Steam banning MW2 CD Keys bought from ‘illegitimate sellers’ « ModernWarfail2 – The biggest FAIL in PC FPS gaming history

19Nov/0921

Steam banning MW2 CD Keys bought from ‘illegitimate sellers’

If you've bought a MW2 CD key lately from a so called 'online cd key store', such as G2Play and CdKeyHouse, you'll probably end up getting your game revoked from your Steam account soon.

According to official Valve employees this is due to the fact you've bought the key from an "illegitimate seller".

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12092791&postcount=20

However, rumors are going around that is a yet another money issue and that Valve/Activision is banning all cd keys not purchased from your own region. And since most cd keys from online cd key stores are bought in Asia, you'll end up with not being able to play MW2 anymore.
UPDATE: Current rumors state that this is incorrect. A lot of people which bought their retail MW2 in Russian via a webshop, didn't get their key banned.

In contrary what some people think, the keys are not stolen. They are sold in a market where it is priced cheaper because people don't earn as much (Asia, Russia) as in your own country. Therefore they are not for sale in our market.
Online CD Key stores often buy cd keys in Asia for low bulk rate prices to be able to sell them for profit online.

Also, this has nothing to do with the "trojan issue" which has by the way been confirmed as an false positive, in other words a not a real virus, by Avira.

Official Valve employees suggests affected players to "contact the seller to request a refund" and "in the future to only buy unopened retail boxed copies from legitimate retailers or purchase via legitimate digital download services such as Steam and Direct2Drive".

I guess this is the end for those trying to purchase a cheap copy of MW2 for PC 'legally'.

Sources:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1031727
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1031758

Thanks to Frank for reporting this to us by email !

Filed under: News, Serious Talk Leave a comment

Google Secret Loophole

i really happy and so many information!
BIG NAZI

IT DOESNT MATTER, IN ANOTHER 10 DAYS MW2 IS GONNA BE SO UNPROFITABLE ... THAT THE ONLY ONES PUTTING TIME AND MONEY INTO IT BE HACKERS :)
nighar

Contact the BBB or steal the game off a shelf. fuck them
woozy

I bought my key from ecdkey.com (Russian key) and at the time of speaking still able to play (Registered the key 3days ago). I'll reply whenever the key would come down, i hope never tho ;)
Negeroma

Maybe it's smart to delete the link + name of the site...
Now it will get banned faster you noob.

Delete it
Tim Krupinski

I just wanted to point out again that it's not just infinity ward/activision banning keys from these sites. Fallen earth had a similiar problem, as did aion and blood bowl. All pc only games.
Anyway, i do a lot of downloading, and my internet sucks enough that if i'm doing anything i can't play anything online, so I whittle away the time spent downloading browsing the internet.
Cody

This is what pushed me over the edge. I was still considering buying MW2. I had figured, as long as I can pay between $40-$45 for the game I could still feel good knowing I didn't get robbed at $60 for a PC game.

Then I read on the Steam forums about this issue, and saw steam trying to cover it up, justify it the exact same way Tim is. Tim does make one proper point. A lot of these CD Key farms are really shady sites. I had put some time into it, and found two or three that had phone numbers I had called and legit contact information, to the point where I felt comfortable handing over my money to them.

Then I read the Steam forums. I see this as horrible. Basically IW is saying "Yep, we made it $59.99. And you're gonna pay $59.99 even if you can legally find it cheaper. F*** You PC games."
L.F.

Tim, Tim,Tim.. as i read these blogs here I can't help but see you posting left and right, defending the game when ever you can. However, I can't shake the feeling something is wrong here; if you like the game so much, how come you're here all the time, posting, instead of playing it? This got me thinking abofut another thing.. seeing as how IW must know of this site, and is doing nothing about it, is it possible you're here to try to casually decredit all the valid points against this game?
Hmmm...?

I'm no psychiatrist, but I'm also not stupid. People who love a game like COD don't spend time defending it online without an agenda. They play the game and enjoy it.
Just smthing to think about...

And back on topic: These keys are not illegal, just used a law loophole. It's not the first, or the last game to be sold this way. As a matter of fact, when you get right down to it, games sold this way SHOULD be cheaper, as you only pay fo a key, not a boxed version of the game. I purchased multiple games this way, including COD2,4,5 and neither me or anyone i know ever had a problem with buying the game this way. So to all of you wannabe experts on the subject who never bought a game this way, all I can say is: if you never tried it, you dont know SHIT!

over to you...
Derning

I'm pretty sure what Steam is doing is illegal with banning all CD key's not sold within our region. That is something only the Federal government can do, as it is in fact a form of trade embargo. What ever happened to the open free market?

I am certain that valve wouldn't like to lose potential customers, seeing that MW 2 requires Steam.
Djosiris

they want to fuck us? let's fuck them back haha! go to wallmart or other similar shitty stores that are already screwing us and open a mw2 box and just snap a pic of the cdkey with your camera phone\
riffydivine

I can't believe I didn't think of this before, I am not being an ass I mean it. I will just hit up wallyworld and yoink. I will not and never will pay 60 dollars for a pc game where it's main use is online play.
The story was good and I would have gladly paid the standard 49.95 most games used to launch for but not this BS of trying to say you deserve more when in fact it's just a fear of offering it for less one place will effect sales.

Hmmm 10 dollars less on the pc or 10 dollars more for the 360, why I will just use my pc then, wait what's that microsoft you want to cut a deal with us and help hype this game up and hide it's flaws as long as we need the price the same across the board, sure money for everyone. That's my take on it honestly, is that fear of lower sales on consoles is the cause of this price tag. If it was cheaper on the pc then it wouldn't have sold as well on consoles or helped boost the sale of said consoles.
How far away are we from them working a deal to make it cost more on a pc to "make up for pirates" blah blah blah. If I get get a CDKey cheap and it's legal then that's fair.
WTF

WTF IS THIS. ONLY REASON I BOUGHT IT ONLINE WAS BECAUSE I WANTED TO PLAY THE GAME THE SAME DAY. AND NOW I'M GONNE GET BANNED? WTF IS THIS SHIT.
KingOfTehInternets

Great answer, Tim !
Like I didn't know that Google existed.. seriously, worst proof I've ever seen
Tim Krupinski

These sites are really sketchy, and anyone with half a brain knows that. They (and other companies) have sold blood bowl keys (that got banned), fallen earth keys (that got banned), etc. Google it if you like, but people have gotten emails from the companies that make the games that are sold on these websites indicating that they were stolen or purchased with fraudulent CC info.

Point is, if there were nothing shady going on, there wouldn't be a history of cd-keys obtained on these websites getting banned. But, there's been problems before, so it's not like valve/activision are out to get PC gamers.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=WBr&q=blood+bowl+g2play+banned+keys&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=banned+fallen+earth+g2play+keys&aq=f&aqi=&oq=&fp=a50ffc77dda4c0bc
KingOfTehInternets

@Tim:

Got any proof/source regarding 'companies use stolen or fraudulent credit card information to obtain cd keys' ? Or are you trollin' again ?
SlightlyGreen

@Tim

Campaign of disinformation? (It's misinformation)

Ok, you have your opinions I don't mind.

But please give me proof on what you said about fraudulent credit card information.
Tim Krupinski

As your campaign of disinformation continues, I thought i'd point out that those companies use stolen or fraudulent credit card information to obtain cd keys, and always have. So yes, they do basically steal the cd keys and sell them to us, but at least people will be able to get a refund.
Centy

Fucking hell well I am in the UK and got my copy from a UK site but the box says not for sale here. I guess it's the european version in someway but it has worked so far.
InFaility Ward

That's your punishment if you bought this game
RaV3N

lol this is EPIC FAIL...
What Activison and Infinity Ward are doing is an EPIC FAIL!

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