G2A.Com has been in the news recently for their rather aggressive stance to a petition asking them to stop selling keys to indie games. There have been accusations that the site sells keys that have been acquired illegally and are selling ‘Steam Gifts’ rather than keys, you can read the full report on all that here.
Suffice to say G2A have a not had a great few days in terms of PR, a lot of that is down to their aggressive tweeting but fear not, they have a plan.
Thomas Faust from indiegamesplus.com has shared an email he received from ‘Adrian’ at G2A.
“At the moment, we are trying to improve our brand awareness and public image, especially among the indie and smaller game developers,” it reads. “Unfortunately, the majority of the public does not understand either our business model or how we try to make sure our customers can safely purchase digital products.”
Well that sounds a good idea Adrian, how do propose you make everyone aware of your amazing business?
“We have written an unbiased article about how ‘Selling stolen keys on gaming marketplaces is pretty much impossible,” writes Adrian, “We want to publish it on Your website without being marked as sponsored or marked as associated with G2A.”
Wait. What?
“If You are interested in publishing the article, please provide me with the pricing and details about Your options for such content publication,” concludes Adrian.
Here’s the thing, publishing the article as it is would be unethical, being paid to do so and not indicating the post is a promotional item breaks the law. Congratulations Adrian, your cunning plan to show how just how lovely and law abiding G2A is has shown the complete opposite.
Ahahaha.
No. pic.twitter.com/7hqtxDY3X1
— Thomas Faust (@SomeIndieGames) July 8, 2019
G2A have responded with the following Tweet.
These e-mails were sent by our employee without authorization, for which we apologize to
@SomeIndieGames and the 9 (!) other media outlets he sent this proposal to. He will face strict consequences, as this is absolutely unacceptable
Uhuh. Sure.
Source: Twitter
KippDynamite
Not an ideal series of events if you’re trying to prove you honour the law.