G2A Adamantly Claims They Are "Not A Grey Marketplace"

At a recent industry conference, G2A's Senior Account Manager Mario Mirek sat down for an open Q&A session with developers. While the panel was hosted as an effort to introduce G2A's upcoming Direct service - an "open door" communication initiative between developers and G2A's retail platform; the session did not bode well for G2A as Mirek struggled to fend off questions about the retailer's controversial business model.

The controversy in question is G2A's thriving "grey market" economy, which arises from the reselling of game keys for profit by taking advantage of regional pricing differences. These keys are bought in regions where the retail price of games are cheaper (such as Russia), and are often resold to consumers who are in higher-priced territories. While this practice of arbitrage is technically legal, developers are understandably not happy as they are losing valuble revenue when such grey market sales occur. Indie developers and smaller studios especially, suffer under G2A's grey market.

When pressed about the issue of grey market reselling, Mirek doubled-down and defended G2A's business model.

"I know we're called a grey marketplace, but the way we see it - and the way our team sees it - is that there's nothing really grey about it. People just don't understand our business model...Customers have the right to sell their products at the price they want to sell at, just like on eBay or any other marketplace."

In response to the adamant denials of G2A's grey market mechanisms, an audience member openly challenged Mirek on whether "G2A really doesn't see this being damaging to the industry". Mirek argues that G2A's lower resale price points are in fact no different from sales and bundle pricing, and that it is simply a form of user acquisition.

"Really, it is about your user acquisition. Why are you putting your games on sale? Why are you doing bundles? Why are you doing giveaways? For that very reason - because you want to acquire a customer who might otherwise not buy your game."

Another audience member questioned Mirek on whether G2A themselves could region lock keys from Steam. Mirek coyly responded, "We have that ability."

While many in the audience were "clearly unimpressed with G2A's rhetoric", developers still hold hope. With "13m people from all over the world" using G2A's platform, developers understand that despite its issues "[G2A's] marketplace is not scorched earth". Rami Ismail, co-founder of the studio Vlambeer, offered some candid feedback for steps towards repairing G2A's reputation with the developer community.

"Oh, they can fix it... Just stop being shit.

People are generally forgiving. Sure, people might yell at you, but if you fix the thing that people are yelling about then very frequently 99% of people will appreciate that.

I guess G2A hasn't done that yet."

Mirek claims that, "If anyone thinks that their business doesn't deserve a change, then they're wrong," and assures developers that they are "focus[ed] on improving". However judging from Mirek's evasive statements on the issue of G2A's "grey market", it seems likely this will remain a contentious point between developers and G2A in the foreseeable future.