Descenders dev launches petition telling G2A to stop selling indies

Last week we reported on the public outcry by some prominent indie devs about the perceived business practices of online video game marketplace G2A, and then later in the week we covered G2A's response. Now we've got another update on the situation after indie publisher Mike Rose set up a petition that demands G2A stops selling indie games on its store.

Last week, G2A offered to pay developers ten times the amount lost due to chargebacks, under certain conditions, but that offer doesn't seem to have placated Rose, who explained how his company has had to react to G2A's business practices.

"I've had to stop giving out keys so freely to potential press and influencers because G2A doesn't care about policing their site," he wrote, later adding that, "we're far less inclined to get involved with things like, for example, a Humble Bundle, as we know all the keys will appear on G2A afterwards and tank our Steam sales from that point onwards. This is the issue with G2A."

In what turned out to be an extended Twitter post, Rose wrote, "G2A do not care about the people who make games, no matter what spin they keep frothing out. Do not fall for it. Plenty of devs have tried to reason with them, but they are not to be reasoned with."

In G2A's statement, they outlined the sales of Descenders, a game published by Rose's indie company, No More Robots, but Rose countered that the sales figures of that particular game "isn't the f****** point."

"The problem is the perception of value. If someone sees our game at a low price on G2A, they'll automatically be less inclined to buy full price."

"As an industry, we are constantly fighting for players to perceive our games as valuable. If you see that Descenders is available for cheap somewhere dodgy, your brain will say 'hmm, maybe I shouldn't buy it full price?' G2A facilitate this shift every single day and don't care."

Rose then explored the stats shared by G2A, pointing out that, "Descenders has sold 226 copies on G2A... but one single person sold 45% of those. In fact, 85% of keys were sold by 3 people!"

"100 keys appearing from a single person? 3 people selling 85% of keys for a game on G2A Come on now, haha. These are clearly flaggable, yet G2A did nothing."

Writing to Games Industry in response to Rose's post, G2A couldn't comment as the "situation is currently developing."

What is clear at this stage is that Rose isn't at all pleased with the response from G2A and his petition, as fruitless as it may be in the end, is just the latest move in a debate to looks like it will rumble on.