Ubisoft might block Far Cry 4 copies bought through third-party key sellers

#5001279 Posted on: 01/27/2015 02:44 PM

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DDOSing Ubisoft won't help anyone!

#5001282 Posted on: 01/27/2015 02:46 PM

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The banning of keys by Ubisoft has me very concerned.

Last year, I purchased what I thought was a legitimate key for Sniper Elite III on PC from a trusted retailer I had been using for years and was able to successfully activate it and pre-load the game. A couple of days later I was notified by Steam that the key was not valid and the game disappeared from my library, apparently because it was suspected to be fraudulent and stolen (like what Ubisoft are saying now). I was able to get a full refund and I went and bought the boxed version from Amazon for, thankfully, just a few pounds more. I've had no problems since.

Now I bought PC copies of Assassin's Creed: Unity, Far Cry 4 and The Crew from the same retailer I have used for years with no problems for £24.99 each last year, a substantial saving on the £39.99 being asked by Ubisoft and Valve. They are still there now (or rather they were there this morning when I checked...) but with the Sniper Elite III issue still fresh in my mind, I can't help but think that Ubisoft may target these other sellers next and I will find all those games removed.

This is a big problem with digital distribution in my opinion. If I buy an Xbox One, PS4, PS Vita or Wii U boxed game from ShopTo.net or Amazon, wherever, then I know that it will be a legit copy (unlike PC games they do not require the entry of a key except for DLC, etc, either). However, unless I purchase a boxed PC game from one of those places then how am I supposed to know whether the key I've bought is actually from an approved seller? It may work initially but will it still be valid in six months (apparently copies of Watch_Dogs weren't) and where does it leave me if the retailer goes bust in the meantime? What chance then do I have of getting a refund? Call me cynical but is this just a way for the publisher to scare their customers from buying cheap keys and make them pay more for them from their own sites (Uplay and Steam) so they can maximise their profits? Are we suddenly going to find chunks of our games libraries deleted as publishers ban more of these supposedly cheaper "stolen" keys?

Regardless, what annoys me about what Ubisoft are doing is that unlike Steam they are apparently not notifying their customers that games have been banned nor are they explaining exactly why either. Surely that is not legal or right? In my humble view publishers should be targetting the sellers of these keys and punishing/suing them not the customers who in all likelihood bought the keys in good faith. Just because something is cheap, doesn't mean it is 'dodgy' or illegal. Console games sell in digital format on PSN and Xbox LIVE for much higher prices than what I generally pay for boxed copies from ShopTo.net after all, and on PC there are fewer games being released on disc (or are delayed until after the digital release, likely in an effort to make them pay higher prices in my view) meaning that you have no choice but to seek out a digital key if you want to play it on release. Why would I pay £40 if a reputable retailer, someone who I trust and have been using for years, is selling the same key for £15 less? Is that not what we've been doing for years with boxed PC and console games?

I can see why publishers want their games to be sold digitally as they can have absolute control over pricing. I buy a lot of PC games and one of the main reasons I do is because they are cheap. I can pick up bargains in the Steam sales and generally I never pay more than £25 for a full-priced release, whether its picking up a boxed copy on Amazon or a key from my favourite online retailer. However, if publishers decide to ask £40-£50 for PC games new, and when they are as broken as Far Cry 4 and Assassin's Creed: Unity were at launch, well then I will simply stop buying them at launch, end of, until they are cheap in a sale (which is probably the most sensible thing to do anyway as the games many issues should be fixed by then!).

(This is a repost of the one from the Far Cry 4 thread in the Games section)

#5001285 Posted on: 01/27/2015 02:50 PM

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People just need to do what I do.... Avoid Ubi games.... The only reason I play FC3 is because I got it free with my 7950... If I had to pay for it, I wouldn't own it.

#5001288 Posted on: 01/27/2015 02:56 PM

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Theres nothing wrong with shopping around for a better price. Hows that any different to doing so with physical copies? With any product?

Unless the were dodgy RU, VPN or actually stolen keys of which ubi isnt even saying or providing info on, then I dont see why they can ban them simply because gamers didnt buy direct from Uplay.

Its not like ubi has any moral ground to stand on given the state they release games in. Its like they're saying that them and them alone are the only one who are allowed to be cheap.

G2play is totally legit, there's nothing wrong getting the best price for a game, in fact I encourage this very much. it is a question of market and its demand, be happy there is competition as that actually drives prices down opposed to forcibly paying 60 EURO per game.

In the past this happened one time before, also with G2Play, they fully credited the game back to the customers. They are pioneering in a market where the software houses try to push the highest prices, as such I have nothing other then respect for that company.

I'm not against keysellers. I know I couldn't put up with you guys anyway, you've probably got ten times as many arguments proving that keysellers are good that any I could bring up to claim otherwise, if I wanted.

I just want to say, as with any other item on the market, to go with boobies' comment, sometimes you get scammed. Sometimes you buy a copied iphone from Asia because it's half the price and you end up with a faulty product or one that doesn't match the original item's specifications.

I personally think that those people absolutely tried the best in their own intentions and went to get stuff cheap, but at the same time they should be aware that they are taking risks of more or less big consequences. And to think ubisoft (or any other such company for that matter) would happily watch the average price for a newly released game drop below what they want to see coming in per copy even after a year, is delusional. So yes, they tried the best a customer could do in today's economically dominated word, but something went wrong, and now they lost their investment. I'm not going to cry rivers for them, tbh.


This is Ubisoft being greedy and a huge jerk-off (in other words, Ubisoft being Ubisoft).
I was planning to buy Far Cry 4, eventually. Not any more. There's only so much BS you can take.

There's the fault


Should get Anonymous to revoke ubis access to the internet.

I would absolutely support that. But not only ubicrap, but some other's too

#5001290 Posted on: 01/27/2015 02:59 PM

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As I said in the FC4 thread, my Season Pass key which I bought from a 3rd party reseller (cjscdkeys) got banned after 2 weeks of working just fine. I still have my main game which I got with my GPU, so I hope that one will be left alone. But as things are now, it's like Ubisoft are deliberately trying to alienate the PC gamers through all means possible. I seriously doubt that all these keys were "stolen", as I purchased other games trough 3rd party key resellers on several ocasions...