Indie developers start petition against G2A to stop it from selling indie games

The controversy involving G2A and indie developers is reaching a fever pitch. Last week, Mike Rose, founder of indie label No More Robots, posted a short video on Twitter showing how G2A used Google’s sponsored ads to go over the publisher. This means that the publisher makes no revenue from sales through those ads, as G2A takes the revenue instead. https://twitter.com/RaveofRavendale/status/1144971664855371777 Following the controversy, a few indie developers openly called for consumers to pirate their games rather than purchase them from G2A. The most notable developers were Rami Ismail, co-founder of Vlambeer, and Descenders developer RageSquid. Mike Rose himself also asked the same in a follow-up tweet. https://twitter.com/tha_rami/status/1145314954632974337 https://twitter.com/RageSquid/status/1144972986979684353 The ramifications of developers making this kind of public statement have been examined by GameDaily.biz in a feature that details a “thorny legal picture”. The conclusion of the article is that G2A would probably continue to practice its shady business, despite the protests from indie developers. Now, Mike Rose has just started a Change.org petition to stop G2A from selling indie titles on its platform. As of the time of writing, the petition has reached over 500 signature in just three hours. https://twitter.com/RaveofRavendale/status/1147100098628902913 As Mike Rose explains, the petition is only for people who work in the video game industry, so if you’re just a consumer, you can show your support by liking and retweeting instead.

G2A: a perfect storm

This isn’t the first time developers and critics have taken to denounce G2A. In 2016, indie label tinyBuild posted a comprehensive breakdown of the financial impact that G2A has on indie developers. In 2017, Gearbox Software made a deal with G2A over Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, but following some criticism from the late John “TotalBiscuit” Bain, the company made a list of demands over the deal. G2A responded a few days later and accused Gearbox of “defamatory statements”. The official statement is still available on the official website. Right now there’s a Twitter storm going on. The official G2A account is trying to justify its business practices with the excuse that if they didn’t do it, someone else would. https://twitter.com/G2A_com/status/1147122350888034304 What do you think of the whole controversy? Should G2A stop selling keys of indie titles? How can indie developers and publishers protect themselves from such grey market practices? Drop your comments below, tell us your thoughts!