ELEX Pre-Release Thread

[ortucis]

ELEX on CDKeys: $32.89 = ₹ 2112 (INR)

ELEX on Steam: ₹ 1,529 (without current 10% discount, it's ₹ 1,699 )


Still gonna wait for any Steam deals or something before I pre-order.

Plus, I don't like buying from such sites since it most likely doesn't benefit developers.

Oh, I assumed you were in Europe or USA, my apologies.

I think buying from those sites is fine because they are basically buying physical games so they still get paid, they aren't shady like g2a imo..

The devs already have been paid. Some Ruskies buy the games in countries in extremely devalued currencies and resell it again, it works the same on all these CD key reseller sites like G2A, Kinguin, CDKeys and whatever else there is. Redditors say that I'm singlehandedly killing 6 million developers for buying from these stores but whatever.

Maybe so, but places like G2A are scam sites which use overcharge you or just keep charging your card after you are done buying the stolen keys, it has been proven by a lot of people who were scammed by them (esp. when the keys don't work).

Anyway, I am not really dying to get a discount. Most games are priced reasonably in India on Steam and anyone can afford them easily, but still doesn't hurt to wait for some extra discounts.. cause why not? At least on Steam I don't have to worry about my card being charged after I'm done paying for the games, or other scams. Not to mention, developers do NOT make any profit from these key sites so I am still not buying anything from them.

BTW, someone buying a key and reselling it doesn't mean the developer makes profit on that game being sold again. The site it's being sold on makes the profit from these stolen keys, and the people selling them. Just like with consoles, reselling a game is nothing but piracy at that point since developers/publishers see no profit from resell, only places like Gamestop do.

 

[dragonul09]

ELEX on CDKeys: $32.89 = ₹ 2112 (INR)

ELEX on Steam: ₹ 1,529 (without current 10% discount, it's ₹ 1,699 )


Still gonna wait for any Steam deals or something before I pre-order.

Plus, I don't like buying from such sites since it most likely doesn't benefit developers.

Oh, I assumed you were in Europe or USA, my apologies.

I think buying from those sites is fine because they are basically buying physical games so they still get paid, they aren't shady like g2a imo..

The devs already have been paid. Some Ruskies buy the games in countries in extremely devalued currencies and resell it again, it works the same on all these CD key reseller sites like G2A, Kinguin, CDKeys and whatever else there is. Redditors say that I'm singlehandedly killing 6 million developers for buying from these stores but whatever.

Maybe so, but places like G2A are scam sites which use overcharge you or just keep charging your card after you are done buying the stolen keys, it has been proven by a lot of people who were scammed by them (esp. when the keys don't work).

Anyway, I am not really dying to get a discount. Most games are priced reasonably in India on Steam and anyone can afford them easily, but still doesn't hurt to wait for some extra discounts.. cause why not? At least on Steam I don't have to worry about my card being charged after I'm done paying for the games, or other scams. Not to mention, developers do NOT make any profit from these key sites so I am still not buying anything from them.

BTW, someone buying a key and reselling it doesn't mean the developer makes profit on that game being sold again. The site it's being sold on makes the profit from these stolen keys, and the people selling them. Just like with consoles, reselling a game is nothing but piracy at that point since developers/publishers see no profit from resell, only places like Gamestop do.

Get the fuck outta here with G2A ''scam'' bullshit,I bought from all these places ,Kinguin,G2A,Instant-gaming and I'm talking hundreds upon hundreds of clams and I have never encountered a problem with them.
And if you don't want to use your credit card,you can simply use paysafe without ever giving any information.

 

[Makabb]

In the beginning was Elex, and Elex was with God, and Elex was God
All things were made out of Elex; and without it was not any thing made that was made.
In it was life; and the life was Elex
And the Elex shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God, who was the Nameless one.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Elex, that all men through him might believe
He was not that Elex, but was sent to bear witness of that Elex.
That was the true Elex, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

 

[Makabb]

 

[Makabb]

This is giving me New Vegas flashbacks, incline.

 

[Doktor Best]

Thinking about a forehead cutting of the elex logo like this fine gentleman. What you guys think?

 

[unfairlight]

Not to mention, developers do NOT make any profit from these key sites so I am still not buying anything from them.

But they do. These games have to be bought first to be resold, they make less than if you bought it yourself from GOG or Steam of course, but they still do.
I've bought 3 games from Kinguin and all of them went off without a hitch, maybe G2A is worse, I really don't know about that but for me Kinguin is legit.

 

[ortucis]

Not to mention, developers do NOT make any profit from these key sites so I am still not buying anything from them.

But they do. These games have to be bought first to be resold, they make less than if you bought it yourself from GOG or Steam of course, but they still do.

They don't. Unless these sites have deals with the developers, then developers aren't seeing a single penny from the sales. The sites selling them are making money that should be going to the developers.

Anyway, people can buy from wherever they want. I prefer direct from Steam and GOG cause this is what developers prefer, not some shady key site.

 

[unfairlight]

Not to mention, developers do NOT make any profit from these key sites so I am still not buying anything from them.

But they do. These games have to be bought first to be resold, they make less than if you bought it yourself from GOG or Steam of course, but they still do.

They don't. Unless these sites have deals with the developers, then developers aren't seeing a single penny from the sales. The sites selling them are making money that should be going to the developers.

Anyway, people can buy from wherever they want. I prefer direct from Steam and GOG cause this is what developers prefer, not some shady key site.

I'm not sure what I expected from a Pajeet. They don't get these keys magically you know, they need to purchase copies of these games to resell them first. They purchase the game which gives money to the devs, they then resell it at a store for a slightly higher price since it's more convenient than doing it yourself with a VPN and you get the key to the game, that's how it generally works anyway.

 

[passerby]

They do not steal money from your credit card, they primarily in the business of fucking up in the ass game industry, not their customers. Bad sellers are actively banned, probability of buing not working key is very small.
They send money to the seller after two weeks probation, if you charge back the payment within this period ( paypal, CC ) they'll never question that, but don't send the money to the seller instead.

As for the source of the keys on the key reseling sites, I can figure five categories, counting from perfectly ok, to completely scammy:
1) Bought in bulk at slightly lower price than default distribution and sold at smaller cut than 30% on steam - new releases can be roghly 15% cheaper than on steam that way ( no difference for dev/publisher)
2) Retail keys from other regions - most of new games there ( less money for dev/publisher, also slightly smaller percentage of your money for them ),
3) Resold bundle keys, keys bundled with graphic cards, retail bargain bins, etc. - most of super cheap keys
( almost no money for dev/publisher, since they get close to nothing on individual key and then these keys resold undercut normal sales of the product ),
4) Resold unused review codes for jurnos/youtubers - hundreds, maybe even around a thousand of keys if marketing department is incompetent enough ( no money for dev/publisher ),
5) Codes bought with stolen cards ( additional net loss for dev/publisher due to chargeback fees ), or boxes stolen physically,


How many of the keys are outright stolen, I have no idea, probably a minority.
The price is set by supply, so even if it's high there is no guarantee that the key doesn't belong to one of the scammy categories.
For that reason I use it only to sustain my collector OCD like buying very cheap old games, or fallout3 GOTY for 3$, with credits gained from selling unwanted bundle trash keys.
Because super cheap keys for old shit are for sure not stolen, but belong to category 3 and/or I make a conscious decision not to support publisher.

I would never buy there a game I wan't to support, or pay more than like 3$ because I risk supporting a thief from categories 4 & 5 with my money.


***

Gamestop and its ilk is a real cancer in comparison, because by design ALL sales there do not make a single penny for publishers and only undercut actual sales.
But gamestop holds gameindustry by the balls, too much of a market share to try to fuck with it.

Microsoft tried to put them out of bussiness with tying games to an xbone account like on steam, but Sony instead of following suit, used the opportuniy to gain good publicity and bad for Microsoft, so they backed from it.
Now they both keep collectively loosing money to gamestop. The sleezebag corpos likes to be fucked by smaller and more agile sleezebag corpos I guess.
But I'm fine with their stupidity, the less money consoles make, the better for PC gaming.

 

[Haplo]

Those cons are not that bad to be honest.

Like the "fiddly" Combat system combined with poor animations?

 

[Doktor Best]

Not to mention, developers do NOT make any profit from these key sites so I am still not buying anything from them.

But they do. These games have to be bought first to be resold, they make less than if you bought it yourself from GOG or Steam of course, but they still do.

They don't. Unless these sites have deals with the developers, then developers aren't seeing a single penny from the sales. The sites selling them are making money that should be going to the developers.

Anyway, people can buy from wherever they want. I prefer direct from Steam and GOG cause this is what developers prefer, not some shady key site.

I'm not sure what I expected from a Pajeet. They don't get these keys magically you know, they need to purchase copies of these games to resell them first. They purchase the game which gives money to the devs, they then resell it at a store for a slightly higher price since it's more convenient than doing it yourself with a VPN and you get the key to the game, that's how it generally works anyway.

Many of those sites buy those keys from "third party distributors" which are essentially criminals who use stolen credit card info to buy gamekeys to resell them. Developers do not only not see a single cent from those sales (as its way too costly for them to sue) they often even have to pay the fee from the credit card companies for the chargeback.

So please, before you buy from shady sites, pirate the game and buy a legit key from steam or gog sales.

I personally of course did my duty and bought a key directly from GOG

How many of the keys are outright stolen, I have no idea, probably a minority.

Maybe a small percentage of the overall offers you get on those sites, but most likely the cheapest ones to a much higher probability that you would like to think.

 

[Heretic]

Get the fuck outta here with G2A ''scam'' bullshit,I bought from all these places ,Kinguin,G2A,Instant-gaming and I'm talking hundreds upon hundreds of clams and I have never encountered a problem with them.
And if you don't want to use your credit card,you can simply use paysafe without ever giving any information.

It's not a scam against customers (although that it may be, too, from what I read), it's mainly fraud against developers.

http://www.tinybuild.com/single-post/2017/04/28/G2A-sold-450k-worth-of-our-game-keys
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20160628/276019/G2A_Piracy_and_the_Four_Currencies.php

You may not care, but don't claim you didn't know about it the next time.

 

[unfairlight]

Not to mention, developers do NOT make any profit from these key sites so I am still not buying anything from them.

But they do. These games have to be bought first to be resold, they make less than if you bought it yourself from GOG or Steam of course, but they still do.

They don't. Unless these sites have deals with the developers, then developers aren't seeing a single penny from the sales. The sites selling them are making money that should be going to the developers.

Anyway, people can buy from wherever they want. I prefer direct from Steam and GOG cause this is what developers prefer, not some shady key site.

I'm not sure what I expected from a Pajeet. They don't get these keys magically you know, they need to purchase copies of these games to resell them first. They purchase the game which gives money to the devs, they then resell it at a store for a slightly higher price since it's more convenient than doing it yourself with a VPN and you get the key to the game, that's how it generally works anyway.

Many of those sites buy those keys from "third party distributors" which are essentially criminals who use stolen credit card info to buy gamekeys to resell them. Developers do not only not see a single cent from those sales (as its way too costly for them to sue) they often even have to pay the fee from the credit card companies for the chargeback.

So please, before you buy from shady sites, pirate the game and buy a legit key from steam or gog sales.

I personally of course did my duty and bought a key directly from GOG

That's a load of bullshit. The keys are bought from countries with currencies that aren't very valuable, most of these stores have been running for years and just do that, I'm not saying that stolen keys don't happen, they do, but basically 99% of the time if you buy from a reputable seller it doesn't happen (and if it does you get a refund). Please also note that these stores such as Kinguin don't sell the keys themself, but rather have others on the site sell them, if something such as the fiasco with Ubisoft keys 2 years ago happens then it's a lot of bad publicity for the sites that they were sold ON (again, not BY)
I have a Jewish Israeli friend on Steam who buys keys from these stores and then asks for a refund after he has gotten the game, he's done it a lot. I personally have no problem buying from these stores but if you want to support the developer then go right ahead, just buy from GOG if possible so they get a larger cut.

 

[passerby]

I'm not saying that stolen keys don't happen, they do, but basically 99% of the time if you buy from a reputable seller it doesn't happen (and if it does you get a refund).

You are dumb.

You get a refund, or a new key, if someone mistype a key from a retail box, or some dumb kid try to sell you a fake key intentioally. This is why it's extremely rare.
If you buy a stolen key it activates just fine, and you'll never knew, you've supported criminal network.

Majority of the keys are from poor regions, or bundles, true.

Resselling keys on these sites is one of the safer ways for a criminal to take money from CC though. So the amount of scammers can't be insignificant there.
And these sites don't require a bank transfer or typing code sent to physical location to register a seller, so criminals can be untracable.
Stolen phone is enough to register and sell there without being tracable.

 

[unfairlight]

If you buy a stolen key it activates just fine, and you'll never knew, you've supported criminal network.

Often these stores are banned from the sites after enough keys have been disabled (and believe me, these sites like G2A and Kinguin do NOT want bad publicity, something if something on the scale of the Ubisoft fiasco would happen it's a lot of lost money for them) if the bank finds out though. Generally more reputable sellers that have been active for more than a year don't do this because it's easy to get banned that way, and staying legit is a lot safer and generally easier.
I've read that another way that these stores do what they do is that they ask indie devs for "giveaway" keys which will then obviously be sold, it would make sense to give them because publicity is always good. This is probably what I read from a reddit LARPer so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[ortucis]

I'm not sure what I expected from a Pajeet. They don't get these keys magically you know, they need to purchase copies of these games to resell them first. They purchase the game which gives money to the devs, they then resell it at a store for a slightly higher price since it's more convenient than doing it yourself with a VPN and you get the key to the game, that's how it generally works anyway.

No one is willingly this stupid, at least I thought so until I read your post.

The keys are illegally obtained, it costs the developers more and more when pirates like you are dumb enough to pay for your pirated keys and expect support from the developers.

If you weren't this stupid, you'd be just torrenting the games instead of paying people for same torrents and thinking "OMG LEGAL GAME FOR SO CHEAP I AM AHSOMEEEE!!".

 

[unfairlight]

How do you pirate a key? Go shit on a street to cool off buddy.
Don't worry, I will pirate the game.

 

[dragonul09]

I'm not sure what I expected from a Pajeet. They don't get these keys magically you know, they need to purchase copies of these games to resell them first. They purchase the game which gives money to the devs, they then resell it at a store for a slightly higher price since it's more convenient than doing it yourself with a VPN and you get the key to the game, that's how it generally works anyway.

No one is willingly this stupid, at least I thought so until I read your post.

The keys are illegally obtained, it costs the developers more and more when pirates like you are dumb enough to pay for your pirated keys and expect support from the developers.

If you weren't this stupid, you'd be just torrenting the games instead of paying people for same torrents and thinking "OMG LEGAL GAME FOR SO CHEAP I AM AHSOMEEEE!!".

You are mentaly fucking retarded,so let me explain it to you.

Most of G2As keys are purchased from other providers or some godforsaken regions like Russia, who pay the publisher, who pay the developer. The keys are then resold by users on G2A.
These moron dev/pubs are thinking that because they themselfs were not the ones to sell the keys to G2A, that they should be able to double dip and get payed twice for the same key.

If it really was an issue of credit card charge backs or fraud on sites like Humble Bundle, all the Pub would have to do is void the key with Steam/Origin, problem solved. They are making shit up in an attempt to get payed twice.

G2A is telling them basically the same thing i just said. Refusing to pay them for keys they have already been payed for.

If there are stolen keys,it's not even 1-2% of these sales so stop eating shit.

 

[passerby]

But most likely the cheapest ones to a much higher probability that you would like to think.

When someone with few dozens of transactions sells some old bundle trash for around 1$ where G2A gets 0.55$ cut on that, that sells a volume of 2 keys per week, then I'm 100% sure it's a bundle addict not a criminal.

 

[ortucis]

How do you pirate a key? Go shit on a street to cool off buddy.
Don't worry, I will pirate the game.

We know you will pirate it, you are an imbecile, we've already established that.

 

[unfairlight]

How do you pirate a key? Go shit on a street to cool off buddy.
Don't worry, I will pirate the game.

We know you will pirate it, you are an imbecile, we've already established that.

Yes, that's what I said level 81 scam call center goblin, but I am curious what the fuck a pirated key is.

 

[thesheeep]

You can ask every developer in existence if "stores" like G2A, kinguin, etc. hurt them or not.
All of them will say they do.
Why? Because it is true, as has been proven time and time again, if you only bothered to do some actual research... but yeah, I guess we did establish you won't ever check any facts.
Even if a fraction of their sales are not directly scam, they are from sales where the devs did not receive any noticeable sum either, and then sold to you for a hefty profit. Why do you think those sites emerge like a fast growing cancer? Because it would be good for the devs or good for those sites?

You'd be better off using a VPN to buy a key "in Russia" or something similar and would actually still support devs.
Or just read the first points here: http://coflash.com/steam/
There are many ways to save a buck without blowing money into those shady sites.


Of course, ELEX can only be rightfully paid for in ladders (to facilitate the incline).

 

[passerby]

If it really was an issue of credit card charge backs or fraud on sites like Humble Bundle, all the Pub would have to do is void the key with Steam/Origin, problem solved.

The huge bulks like Ubisoft drama are rare cases of a very fat card that needs to be cleared fast, before it gets blocked. Even then they reactivated due to customers outcry.

There is usually not that much money on a single CC to milk from and they can buy a few keys of many different titles across multiple legit resellers.
You can have hundreds of small few hundred dollars transactions across multiple distribution channels, resellers, multiple titles and timeframes.
How many manhours it would cost to sort out? What is probability of screwing legit resellers and their customer by mistake ? There is no money to get back from it anyway, only another costs.
Even in the case of making no mistake, the retarded gamers are going to be pissed off on you for taking away the games they've paid for from their accounts.

If there are stolen keys, it's not even 1-2% of these sales so stop eating shit.

The percentage is certainly low enough for publishers to suck it up instead of resigning from third party online resellers, or dealing with pissed off customers.
Remeber they do suck up to Gamestop stealing way more than 1-2% of their US console revenue for example.

Keep in mind that combined market share of legit resellers like Gamersgate, Humble Store, GoG, GmG, Bundlestars and many other smaller regional included is still probably few times bigger that that of the key reselling sites.
So even if lets say 3% of these keys were stolen, it would be small enough money leak to not kill that distribution channel over it.
But it would mean percentage of stolen keys available on reselling sites would be few times x3%, proportionally to their market share since all stolen keys ends up there.
Maybe it's 1-2% indeed, maybe it's 5%? 25% ? How do you know ? What amount are you comfortable with ?

Also in the poor region retail case, retail and your lovely third world reseller combined, take as big chunk of your money as publisher, if not more in some cases, I'd rather wait for a sale if the game is good.

 

[dragonul09]

If it really was an issue of credit card charge backs or fraud on sites like Humble Bundle, all the Pub would have to do is void the key with Steam/Origin, problem solved.

The huge bulks like Ubisoft drama are rare cases of a very fat card that needs to be cleared fast, before it gets blocked. Even then they reactivated due to customers outcry.

There is usually not that much money on a single CC to milk from and they can buy a few keys of many different titles across multiple legit resellers.
You can have hundreds of small few hundred dollars transactions across multiple distribution channels, resellers, multiple titles and timeframes.
How many manhours it would cost to sort out? What is probability of screwing legit resellers and their customer by mistake ? There is no money to get back from it anyway, only another costs.
Even in the case of making no mistake, the retarded gamers are going to be pissed off on you for taking away the games they've paid for from their accounts.

If there are stolen keys, it's not even 1-2% of these sales so stop eating shit.

The percentage is certainly low enough for publishers to suck it up instead of resigning from third party online resellers, or dealing with pissed off customers.
Remeber they do suck up to Gamestop stealing way more than 1-2% of their US console revenue for example.

Keep in mind that combined market share of legit resellers like Gamersgate, Humble Store, GoG, GmG, Bundlestars and many other smaller regional included is still probably few times bigger that that of the key reselling sites.
So even if lets say 3% of these keys were stolen, it would be small enough money leak to not kill that distribution channel over it.
But it would mean percentage of stolen keys available on reselling sites would be few times x3%, proportionally to their market share since all stolen keys ends up there.
Maybe it's 1-2% indeed, maybe it's 5%, 25% ? How do you know ? What amount are you comfortable with ?

Also in the poor region retail case, retail and your lovely third world reseller combined, take as big chunk of your money as publisher, if not more in some cases, I'd rather wait for a sale if the game is good.

So you wait for a sale which is pretty much the same shit as buying that key from a third world reseller,what's the point in that?

And also,you do know that a lot of these stolen keys can be tracked ,which Ubisoft did and banned a few players when Far Cry 4 came out,but guess what they re-activated those accounts back up again.It's not hard to track down those stolen keys,but the numbers are small are enough that Pub's don't care.Trust me,if massive fraud was going on behind the scenes, the law would have intervened a long time ago,but it's not worth the money or the time.

In the end Devs/Pubs are mad because no one wants to buy their shitty games at full price anymore,so the users go to these sites which are pretty much 98% legitimate and look for those third world key resellers.