Humble Store sells (not "resells") new keys direct from developers. And the same goes for GamersGate, Indie Gala / Gala Store, itch.io (which is a direct-from-devs release platform itself), and Playism (which is a publisher itself).

On the other hand, some websites are key resellers, which means that they take keys people have bought elsewhere and allow those keys to be resold. They're essentially secondhand keys. It's possible to cheat on these sites by offering keys bought with stolen credit cards or with money subject to chargebacks, so it's possible to lose your game after you've bought from resellers, even if your own payment is legit. (There's a reason they offer key insurance...that's because their keys might not be legit!)

Regardless, the best idea is to buy games that give you a download, rather than offering you a Steam key. GOG always provides these DRM-free downloads, and many other sites offer them for some games, including GamersGate, Humble Store, itch.io, and Playism.

[Tito Shivan]

Quint the Alligator Snapper님이 먼저 게시:

Infin-Vec님이 먼저 게시:

Do you mean that "gamesplanet" and "humble", or even “yuplay” should be categorized as so-called "3rd party key resellers"?
And they are selling invalid keys so I should avoid them?

To my knowledge, Humble Store sells (not "resells") new keys direct from developers. And the same goes for GamersGate, Indie Gala / Gala Store, itch.io (which is a direct-from-devs release platform itself), and Playism (which is a publisher itself).

To add some more info on your post:
https://isthereanydeal.com/
Places like that keep a good list of authorised key sellers. Those stores work together with the developers to sell the keys (As in the developer sells their keys through the store) they have proper control over the keys and their procedence.

Grey market resellers sell keys that might or might not (usually might not) come from the developer. Like for example selling a retail key bought from a physical store. In these stores the control over the origin and/or validity of the keys is -at best- flimsy.

In regards grey market resellers Reddit has a pretty good read on what they mean for users, developers and the gaming industry.
https://www.reddit.com/2yhlw4

If a deal is too good to be true... It probably isn't true.

[Start_Running]

Zekiran님이 먼저 게시:

Buying GAMES via retail outlets - like, packaged, over the counter, actual GAMES - is legit and you'll get the game key that comes in its package...

There's no 'difficult to buy' when you *buy the game on Steam* like you're supposed to, digitally.

Keep in mind its not unheard of for store employees to jot down a few keys..

[Zekiran]

Start_Running님이 먼저 게시:

Zekiran님이 먼저 게시:

Buying GAMES via retail outlets - like, packaged, over the counter, actual GAMES - is legit and you'll get the game key that comes in its package...

There's no 'difficult to buy' when you *buy the game on Steam* like you're supposed to, digitally.

Keep in mind its not unheard of for store employees to jot down a few keys..

True, but much more rare than 'going to shady 3rd party site because x thing is cheaper there' and getting ripped off like this.

[Steven]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.