Where are steam CD keys sold?

[Cyber2B]

Genuine question, where exactly are the CD keys sold? Aside from purchasing them on GMG, or Humblebundle.

[Blueberry {JESUS IS LORD}]

at physical stores like gamestop
my dad got hl2 from physical store in regular game box

we also got duke nukem forever from a physical store with a box and key

use cd to install base chuck of game then steam just downloads a few MBs of patches

[Paratech2008]

Fanatical sells them.

Some sites aren't legit. Valve censors their url if entered here for good reasons.

[Cyber2B]

Originally posted by Paratech2008:

Fanatical sells them.

Some sites aren't legit. Valve censors their url if entered here for good reasons.

GMG and humblebundle are legit and legal sites.

[Paratech2008]

Originally posted by TenzoG™ - JD:

Originally posted by Paratech2008:

Fanatical sells them.

Some sites aren't legit. Valve censors their url if entered here for good reasons.

GMG and humblebundle are legit and legal sites.

I didn't say they weren't legit sites. I said some sites aren't legit. If I meant them, I'd say their name rather than some sites.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

FYI I've seen some of the non-legit sites go uncensored on the Steam forums sometimes, so don't just assume that if it's not censored it's necessarily legit.

[Out Of Bubblegum]

The very best ones are sold by guys in back alleys.
:)

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Originally posted by TenzoG™ - JD:

Genuine question, where exactly are the CD keys sold? Aside from purchasing them on GMG, or Humblebundle.

Game devs ask Steam for X amount of CD Key, Steam provides X amount of CD keys that game devs ask for, to game devs, now game devs have options.

- Game devs can choose to sell keys themselves via their own service if they set one up, or they can choose to do a free giveaway it's up to them whatever they want to do with their CD Keys.

- Game devs can do a partnership deal with 3rd party retailers, either selling their CD keys digital from stores such as GMG, Humblebundle, Fanatical, and etc, or selling in physical retail with printed on paper in a box with disk, such as Amazon, Walmart, EB Games, and etc...

You can use a community made tool site isthereanydeal.com that helps shows you legit 3rd party sites you can buy game keys from. Hope this helps.

[Crystal Sharrd]

Originally posted by Out Of Bubblegum:

The very best ones are sold by guys in back alleys.
:)

👤 Uncle John's Steam Key Emporium.

[Crystal Sharrd]

Originally posted by Sodipop:

[REDACTED]

Nah, the shady alley merchahts are better. At least they probably acquired their keys legitimately rather than through theft.

[JVC]

Humblebundle, fanatical, wingamestore and greenmangaming are all legit

In contrast: treat g2a as a scam, god knows where their "keys" came from.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Originally posted by Sodipop:

g2a

That's a gray market site, they have nothing to do with game devs / publishers, they allow people to resell their keys via the site, and there always the risk of buying a key from a scammer that might do chargeback to getting key revoked, and running away with the victim money.

[Anonymous Helper]

Originally posted by Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

That's a gray market site, they have nothing to do with game devs / publishers, they allow people to resell their keys via the site, and there always the risk of buying a key from a scammer that might do chargeback to getting key revoked, and running away with the victim money.

Or they sell fake keys, used keys or keys that are for completely different games than they're advertising.

[Pscht]

I think something went wrong with the censor database. Not only was g2a turned into hearts for the longest time but isn't anymore, but also a couple of swear words.

[Crystal Sharrd]

Originally posted by Pscht:

I think something went wrong with the censor database. Not only was [REDACTED] turned into hearts for the longest time but isn't anymore, but also a couple of swear words.

I've seen it happen before, where the filter stopped working.

[Gepards]

i wonder how many keys big publishers sell through so called "shaddy" cdkeys sites?