G2A Announce Significant Changes of Policy for Sellers!

G2A, the discount gaming website is having a change of policy. The change is to help tackle some of the more negative aspects the company is associated with. Is this a change for the better though?

What changes are G2A making?

For those unaware, G2A is a website which allows users to sell their unwanted PC game codes. This can allow for some significant discounts on retail as you are, for want of a better description, buying unwanted goods.

While this might sound good in principle, this does have problems. I shall get onto those later.

The changes being implemented by G2A will require any person wishing to sell a game code to voluntarily disclose their name and address. The announcement from PCGamesN is likely to appease a lot of the critics of the site.

Put bluntly, the site must advertise where the code came from. While some might cry data protection, the matter is neatly bypassed. G2A is simply saying that to sell your game code through their site you must disclose who and where you are. If you prefer not to do this, they will not accept your business.

Why are they doing this?

Here we get into the shady world of PC game code discount sites. While some, indeed many, of the codes are genuinely bought and sold on, many codes are not.

A significant portion of the game codes purchased on G2A is bought using stolen credit card details. In most instances, this is credit card fraud. How does this work? Well, a person can purchase a bunch of game codes using a credit card (or someone else) and then the person who holds the card will (legitimately or otherwise) claim that their card details have been stolen. By law, if a credit card is used fraudulently you are protected and as such are entitled to a refund from your card supplier. So, put simply, a significant portion of the game code website industry is supported by credit card fraud.

Some may argue it is irresponsible to detail how this is done, but frankly, for those who know, it’s hardly a secret. G2A has been criticized for many years exactly for this reason. They are, however, the first game code website to actually do something about it.

Now I’m sure at this point someone is screaming about how G2A is a legit site and that it’s the fault of users doing illegal things. I hear a similar argument about Kodi and repositories. With this writer at least, that argument simply doesn’t wash. In their current states, they might not have been designed for illegal activity, they are, however, enabling it.

I must therefore grudgingly applaud G2A for, at the very least, addressing this issue. While it might spell the end for awesome discounts, it is an indication that the company does not support (or at least, no longer supports) illegal activity to feed itself.

Kudos G2A!