The Dark Side of Digital Distribution

How game developers are cheated out of millions of dollars, and steps they can take to protect themselves

You may recall the name G2A. The infamous key reselling site dominated game industry news last year. Many developers began to speak out about the site’s shady activities, which in turn helped to raise general consciousness about the problem of key reselling across the industry. Developers have known about the practice for years, but it’s still shocking to consider that many people still don’t know about (or perhaps don’t care about) this practice and how it can hurt developers.

Although the noise (and headlines) around this issue has died down, it’s worth revisiting the topic again because the problem certainly hasn’t disappeared. Let’s start by examining the nature of digital keys: what they are, and how they are used.

What is a digital key?

Before I dive into the question of key reselling, I should start by explaining what digital keys actually are. The whole topic around digital keys and their reselling has only arisen thanks to the massive shift toward digital distribution in the game industry. There’s little question that this shift from physical to digital has, by and large, been a net positive. Physical…