Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by shade00:

G2 when i was a part of the groupees old days chatters
someone interviewed G2/hrk and well they slipped that they do not always get there keys from publishers/devs if i recall correctly
not sure were i have the interview stored as its been many years
but it was enough proof to distrust them
now sadly groupees has gone down that path new owners keys not coming direct....
hrk was doing copycat bundles based on fanaticals and others which was highly fishy

high chance if there allowing the bundles they have some kind of relationship
how little or large is a big question and ones gotta wonder how many of those asset flippers
are friends they do run in the same circles

Iirc, it was an interview either with an indie dev themselves or a media outlet reporting on a certain indie dev who was taking notes about this.

Maybe Rock Paper Shotgun?

And yes they did indeed say that they don't get their keys purely from the direct sources. They also went into more rake-stepping as well.

the interview was from an staff or owner at g2/hrk
unsure if it was ever published it was shared via pastebin i think
idk were the source came from anymore said one posting it or from a news article
but since they pastebinned it most likely they were the one contacting them

who knows how many interviews there has been with them anymore
but they slip up so often during them and no backwalking alot thats said

Originally posted by Obey the Fist!:

Well, G2 got caught selling Steam keys bought with stolen credit cards, if I recall correctly, so they are shady as all hell.

All that is left for us to wonder is if they have a direct commercial relationship or are even run by the same people as the asset flippers.

G2 when i was a part of the groupees old days chatters
someone interviewed G2/hrk and well they slipped that they do not always get there keys from publishers/devs if i recall correctly
not sure were i have the interview stored as its been many years
but it was enough proof to distrust them
now sadly groupees has gone down that path new owners keys not coming direct....
hrk was doing copycat bundles based on fanaticals and others which was highly fishy

high chance if there allowing the bundles they have some kind of relationship
how little or large is a big question and ones gotta wonder how many of those asset flippers
are friends they do run in the same circles

Originally posted by Obey the Fist!:

From what I understand, I don't think the fake reviews are necessarily intended to convince gamers to buy directly (and the pricing is too high for people to take the games seriously... the pricing is likely to prevent people writing negative reviews that count towards review score, as only direct purchases can).

The purpose is just to push the games into "Mostly positive" so that they can be shoved into "positive" random key bundles.

If you go to Gee-two-A (dunno why Valve censors the site) and buy random game bundles there, you can see each bundle is published by an independent seller, and, surprise surprise, all the games in the bundle will be from one particular asset flipper. Often Cristian, sometimes Hede or some Conglomerate 5 asset flipper.

blah never trust websites like that, g2 and there buddy hrk
sadly money is money to those types dun care where it comes from
theyll allow anyone in
reminds me of publisher, promoters greenlight era
got the cash theyll get ya on steam
wgn was a major, groupees greenlight bundles which had chunk good ones
wgn actually turned into an idle army on side misusing keys high likely
would not give those companies a penny nor trust them

the funny thing
is that they think a majority will look at the games and then the reviews
and think there good games.... reviews do not give a full look into games
trailers, playthroughs, streams, various things give true looks
people who go based soley on reviews or often mainly on reviews
need to check themselves as they be made into fools often
which is rather sad.... never trust only one source like reviews

huh i never knew they were allowed to hide developer AND publisher

Originally posted by Mellow_Online1:

Thanks for raising awareness of this Shade!

We've just put up our coverage of the issue today, thanks for making us aware!

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/Sentinels_of_the_Store/announcements/detail/4157463936692986362

i kept archiving the thread incase the publisher decided to remove anything
archived the old store page too https://archive.ph/27gSE
had some trouble finding that for some reason guess they altered the store page enough to were it would not direct link to it from the forums anymore

tools that may help revoked people track down where they got there key from
if it was bundle wise atleast, they wipe records of delisted games i think of which stores were sold in, for store wise id check each store you used and ask per a replacement key or refund
reference any information you can on the subject

if you bought it via a reseller website there is a chance you may not get much help
but still contact them to see if they might provide help

i laid out more information in the games community thread and archived it once more
incase things go further south and the thread becomes deleted as some dev/pub have been known too do sadly
https://archive.is/LHBBS pages 1 and 2 are saved

isthereanydeal should help you locate which bundle
gg.deals idk if tracks bundles also they may track beyond officials

https://isthereanydeal.com/game/demigods/info/
three official bundles listed

https://isthereanydeal.com/bundles/8699/
may 2020

may 2019
https://isthereanydeal.com/bundles/7241/

https://isthereanydeal.com/bundles/6573/
nov 2018

plus steam help has a search which should bring up the game and bring up records on when it was purchased or redeemed
there is also licenses under account though that does not have a search feature

Originally posted by Obey the Fist!:

There's so many things the developer here has done wrong. It's not hard to google. Hell, I asked ChatGPT and it told me the right way to delist a game.

The developer has also shown absolutely zero reticence here. I see this as purely malicious at this stage.

yeah i was thinking possibly an dev/publisher FAQ on steam
most likely is one, yeah they could have done there research
sadly so many publishers and developers feel like newbies and dont do there research
this publisher has a long list of games
i hope for them they rectify it soon else it may spell worse trouble then just an angry community

they should have researched and should have responded
but negative crowds i can understand avoiding
which is why i dropped a comment in hopes they rectify it and hopefully research
hopefully steams department that handles publishers speaks with them and sets them straight

i saw some are contacting steam support over this subject
steam support can only do so much, they refer to store page reports
so they go to the correct department
mark it as broken and mark what exactly the problem is being the depot/download files
were removed

this seems like an greenlight era publisher maybe who does not know how to properly delist a game, this problem has occurred a few times over the years were the file depots get cleared
sadly during these periods many complain yet do not set the publisher or dev straight on how things work
the remove from sale, leave the files active, or transfer the page over to the developer

said game being a 2015 greenlight era maybe?
we saw a flood of games and publishers many who knew little of what they were doing
mainly taking advantage of the publishing rights getting easy profits by fast tracking games to release.
not sure if thats the case with this publisher

but there is always a chance thia is there first delisting
meaning they dont know the proper protocol of how to do things
may they get resolved soon

and please - store page right side is the report flag
flag as broken and mention the games files were removed
please do not contact steam support this is not something they can help on
we have learned time and time again

https://steamhost.cn/app/409130/Demigods/
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/409130/discussions/0/4337607921781466204/
developers delisting thread v.s announcement

The app has been removed from Steam and is no longer supported.
both info boxs now state this
at the time still on sale

there have been reports of revoked keys

there game depots now 0kb
https://imgur.com/a/demigods-0zOaIlS someones images on it verified it myself 0kb

https://archive.is/OLeAV
archive incase the developer decides to remove the thread

if anyone has further information feel free to post
otherwise best to report them for removing the game files