To clarify, one of our PC retail distributors informed us that some of their allotted Steam keys were stolen. We believe these keys were then resold to multiple companies, with no payments going to either Valve or the retail distributor.
Steam were immediately informed and have now revoked that set of keys.
As a developer Rebellion are happy for you to purchase the game anywhere you see fit and support price competition in the PC market - we have in no way targeted any specific vendors (who may have also thought these keys were legitimate), just this one set of keys.
All we can suggest if you have been affected is to please contact your vendor and first ask for a replacement key, and then contact us for the free pre-order DLC if you are successful.
To clarify, one of our PC retail distributors informed us that some of their allotted Steam keys were stolen. We believe these keys were then resold to multiple companies, with no payments going to either Valve or the retail distributor.
Darkmancer wrote on Jun 29, 2014, 09:20:
A smackhead nicks your phone and sells it to a phone shop for £20/$. Do you think that apple should block the phone even though the phone shop didn't know it was stolen despite being very cheap?
It wasn't the final distributors that the keys were stolen from. The keys were stolen from either Rebellion/Publisher or an entirely different distributor and it's they who still actually own the keys and can block them. It's Rebellions duty to discourage crime although it will piss people of, by blocking the keys it'll (hopefully) make the second set of distributors more careful where they trawl for keys next time.
Krovven wrote on Jun 28, 2014, 21:12:
While Rebellion has every right to shut down unauthorized resellers from selling keys that were not purchased from Rebellion/Steam, it would have been far better PR just to accept the loss and tighten up their distribution of keys going forward.
CJS seems to think they are entitled to sell CD keys they did not obtain from the source. Newsflash, you are not. Works the same in retail. Companies don't get to go buy goods on the black market and sell them at retail when they do not have a legitimate deal in place with distributors.
Quboid wrote on Jun 28, 2014, 21:48:
Or maybe Rebellion are lying. I'm not saying they're telling the truth, I don't know. I'm just saying that, if they are telling the truth, they have to be very careful.
Krovven wrote on Jun 28, 2014, 22:50:It's right in the thread on the steam forums that's in the linked post. You're welcome to go digging through it I think it was somewhere around page 40 maybe earlier, where both CJS and PTG get their keys via all three methods and stated the same for GMG. It might seem asinine to spend money printing on cards, but that is one method also via xls from the publisher, or retail boxes and input codes manually into a file.
Really? Provide some proof.
Not only does it seem absolutely asinine to spend money on printing codes to a card and shipping those physical objects around the world to legitimate re-sellers and then have them manual enter the codes, that's not my experience from friends that have worked at companies that sold their games on Steam.
Mashiki Amiketo wrote on Jun 28, 2014, 21:30:
though most CDkey sellers who are legit get them as print card/XLS or boxed retail in bulk(I really wouldn't want to do the input job).
Quboid wrote on Jun 28, 2014, 21:23:Well that's very nice of them, I mean it's not like we haven't heard other companies name, names in the past when serious leaks happen right? Wait we have. And in turn, we haven't heard that when there was a security breach and an investigation that's started, they haven't let people know either right? Let's be realistic, companies can and do name, names all the time. For whatever reason, if there is an investigation they're not saying there is one. If the keys were stolen, they're not saying who it was from, they're not saying how the keys were stolen--though most CDkey sellers who are legit get them as print card/XLS or boxed retail in bulk(I really wouldn't want to do the input job).
If there was a theft then Rebellion probably do know where the leak was. The point I'm trying to make is that they aren't going to name anybody publicly because they care much, much more about not getting sued than they do about us.
This isn't about Rebellion being litigious assholes, no company in the world would name the company.
MxxCon wrote on Jun 28, 2014, 21:11:
UNNAMED RETAILER. How many more times do people have to tell you and explain to you that it is unknown what specific company got hacked and had their keys stolen?!
Rebelion will not say who it was because it is not their place.
That retailer will not say it right now because their are in the middle of investigation what exactly got hacked, how, what kind of damage happened and they are working with layers and law enforcement to figure out how and what to disclose.
Krovven wrote on Jun 28, 2014, 21:12:As a point, CJS has stated that all of their keys are still working. But other companies have had theirs revoked, with that they've also said that they buy keys from two sources, either printcard(that includes xls keys), and boxed retail.
While Rebellion has every right to shut down unauthorized resellers from selling keys that were not purchased from Rebellion/Steam, it would have been far better PR just to accept the loss and tighten up their distribution of keys going forward.
CJS seems to think they are entitled to sell CD keys they did not obtain from the source. Newsflash, you are not. Works the same in retail. Companies don't get to go buy goods on the black market and sell them at retail when they do not have a legitimate deal in place with distributors.
Mashiki Amiketo wrote on Jun 28, 2014, 20:47:UNNAMED RETAILER. How many more times do people have to tell you and explain to you that it is unknown what specific company got hacked and had their keys stolen?!
So again, who were the keys stolen from? And which company was it so I know not to do business with them for their shitty security practices.
It’s rather clear that Rebellion are trying to monopolise the sales of their game, while framing legitimate retailers and claiming the keys as ‘stolen’ to try and cover their tracks.