So in Ubi's world, if I went out tomorrow and spotted the PC version of FC4 for half the price what they ask in their digital store I'd get banned because I didn't pay full price ? Excuse my slightly sarcastic tone but isn't that what this essentially is ? For all we know the key selling sites might have bought a heap of retail copies from a supplier and get a good discount for buying in bulk and then had 2 schmucks unbox them and enter the codes on some database where they get fetched when a sale is made. Probably not how it works but I'm just thinking out loud here, probably shouldn't do that.

I admit that I am deeply suspicious of Ubisoft's claims that these banned keys were stolen or fraudulent personally. Rebellion claimed the same thing with Sniper Elite III last year but it being a lesser title not much was made of it and the whole thing was quickly forgotten about. I suspect myself that Ubisoft had a very bad 2014. They were critically mauled for releasing half-finished broken games such as AC: Unity and Far Cry 4 (the latter on PC) and I understand that sales were lower than expected and others such as The Crew were pretty much flops. That means that their profits are down and that are likely trying to recuperate some of those by banning keys that were bought cheap from third-parties in the hope that those people will seek a new copy direct from them at the higher price point. Call me cynical but why on earth are they only now banning keys for a six month old game (Watch_Dogs)? Surely, if a key can be registered on Uplay and the game downloaded and played for months then the game is legitimate? It makes no sense for them to punish their customers and, in fact, may even put them off buying their games if there's a chance that it'll be banned at some future date.

I admit that I am deeply suspicious of Ubisoft's claims that these banned keys were stolen or fraudulent personally. Rebellion claimed the same thing with Sniper Elite III last year but it being a lesser title not much was made of it and the whole thing was quickly forgotten about. I suspect myself that Ubisoft had a very bad 2014. They were critically mauled for releasing half-finished broken games such as AC: Unity and Far Cry 4 (the latter on PC) and I understand that sales were lower than expected and others such as The Crew were pretty much flops. That means that their profits are down and that are likely trying to recuperate some of those by banning keys that were bought cheap from third-parties in the hope that those people will seek a new copy direct from them at the higher price point. Call me cynical but why on earth are they only now banning keys for a six month old game (Watch_Dogs)? Surely, if a key can be registered on Uplay and the game downloaded and played for months then the game is legitimate? It makes no sense for them to punish their customers and, in fact, may even put them off buying their games if there's a chance that it'll be banned at some future date.

Your comment sounds very logical. It's just they want to make you buy at uplay or steam the next time, not a keyseller, and of course because their win margin is bigger there.

yup! 4TB hard drives are being sold for $180 now. I am sure the demand is for saving landscape pictures. Cheers mate!

Ok so, let's not pretend that you are not implying that people that pirate games are the ones that mostly buy these drives. Riddle me this: why would someone that pirates games/movies need 4TB drive? If one doesn't pay for a copy, can't play multiplayer, why would one keep that game on the drive once one has finished with single player? And lastly, do you know how much space does a raw QHD footage (video) takes? Damn even phones can record in QHD now (not raw format but still quite large files). I know some people using only flac (or other losless formats) music and have large collections over multiple drives that will get 20TB drives when they come to market... Assuming that mostly pirates will shell out 180$ for a 4TB drives to hoard old games is ignorant. I assume the opposite, they are the bunch which are least likely to buy them.

They shouldn't have moved from the retail space if they wanted to control pricing and availability.

It's ok, people will still keep buying their games.

I say good to this, and if it happens, i hope it happens more. I'm sick of these websites being around and someone needs to do something about them, and if that's the publishers revoking access to games, so be it. I'm also sick of consumers attitude toward these websites, thinking they don't need to do any research, or do anything to make sure they buy legitimate games

Not that I agree with piracy but Ubisoft don't really have the best track record for releasing quality games, well not any more, I'm surprised they would broadcast this considering their current credibility, at this point they must be thinking hey how can we alienate even more of our customers? I think they need to take a page out of cd projekt reds book, seriously DRM is a waste of time and resources that could be better spent developing games that actually work right.

G2A.COM 9 hrs · OFFICIAL STATEMENT ABOUT THE UBISOFT SITUATION As some of you may already know, steps have been taken to remove games purchased indirectly from a publisher, via main marketplaces in the web. G2A.COM is not in any case responsible for any of these procedures. However, we are well aware of this process and will do everything possible to compensate for that. For users who have made transactions without G2A Shield, we will check if the corresponding merchant was responsible for the withdrawal of the code. If so, these users will get a compensation. Any user who used G2A Shield affected by the current process will get either a new code for the game or the money back. G2A.COM will make every possible exertion to prevent this kind of procedures in the future and exclude merchants responsible for such incidents from the marketplace.

https://www.facebook.com/G2Acom/posts/421507051340472

What's next? Banning Humble Bundle keys? I spy with my little eye a public relations disaster for Ubi and well-deserved it is.

I say good to this, and if it happens, i hope it happens more. I'm sick of these websites being around and someone needs to do something about them, and if that's the publishers revoking access to games, so be it. I'm also sick of consumers attitude toward these websites, thinking they don't need to do any research, or do anything to make sure they buy legitimate games

Care to elaborate ? You seem to have a lot of built up anger towards these sites but you don't say why. I'm going to echo Hilbert's post and say that these sites bring some much needed competition to the market which is healthy for economy in general not to mention that there's absolutely nothing wrong in trying to bag a bargain. When people are shopping for a new phone/car/TV/washing machine etc. they shop around because people in general aren't quite as dumb as they seem to be. Nothing wrong in shopping around for a game deal, its ok to do it with a boxed copy so why not a digital one ?

So in Ubi's world, if I went out tomorrow and spotted the PC version of FC4 for half the price what they ask in their digital store I'd get banned because I didn't pay full price ?

If you buy it from an authorized reseller, shouldn't have any problems. Places like G2A, G2Play and such are not authorized resellers.

If you buy it from an authorized reseller, shouldn't have any problems. Places like G2A, G2Play and such are not authorized resellers.

Not authorized by whom? Ubisoft? It's not up to them to authorize sales or not. It's a free market. The fact that they overcharge for games is biting them in the @ss now and they're crying blue murder because some less greedy seller undercut their fat profit margins. Well, boo-bloody-hoo! The keys sold by these allegedly unauthorized re-sellers are legal and if Ubi doesn't like that, well that's too bad. They're gonna get sued and so they should.

Not authorized by whom? Ubisoft? It's not up to them to authorize sales or not. It's a free market. The fact that they overcharge for games is biting them in the @ss now and they're crying blue murder because some less greedy seller undercut their fat profit margins. Well, boo-bloody-hoo! The keys sold by these allegedly unauthorized re-sellers are legal and if Ubi doesn't like that, well that's too bad. They're gonna get sued and so they should.

Authorized by the publisher, of course. This is from Steam, but I assume it works the same way with Ubisoft and Uplay. https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7480-WUSF-3601&l=english

For authorized online resellers, where no physical media is shipped, the CD Key is usually included in an emailed purchase receipt. For questions on who is an authorized reseller, please contact the publisher for a list of their authorized resellers.

For it to mention "authorized" resellers, that means there are unauthorized ones. If places like G2A and G2Play were authorized resellers, this whole revoking thing wouldn't be happening, right? (It even has happened in the past with other publishers/developers, from what I see)

You as long as were talking physial copy of the game box dvd blah blah then I would understand. Yet they do the same.. they sell you a key no more no less you download it all. Were just talking money and its UBI.. Origin.. EA.. these guys dont care about people just money. I just started playing one of there games and I cant play it unless THEY are up and running and its been up and down for over the one week I been playing. So with THEM unlike steam that I do buy and run my games off line anytime I wish.. I will find other ways to play if its Origin only play.. sorry rant.

yup! 4TB hard drives are being sold for $180 now. I am sure the demand is for saving landscape pictures. Cheers mate!

I don't quite understand the point your making if for or against spending another $180 on top, the demograph for the demand of HD price drops is elsewhere i'd say, i'm a hard working peasant who works hard for his coppers. At any rate ppl that dont have access to something be it thru lack of circumstance or forced circumstance, like nature will find a way eventually to get around said circumstance, in this case if it's not paying to get cheaper which is a consumers right, then by the many many other avenues that exist. G2A.com go thru the legit method of bulk vpn purchases I would say as i got an email from them and Kinguin about buying a Russian vpn copy (which isn't valid in my country due to region locking rubbish anyways but separate issue), not copying of physical keys like the dodgy individual merchants are most likely doing.

I just buy Ubicrap on massive Steam sales and all is fine. Every retailer that sells RU or versions that need VPN activation is a shifty one for me.

Every retailer that sells RU or versions that need VPN activation is a shifty one for me.

Eh what? You do realize that games sold on G2A are sold by regular people and not the site itself? If there are Russian keys, G2A dos NOT tell you to activate them via VPN, they tell you that those keys are region restricted and which country they work/don't work for. So the one with shiftiness must be you or those who intend to buy keys outside of their region anyway.

I say good to this, and if it happens, i hope it happens more. I'm sick of these websites being around and someone needs to do something about them, and if that's the publishers revoking access to games, so be it. I'm also sick of consumers attitude toward these websites, thinking they don't need to do any research, or do anything to make sure they buy legitimate games

What are you on about? If as example Steam has a sale going on where I can't reach to get one or more of them games while the sale is going on, it is very nice that there are such sites where keys/games from these sales are sold for a tiny bit more. As for keys being legit, sites like G2A can only go to a certain point to make sure keys sold by people around the globe are legal, if not they have reputation to refund. Heck, there is even a reputation meter at each seller showing how many copies they sold and how many % of them that have no issues (which always should be 100%). Having a bad apple in between there for some reason needs to be further investigated by the site since it's not in their neither their customers interest. Luckily that most of the games sold there are 100% legit. So what is your problem? Besides that, do you think it is alright that publishers sell their games for more than what you can get the exact same boxed retail version for locally for 20 Euro + less? FarCry 4 keys go as example for 37,- Euro at local retailers here, and 42,- Euro for the limited edition (60,- is what Ubisoft takes via their online shop, wtf?!). Heck, not to mention what you can buy Xbox 360 games for @ local retailers. Those "official" web-shops must be high on something.

Ubisoft will likely see profits rise as already hearing of people buying a full priced version rather than wait for a replacement key.

They'd be stupid if they did that, imho...

Well all of these particular keys were bought with stolen credit cards so Ubisoft have come out & said. So whoever had a key can probably expect a knock on the door 😉 .