this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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They sometimes buy keys using stolen credit cards. When the fraud is found out, the banks will request the money from the developer. They in turn often don't have a way to lock the fraudulent key, so it remains valid.
The costs for the initial bank transfer, plus the time invested in returning the money to the credit card holder are payed by the developer.
The key reseller has a 100% profit margin, the customer has a valid and cheap game key, and the developer actually lost time and money.
Never realised this could lead to a loss from the game dev
Edit: So do it for Ubisoft, EA etc. but not for indie games. Got it.
Oh wait. realises you can't do it for big companies anymore
Old employer bought Windows keys from G2A.
They’re not around anymore..