Borderlands 2 STEAM - Now only $20.99!!! : urlhasbeenblocked.com Game Keys

These guys just go buy the games at the Russian prices, and between the lower price and the favorable exchange rates, they are able to sell it so cheap and still make money. I don't know why this would be illegal for the purchaser. I don't really know the laws in the country of origin.

Buying keys like this is entirely legal. They obtain these keys in a legal manner, by buying cheap Russian keys. If they were generating keys, then that's a different story.

I have been playing this game by "other" methods since release. I figure I will break down and buy it at this price. I hope it works out well. I doubt the keys are stolen. Because the russians will just pirate. Its really common for companies to have multiple price points for different regions of the world. I doubt the dev are making any less money than the keys that are free with video card. Its a great game, but I just won't pay 60$ for games.

I'll TU after I get my key.

Quote from Aeacus : It's international cd keys being resold. I doubt it will ever affect the buyer but its a bit like buying stuff you know is most likely stolen from Craigslist. Just a bit dodgy. I do sometimes wonder if devs wouldn't be better off ignoring Russia and eastern Europe entirely, and avoiding this kind of cd key "re-importation".

dont listen to this guy he speaking out of his ass. these keys are perfectly legal

My friend and I go to Russia many times to stock up on game keys and almost got arrested at customs.

Avoid these.

In Soviet Russia, the keys buy you!

Just kidding. I bought the Civ V Gods and Kings from this place, they emailed me a photo of a cd key that activated fine on steam. A bit weird, but legit. This is a good deal too. I bought the game for $37.50 on a pre-order... but I've told my friends about this deal.

Quote from YellowFlash : dont listen to this guy he speaking out of his ass. these keys are perfectly legal

I never said it was illegal, just ethically iffy. If I'm a game dev, I no longer sell to Russia in the near future or get my game severely region locked (ie you can only play with a foreign language/text).

The developer and publisher get a fraction of their normal revenue from these sales and a dicey third party gets a huge cut. For good games, I want to support the developer.

Best defense I've read of these sales is the get people who would have pirated the game to buy. But if someone's bought from them and co-op works, it's a deal.


Edit: just wanted to add, some where in the distribution line for these a company or person is breaking a contract to sell these outside the country/region they were meant for. That's where the ethically iffy bit comes in.

Quote from compguy : Yes I like giving my money to the russians and the devs getting little to no money from the sale. Devs probably still see more money when you wait for the steam sales where games are 50-80% off. Devs really don't get any money from these shady sellers and that's why it's so cheap. Gray market is gray market.

Me thinks you do not understand why people dislike taxes.

The primary issue here for customers (beyond the fact that you really aren't supporting dev's much at all vs. getting from normal channels even on a sale) is that they're breaking terms of sale and you're breaking terms of use by buying out of region.

Steam can (and has) removed such games from peoples account, and it's written in the TOS that they can ban your account for this. In practice they usually won't ban your, but it can happen.


Also, if the seller is feeling nefarious, they can revoke your key and sell to someone else or even use it to hijack your account. These are codes from physical copies (at least what they claim), but this means that they retain ownership of the game copies rather than you since they still hold the physical representation of them. In practice this probably isn't an issue at least from this seller... so long as they continue to make enough money that they don't feeling compelled to pursue sketchier avenues to generate more profit.


So it comes down to this: how many steam games do you own. If you only have a few, this is pretty low risk and at worst is something like a rental if they remove it. If you have a lot games on your account, there's more things you should take into consideration before buying from these places, as noted above.


I'm not saying anyone should or shouldn't buy from these places, but there is risk potential that's not present from steam sales, amazon, gmg, gamersgate, gamefly etc.. (i.e. authorized digital distributers). And then the fact that most of this money is going to a Russian third-party and practically nothing to the devs. So there's also an ethical component.

Quote from EvaUnitAammar : Me thinks you do not understand why people dislike taxes.

People dislike taxes when they don't see a benefit from them. Now if we're going to consider paying a little more so that the dev's actually make money here as a "tax", then the benefit from buying from somewhere that actually pays the devs more than a pittance from the sale is that it increases the revenue for the company that made this, which means that they have more funding to be able to work on DLC, any other games they're working on, and a Borderlands 3 down the line. Not to mention the cost of running servers for online play. That's not to lay on a guilt trip, but your comment on taxes amounts to "what benefits does the customer see from spending more from a 100% clean source" so I was laying out the benefits (beyond the lack of steam account risk).

Quote from compguy : People dislike taxes when they don't see a benefit from them. Now if we're going to consider paying a little more so that the dev's actually make money here as a "tax", then the benefit from buying from somewhere that actually pays the devs more than a pittance from the sale is that it increases the revenue for the company that made this, which means that they have more funding to be able to work on DLC, any other games they're working on, and a Borderlands 3 down the line. Not to mention the cost of running servers for online play. That's not to lay on a guilt trip, but your comment on taxes amounts to "what benefits does the customer see from spending more from a 100% clean source" so I was laying out the benefits (beyond the lack of steam account risk).

Oho! I agree with you 100% on the Borderlands issue.
+1 to what this man is saying.

I was referring to the link in your signature. That was my mistake--should have made that clear.

My main contention is whether the future DLC will be compatible with the RU version or non-US version. Does anyone have any solid info on this?

I guess they're legal, but highly frowned upon by steam. Found a post on a forum where someone emailed steam about the issue. http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp...07&mpage=1

Saw the other thread and noticed the price drop as well. I ended up buying a key around 1:05 AM PDT and received my key around 3 AM PDT. Had the option to install the Russian version or the English version through steam and it activated flawlessly.