The battle between G2A and indie developers has taken a new turn. Descenders developer Mike Rose started a petition to stop selling indie games on G2A. The petition that started a couple of days ago has gained plenty of attention. Close to 3000 people have signed the petition and many of them are reportedly indie developers. The goal is 5000 signatures so the petition is gaining traction faster than expected.

According to the petition, indie devs make up for the majority of the gaming industry. The way G2A handles the reselling of video game keys hurts revenue. G2A allows reselling of indie and AAA video game keys but the source of these keys is allegedly illegitimate. Mike Rose shared his breakdown of G2A’s statement (which you can see below), but the problem is his eyes is the perception of value.

If a potential a buyer sees their “game at a low price on G2A, they’ll automatically be less inclined to buy full price,” said Rose. An excerpt from the petition:

G2A says that they do care about the games industry, the industry they profit from every day. We suggest that G2A could surely take an 8% hit to their sales if it means making 99% of developers in the industry happier, and allowing us to retain the perceived value of our games. By doing this, G2A could show that they genuinely care, and the industry would no doubt grow more quickly as a result, eventually filling that 8% that G2A were missing from our games.

Mike Rose Breakdown G2A’s Statement On Twitter And G2A Responds

– They say I have a "pretty good at handling the keys they don’t want available on the free market". Yes I do! And that's because G2A exists. I've had to stop giving out keys so freely to potential press + influencers because G2A doesn't care about policing their site — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019 – Because of this "pretty good handling", it means that we're far less inclined to get involved with things like, for example, a Humble Bundle, as we know all the keys will appear on G2A afterwards, and tank our Steam sales from that point onwards. *This* is the issue with G2A — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019 – They say "Just join G2A Direct!", but this is nonsense, as they then sell your game alongside all the illegitimate keys. Why on earth would any developer want their game sold officially alongside a grey market? Do they think we're idiots? — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019 I have so many more thoughts on their bullshit, but the tl;dr is: G2A do not care about the people who make games, no matter what spin they keep frothing out. Do not fall for it. Plenty of devs have tried to reason with them, but they are not to be reasoned with. — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019 And hey, when you read this G2A: You have my phone number, I gave it to you when we were emailing back and forth. Ask your dev relations person Mateusz. I'm waiting on your call! — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019 One more thing to add: G2A say barely any copies of Descenders have sold on G2A, but *this isn't the fucking point*. The problem is the *perception of value*. If someone sees our game at a low price on G2A, they'll automatically be less inclined to buy full price. — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019 As an industry, we are constantly fighting for players to perceive our games as valuable. If you see that Descenders is available for cheap somewhere dodgy, your brain will say "hmm, maybe I shouldn't buy it full price?" G2A facilitate this shift every single day and don't care — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019 So let's delve into these lovely stats G2A have provided for us! Descenders has sold 226 copies on G2A… but one single person sold 45% of those. In fact, 85% of keys were sold by 3 people! So where the heck did they get so many cheap/free keys? How is that even possible? pic.twitter.com/FNYPtTZ0xK — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019 You can see that one guy selling 102 Steam keys on February 14, 2018. At that point the game was only available on Steam, and was 10% in the launch sale. I remember seeing these keys on G2A for around $13 at the time So how did this one person get 100 keys he could sell for $13? — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019 Clearly these 100 keys are a red flag. All the other 1s, 2s appearing — fine, that'll always happen. 100 keys appearing from a single person? 3 people selling 85% of keys for a game on G2A? Come on now, haha. These are clearly flaggable, yet G2A did nothing. — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019 Here's how much Descenders cost throughout its lifetime. The cheapest price at the time of these keys going up was $22.49. How were they appearing on G2A for nearly half the price? Is that genuinely not cause for concern to the people running the sales platform? pic.twitter.com/UpcNSLHloP — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019 I love this line too. It shows that G2A have zero understanding of how games sell. *Of course AAA games sell way more than indie titles, you morons*. AAA games are:

– Triple the price of indie titles

– Have widespread marketing campaigns

– Are pushed hard by sales platforms pic.twitter.com/87FmIE71kD — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019 But obviously indie titles only account for 8% of G2A's sales, so fuck 'em, right? Who gives a shit about the smaller devs, they barely make us any money anyway — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019 But obviously indie titles only account for 8% of G2A's sales, so fuck 'em, right? Who gives a shit about the smaller devs, they barely make us any money anyway — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019 Anyway, this whole post is a beautiful trainwreck, and I'm gonna print it out and put it on my wall to remind me daily that G2A are laughably bad for our industry, and clearly have no idea why, despite people telling them over and over again — Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019

G2A responded to Mike Rose saying that even if G2A removes indie games that won’t solve the problem. There are over 10 resellers excluding eBay selling keys. The drama continues and we will update you as soon as more information arrives. In our opinion, the best way to handle the situation right now is to come up with a solution by working with developers.