Yes, they are shady.

Well, during the past few years I've bought like 500 keys from different sites.
I never had an issue with cdkeys, kinguin, eneba and others.

The only two sites where I had issues twice were g2a and gamivo.
Gamivo somewhat solved the issue in my favor, while g2as support was super annoying to deal with.

Could be bad luck or a sign to stay away.

I consider them borderline criminal, not just shady.

I don't know if they still offer it, but G2A offered a "service" that costs you money, but you would be protected in case keys got deactivated. The only reason keys bought there get deactivated, is because they were stolen/acquired with fraud. Which G2A knows and that "service" is basically a protection racket.

So, yeah, they're shady.

I consider any third-party key platform shady.

Originally posted by Shadow-79:

Do you consider G2A shady?

No, I do not "consider" them shady. They simply are. This is not a matter of personal opinion.

Originally posted by Mannenuanen:

I consider any third-party key platform shady.

Except that keys exist, among other reasons, so publishers can sell Steam games in other shops.

I mean when multiple developers are on record blatantly stating they prefer users would pirate their games instead of buying them on G2A then yes, they are very shady.

Its classified as a grey market, meaning the keys are not officially obtained. Some of them are legalish such as people selling their extra keys, but others are blatant fraud with people buying and reselling keys using fraudulent payment methods and those keys later get revoked

Originally posted by Shadow-79:

I mean, are the "game keys" sold on the site stolen? While both Green Man & Fanatical obtain their keys from the developer themselves. Even if it appears "cheaper" in G2A than the other sites, does it mean "way too good on being true" while buying it on Green Man & Fanatical may cost a bit more than G2A, at least they're more credible instead of G2A (or Eneba).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twor6RYVtdQ

pretty much

If u don't want to deal with shady key sellers Just buy your games on steam. Giving u access to refunds if need be

All keyseller site are scam, even if they are legit.

valve filter out the shady ones so if you post it here and its been censored then its shady.

valve removed G2A from the censor list

Originally posted by eram:

valve filter out the shady ones so if you post it here and its been censored then its shady.

valve removed G2A from the censor list

G2A was filtered mostly because they kept pushing referral links and people kept spamming the forums with their referrals.

The filtering also created a lot of "Steam is censoring competition" complaints.

The referral craze dried up over the time, so did the reason for blocking the site name in the filters.

Originally posted by 29933545203998740:

All keyseller site are scam, even if they are legit.

Not all. There's key sites working directly with the developers in selling their Steam keys. Sites like Humble work with the developers, who are the ones putting their keys for sale on that store.

Originally posted by Ogami:

I mean when multiple developers are on record blatantly stating they prefer users would pirate their games instead of buying them on G2A then yes, they are very shady.

Let's not forget the site actually sells you an 'anti-scam insurance' in case your purchase goes bananas.

Says a lot about the site.

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Originally posted by Ogami:

I mean when multiple developers are on record blatantly stating they prefer users would pirate their games instead of buying them on G2A then yes, they are very shady.

Let's not forget the site actually sells you an 'anti-scam insurance' in case your purchase goes bananas.

Says a lot about the site.

It was (or still is?) a subscription they tried to seek in with your purchase.

And if you ended up with that subscription it was close to impossible to cancel it.