steven36 Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Far Cry 4 was his last Ubisoft game.He had fun with Assassin's Creed, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and Splinter Cell, all purchased legally, as well as Watch Dogs, Resident Evil 4, and, well, the list goes on.But over the weekend, Far Cry 4 disappeared, and 'slump3r' became one of many disgruntled Ubisoft customers who were stripped of their games when the game publisher revoked digital keys it says were "fraudulently" obtained and resold via third-party websites, such as Kinguin, G2A and G2Play.Slump3r is an expat Belgian living in Poland. He or she says he buys from third-party sites because hasn't mastered the language and so bought the key digitally from a source outside of the country that could provide a French or English version.There's also, of course, the price difference - third parties sell games at a steep discount, sourcing cheap, region-unlocked keys from countries where the price has been adjusted to reflect the local market or low per-capita income.This opens up the field to grey marketers who scoop up the lower-priced games and resell them in higher-priced markets, thus undercutting the major players who stick to publisher-approved pricing.Eurogamer cites the example of Assassin's Creed: Unity Uplay, Uplay being a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications service created by Ubisoft.G2A sells such keys for $27.87 (£18.34) in the UK, while Ubisoft's Uplay charges $68.35 (£44.99).Ubisoft issued this statement to Eurogamer on Monday:Eurogamer surmises that Ubisoft could be targeting keys originally bought with fraudulent credit cards.We regularly deactivate keys that were fraudulently obtained and resold. In this case, we are currently investigating the origin of the fraud, and will update customers as soon as we have more information to share. In the meantime, customers should contact the vendor from whom they purchased the key.But if that is the case, it's chosen to penalise the gamers by stripping them of the ability to play, rather than taking issue with those supplying the keys.Customer rights are fragile when it comes to purchasing digital games in online stores. That fragility may well have cost Ubisoft the loyalty of a number of customers.Image of Far Cry 4, courtesy of Flickr user BagoGames. Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cooperb Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 After reading something like this I cannot help but think of the ongoing piracy battles, and how similar they are to a dog chasing its own tail. These so called "pirates" end up having no alternative, and after reading something like this I think I am going to start spamming the ubisoft forums with pirate download links hahaha (joking).Seriously though, for a company to blacklist keys which they profited off one way or another, then bitch and moan when people pirate their games? Is it just me or has this world gone totally insane because of greed... :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ugurano Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 that why, your not buying drm game, ubisoft its fail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mantazzo Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Yeah, this situation is bad. It's like "oh, you bought the game from another place where it's cheaper and we didn't get all the money from you we need? Well then no game for you it seems, and also, f*** you.". I agree with the greed problem. At least they could have warned people for having the "not legit" game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnakeMasteR Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 After reading something like this I cannot help but think of the ongoing piracy battles, and how similar they are to a dog chasing its own tail. These so called "pirates" end up having no alternative, and after reading something like this I think I am going to start spamming the ubisoft forums with pirate download links hahaha (joking).Seriously though, for a company to blacklist keys which they profited off one way or another, then bitch and moan when people pirate their games? Is it just me or has this world gone totally insane because of greed... :(What are you talking about, the only one making profit is the one who sells the keys and the country where taxes are paid in, Ubisoft sees a flying frack of it.To complete the OP and give a better picture of the whole situation now read here and here. It's not greed, it's just not supporting a$$holes that scam other customers, like you, you should thank Ubisoft for that. If anyone who got their keys revoked should be mad about someone then it's probably the shop/retailer selling the keys and look for more trustworthy ones and get their case known to the public. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cooperb Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 After reading something like this I cannot help but think of the ongoing piracy battles, and how similar they are to a dog chasing its own tail. These so called "pirates" end up having no alternative, and after reading something like this I think I am going to start spamming the ubisoft forums with pirate download links hahaha (joking).Seriously though, for a company to blacklist keys which they profited off one way or another, then bitch and moan when people pirate their games? Is it just me or has this world gone totally insane because of greed... :(What are you talking about, the only one making profit is the one who sells the keys and the country where taxes are paid in, Ubisoft sees a flying frack of it.To complete the OP and give a better picture of the whole situation now read here and here. It's not greed, it's just not supporting a$$holes that scam other customers, like you, you should thank Ubisoft for that. If anyone who got their keys revoked should be mad about someone then it's probably the shop/retailer selling the keys and look for more trustworthy ones and get their case known to the public. So are you telling me that Ubisoft returned the money which came from fraudulent/stolen cards ,or whatever the situation is, and cancelled the keys? Or are you trying to tell me that Ubisoft still kept the money which came from those fraudulent purchases and canceled the keys. Which one sounds like the more likely scenario?Also the fraud was not likely noticed until long after it was committed, as such any legal contest can no longer be brought against the banks as their dispute window is long closed, and the banks would just claim the fraud under insurance (so they don't actually lose anything) - as such Ubi still gets the money, because chances are that nobody pursued the issue any further than that.Regardless of the situation I made a comment, don't take things personally... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnakeMasteR Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Regardless of the situation I made a comment, don't take things personally...Not a$$holes like you, customers like you, remind your own words. :lol:You don't seem to understand how the scam worked, Ubisoft hasn't been scammed, not directly, it was Origin and those that purchased the keys that have been fraudulently purchased and resold and as such Ubisoft has nothing to do with it in first place but they have the last word, they want their money and cut from those purchases made on Origin, it's not on Ubisoft to check payments made on Origin, Origin shipped the keys in the name of Ubisoft, it's Origins part, it's their platform.Why should Ubisoft give 60$ keys away at the end for a fraction of it's initial worth and at the same time support the fraud made and let customers keep a game they own but illegally obtained? An illegally obtained key resold legally and activated legally is still illegal, it's not rocket science. It's hard for those that purchased and activated those keys and they are the only ones that suffer most from it and they have to try to get a refund from the retailer, the retailer probably will refund out of his pocket if they don't wanna lose a customer and reputation or get into legal trouble or even worse, risk getting sued in bulk, which would cost even more at the end while the retailer will try to get his money back from his key purchase or will take it as warning for the future and be more careful while doing business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffi Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 It is Ubisoft's good right to revoke those keys, they were bought with fraudulent or stolen credit cards. If any of those gamers have a problem it should be with the reseller who they bought the key from, not Ubisoft, in essence they sold stolen goods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffi Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Yeah, this situation is bad. It's like "oh, you bought the game from another place where it's cheaper and we didn't get all the money from you we need? Well then no game for you it seems, and also, f*** you.". I agree with the greed problem. At least they could have warned people for having the "not legit" game.How could Ubistoft know those keys had been resold? They just know that those keys were obtained in a fraudulent manner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.