Witcher 3 - GMG keys are not authorized

Originally Posted by Archangel
No, capitalism means they can do that as long as they are not breaking contracts or laws (which btw is just like in communism but there everything was regulated by the state).

GMG hasn't broken anything.

if I want, I can fly over to Russia today and buy lot of W3 boxes and resell them here in UK. As long as I pay UK taxes, CDPR can't stop me! Welcome to capitalism!

Originally Posted by Archangel
Coming from a former communist country, probably more than you.

errr… you are partially right Arch but only partially. According to dogma, only USSR achieved an exalted status of communist country. All other satellites were step below and socialist. But that's just a theory since those systems were not communist or socialist but totalitarian. And what you meant was not communist but totalitarian.

Originally Posted by lostforever
GMG hasn't broken anything.

if I want, I can fly over to Russia today and buy lot of W3 boxes and resell them here in UK. As long as I pay UK taxes, CDPR can't stop me! Welcome to capitalism!

Unless there is a region lock. If there is no region lock and you are not breaking any laws (like if a law prohibits you to import more than X games as a private citizen), no they cannot.

EDIT: Of course they can also have a TOS that you agree upon installing the game which can prohibit activating and playing a game meant for Russian market in UK for which that game can be taken away from your account. People you sell the game to than call you a fraud and you get arrested. Have fun

Yep, and that very quickly moves into the direction of smuggling, which as the word indicates, is not allowed.

Originally Posted by Archangel
Unless there is a region lock. If there is no region lock and you are not breaking any laws (like if a law prohibits you to import more than X games as a private citizen), no they cannot.

EDIT: Of course they can also have a TOS that you agree upon installing the game which can prohibit activating and playing a game meant for Russian market in UK for which that game can be taken away from your account. People you sell the game to than call you a fraud and you get arrested. Have fun

They can put anything in the TOS they want but are they legal in UK (or your country law)? A business can buy region locked DVD and sell them here legally and TOS is not enforceable here. I would assume same applies for games too.

Originally Posted by Kordanor
Yep, and that very quickly moves into the direction of smuggling, which as the word indicates, is not allowed.

As long as its not against the country's law, then its not smuggling A publisher can put anything in their TOS but that doesn't mean they can enforce it!

Originally Posted by lostforever
GMG hasn't broken anything.

if I want, I can fly over to Russia today and buy lot of W3 boxes and resell them here in UK. As long as I pay UK taxes, CDPR can't stop me! Welcome to capitalism!

Even without TOS it would be an exercise in futility since customs duties would make your games as expensive as those bought in the UK.

Originally Posted by zahratustra
Even without TOS it would be an exercise in futility since customs duties would make your games as expensive as those bought in the UK.

Even after custom and VAT, there is huge price difference between gog.com Ukraine and UK.

Think of it another way, GMG was selling those keys in UK. Now if its illegal why isn't CDPR nor the local UK distributor not suing them yet?

Early days. I don't think that CDPR knows for certain what has happened.

Originally Posted by lostforever
Even after custom and VAT, there is huge price difference between gog.com Ukraine and UK.

No offence but I would like to see more proof of that than just your word…

Originally Posted by lostforever
Think of it another way, GMG was selling those keys in UK. Now if its illegal why isn't CDPR nor the local UK distributor not suing them yet?

It is not illegal, but if it is region locked people who try to use it to get the game off GoG will not be allowed to.

Originally Posted by zahratustra
Early days. I don't think that CDPR knows for certain what has happened.


No offence but I would like to see more proof of that than just your word…

No need to take my word for it. Why not check prices on both GOG sites? UK VAT is 20%.

Originally Posted by Archangel
It is not illegal, but if it is region locked people who try to use it to get the game off GoG will not be allowed to.

Gog.com lets you use a VPN without repercussions. And if it's not illegal, they cannot not accept keys sold in the UK.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Cdp is really botching this release. First announcing expansions b4 release, when previously saying all DLC will be free. Promising physical goodies, then reneging on them in the us market. Now this attempt at controlling the marketplace.

And we haven't gotten to the bugs and performance problems yet.

I cannot forgive the season pass advertisment.
Everything else is okay with me.

Erm, not really.
The Witcher store is in USA, I need desperately those sublimation picced "rags", but the store doesn't have EU counterpart and there is no way I'll pay the superexpensive shipment prices!
https://www.witcherstore.com/

Anyone else has a sin to add? Please do!

Originally Posted by lostforever
No need to take my word for it. Why not check prices on both GOG sites? UK VAT is 20%.

I'm talking about custom duties and you are talking about VAT. If it was only a question of 20% VAT people will be making fortunes selling Ukrainian cigarettes in the UK.

Originally Posted by lostforever
GMG hasn't broken anything.

if I want, I can fly over to Russia today and buy lot of W3 boxes and resell them here in UK. As long as I pay UK taxes, CDPR can't stop me! Welcome to capitalism!

Actually since GMG doesn't tell their source(unless something changed) we can't know if their source was legal. If they bought the keys of GoG and sold them at a loss it's their right I guess but it is extremely silly

And yeah you can fly over to russia today buy 3 games and sell them, you'll only pay your countries sales tax(as cheap as games are over there you might stay below 20 euros and even pay nothing ).
If you buy alot with the intent to sell them you'll pay punitive duties and a ton of them, might still turn out cheaper than buying in the Uk but I doubt by much of a margin.(Of course the whole thing falls flat on the face in the digital world, and the law is still struggling to even remotely keep up with it and I guess that's how some key sites get away with it, but I so far haven't seen anyone importing russian retail games to germany )

I lost a lot of good will with CDPR over the years but what GMG did is petty and selling it as a pro gamer move i find disgusting.

Originally Posted by Thorwyn99
I lost a lot of good will with CDPR over the years .

Do you care to explain?

They have released what 3 games since 2002 with their 4th and 5th games coming out soon? They have done nothing but support them with updates and great game play if you like the witcher style of games.

Why do you owe paying CDPR more money?

It's like Costco that sells gray market Calvin Klein jeans and Omega Watches from overseas, something which Omega even sued them for up to the Supreme Court.

I bought my Omega Speedmaster from Costco. I don't care one bit that Omega gets a bit less money.

It's simply how the world works. You live a life fraught with competition too. You don't owe them jack squat.

And I think we're threading a dangerous line when we give special status to digital goods. These should not be treated differently than physical ones. It's like you're willingly screwing yourself over.

Originally Posted by Thorwyn99
If they bought the keys of GoG and sold them at a loss it's their right I guess but it is extremely silly

It is not silly, it is called dumping and is used to kill off the competition. Once they are out of job and closed because they couldn't afford the loss and you were hired/sold a product because you were extremely cheap - you're the only one who remains to set the future price.
I'm not sure if GMG went that route as it's impossible to kill sites that offer discounts here and there like GamersGate, but the reality, at least in my case, is that past couple of years I bought more games at GMG than elsewhere.

In some countries the practice is not legal, recently alibaba company (parent of aliexpress) was fined in china for dumping prices of certain merchandise.

I pretty much stopped buying at GMG and Steam. Both are too expensive after the EUR conversion.