Steam runs out of Splinter Cell: Blacklist game keys but continues to sell the game

Steam runs out of Splinter Cell: Blacklist game keys but continues to sell the game

| Source: Kotaku Author: Mark Campbell

Steam runs out of Splinter Cell: Blacklist game keys but continues to sell the game

Over the weekend the Splinter Cell series was available with price reductions of 75% on Steam, including the series' most recent iteration Splinter Cell: Blacklist.

What is unusual about this sale is that sales for the game were higher than expected, so much so that Steam ran out of digital codes for the game, which mean that a large number of buyers are not able to play their newly purchased game.

Like a lot of Ubisoft games on Steam, Splinter Cell requires a Uplay account to play and as such requires a Uplay digital game code to play. This means that when Steam runs out of game codes, new purchasers will have to wait until Valve acquires more codes from Ubisoft and activates the game on their account.

The problem with this issue is not just that Valve was unable to provide their users with a working game at the time of purchase, but that they did not make any changes to the games listing to inform gamers that they have run out of digital game codes. This oversight allowed a large number of gamers to purchase the title without the ability to access the game, with several purchasers reporting the issue between October 28th and 31st on Social media.

(An explanation from Steam support regarding game key issues)

While purchasers have been able to get a refund for this game on Steam, this highlights a big problem with Valve's storefront. Valve should have updated their store page to tell consumers that they have run out of game keys, allowing gamers to factor the waiting period for a new game key into their purchasing decision but instead, gamers had to purchase, download and then attempt to play the game before being presented with any sign of an issue.

Not only has Valve needlessly wasted the time of a large number of PC gamers, but has highlighted how far PC's premiere digital storefront is from being perfect.

If Amazon can tell us how many products they have in a warehouse, why can't Steam tell us how many digital game keys they have left on their digital storefront?

You can join the discussion on Steam running out of digital game keys on the OC3D Forums.

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