Gearbox will pull partnership deal with G2A unless demands are met

When the G2A press release dropped into our inbox on Monday announcing a Gearbox/G2A Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition deal, we largely ignored it, it was simply sales material. We did, however, think it was a little strange that Gearbox would jump in bed with G2A.

The G2A key selling service is not exactly respected by many PC gamers, but Gearbox tends to make some strange decisions. Gearbox has been slammed for weeks over the pricing of the Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition. The Steam discussion page has been filled with complaints and abuse for while and it became spicy today as reviews started to hit. Unsurprisingly, this G2A deal has not helped Gearbox’ reputation either.

Not only has Gearbox been taking heat for the game’s pricing, but they have been criticised for their special deal with G2A for the Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Collector’s Edition where it’s currently on sale.

The discussion about this G2A deal has been ongoing for a couple of days on various forums, but today, out of the blue, Gearbox has suddenly issued a list of demands to G2A based on recent comments made by John Bain.

In recent Twitter posts, Bain criticised G2A’s more shady practices, practices which are well known and documented within the PC gaming community, especially when it comes to charging for their G2A Shield customer protection.

We’re not sure why Gearbox ignored everyone else’s comments and concerns about the G2A deal but at least they have taken action now.

A statement from Gearbox reads:

“Gearbox Publishing heard loud and clear the concerns voiced by John “TotalBiscuit” Bain. Gearbox was then provided with a lot of documentation on the subject, after which John was gracious enough to spend time across the last two days with our head of publishing Steve Gibson to put together a proposal and a deadline for G2A to act upon.

· Before Bulletstorm Steam launch, G2A makes a public commitment to this: Within 30 days, G2A Shield (aka, customer fraud protection) is made free instead of a separate paid subscription service within terms offered by other major marketplaces. All customers who spend money deserve fraud protection from a storefront. To that end, all existing G2A Shield customers are notified by April 14th that fraud protection services are now free and they will no longer be charged for this.

· Before Bulletstorm Steam launch, G2A makes a public commitment to this: Within 90 days, G2A will open up a web service or API to certified developers and publishers to search for and flag for immediate removal, keys that are fraudulent. This access will be free of charge and will not require payment by the content holders.

· Before Bulletstorm Steam launch, G2A makes a public commitment to this: Within 60 days implement throttling for non-certified developers and publishers at the title, userid, and account payable levels for a fraud flagging process. This is to protect content providers from having large quantities of stolen goods flipped on G2A before they can be flagged.

· Before Bulletstorm Steam launch, G2A makes a public commitment to this: Within 30 days, G2A restructures its payment system so that customers who wish to buy and sell legitimate keys are given a clear, simple fee-structure that is easy to understand and contains no hidden or obfuscated charges. Join the ranks of other major marketplaces.

Gearbox Publishing won’t support a marketplace that is unwilling to make these commitments and execute on them.”

The chances of any of the above happening are slim but maybe G2A will surprise everyone and come clean.

What’s worrying is that Gearbox was prepared to join forces with G2A without doing their research. It’s also strange that Gearbox largely ignored the wider community concerns about this deal and it took one person to wake them up to what’s been going on.

Update: Gearbox to cancel the deal.