G2A

For other uses, see G2A (disambiguation).

G2A.COM
Type of site
Digital distribution
Available inEnglish, French, German, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish
Founded2010; 14 years ago (2010)
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)
  • Bartosz Skwarczek
  • Dawid Rożek
Employees400 (as of 2024)
URLwww.g2a.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationYes
Users30 million (as of 2024)

G2A.COM Limited (commonly referred to as G2A) is a digital marketplace headquartered in the Netherlands,[1][2] with offices in Poland and Hong Kong.[3][4] The site operates in the resale of gaming offers and others digital items by the use of redemption keys. G2A.COM’s main offerings are game key codes for platforms such as Steam, EA app, Uplay, PlayStation Network, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, as well as gift cards, top-ups, and other digital products.[5] As a marketplace, G2A.COM does not sell any digital items itself. Instead, the platform is an intermediary between buyers and sellers. G2A.COM served online over 30 million customers from over 180 countries,[5] 40 thousand sellers globally, and its catalog entails over 75,000 digital items.[6] G2A also offers additional services, such as G2A Direct, a partnership program for video game developers and publishers.[7]

History

[edit]

The company was established under the original name Go2Arena in 2010 by Bartosz Skwarczek and Dawid Rożek in Rzeszów, Poland[8] as an online video game retailer. The enterprise primarily catered to young gaming enthusiasts constrained by their disposable income. Skwarczek[9] noticed a significant shift in consumer preferences, with digital versions of games gaining precedence over physical copies. In response to this evolving trend, the company strategically pivoted from being a single distributor to a global marketplace by the end of 2013. As a result of this transformation, G2A Marketplace was launched in 2014.

In 2015, G2A expanded its portfolio by introducing new digital assets alongside its flagship marketplace.[10]

In December 2016 G2A became the title sponsor of the Exhibition & Congress Center in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship of Poland, located next to Rzeszów International Airport, which was renamed the G2A Arena.[11][12]

In 2017, G2A partnered with Microsoft to use Azure cloud technology on G2A Marketplace.[13]

In 2018, the company integrated Nexmo's two-factor authentication API.[14] In July, electronics and merchandise were introduced to the site.[15][16] This was abandoned following a decision to make the platform purely digital-oriented.[citation needed]

Security measures

[edit]

G2A uses AI tools, human supervision, and partner solutions for marketplace security. Vonage’s API flags errors and suspicious activities. Partnerships with Ravelin[17] and Justt[18] improved the anti-fraud system and limited friendly fraud. G2A verifies all sellers based on over 100 factors, excluding individual sellers from the platform.[citation needed]

G2A is a member of the Merchant Risk Council,[19] emphasizing its commitment to a secure marketplace.[citation needed]

G2A PAY

[edit]

G2A PAY was G2A.COM’s online payment gateway. Introduced in January 2015,[20] it supported over 200 local and global payment methods (as of November 2018). Thanks to a 2015 partnership with BitPay, a US-based automated processing system for bitcoin-based currencies, payments using bitcoins were made available on the marketplace as well. This option was widely used by customers living in India. Further partnerships included a cooperation with WebMoney Japan, started in 2016.[citation needed]

G2A PAY was ultimately discontinued in 2022 when it became a part of ZEN.com,[21] an electronic money institution.[citation needed]

G2A Direct

[edit]

July 2016 saw G2A launch G2A Direct,[22] a partnership program aimed at video game developers and publishers. One of its features is the fact that developers and publishers can earn on each third-party sale of their products on G2A Marketplace. Over 300 developers have joined the program by December 2023.[citation needed]

G2A Dev Studio

[edit]

In 2015, G2A launched its virtual reality application called G2A Land, a virtual amusement park.[23] G2A Land would later launch on Oculus Rift in 2017,[24] and in 2018, the app would change its name to Funland.[25]

In 2016, G2A and MSI created Gotham VR, a virtual reality promotion for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.[26] In December of that year, G2A announced Blunt Force, a World War II-themed VR shooter game developed in collaboration with Mark Bristol.[27][28][29]

In February 2018, G2A Dev Studio, which was responsible for VR projects, became an independent video game studio called Monad Rock.[30][31][32][33][34]

Other ventures

[edit]

Esports

[edit]

From 2014 to 2019, G2A would establish partnerships with esports teams, such as Cloud9, Natus Vincere, Virtus Pro,[35] and Polish esports organization x-Kom AGO.[36][37][38] Over 70 teams and more than 100 esports events were sponsored by G2A as of December 2023.[citation needed]

In August 2016, G2A announced a partnership with Sporting Clube de Portugal.[39]

In May 2017, G2A organized a boot camp for Virtus.pro and Natus Vincere in Rzeszów, Poland.[40] In addition to training sessions, there was also a show match between the teams.[citation needed]

The EU-based[41][42] Team Atlantis would join in November 2019,[43] while the Polish teams Gaming and Arcane Wave joined in March 2020.[44]

G2A.COM unveiled G2A 3D+, a platform allowing 3D print designers to create personalized storefronts with their designs, at Taipei Game Show 2016. The service has been discontinued in early 2018.[citation needed]

Controversies

[edit]

G2A has been subject to numerous controversies. Critics have labeled the website as a "grey marketplace", where users can resell keys bought at a lower price from one region to another at a much higher price.[45][46][47][48] Many developers have called for their own games to be pirated because they make little to no money from G2A sales. In June 2016, tinyBuild's CEO, Alex Nichiporchik, accused G2A of allowing key resellers to resell fraudulently obtained game keys, costing the company US$450,000.[49] Nichiporchik added that it felt pressured to participate in G2A's payment platform, which would take some of the sales revenue back to G2A, in exchange for rooting out fraud on its platform.[50]

In 2017, the G2A Direct service was launched to allow developers to obtain revenue from G2A key sales.[51] At that year's Game Developers Conference, outbound sales specialist Marius Mirek attempted to address G2A's reputation only to be subjected to ridicule.[52] G2A Direct was criticized for only allowing 10% from key sales to go to game developers.[53]

Addressing G2A in 2018, Charlie Oscar owner Sergei Klimov countered that G2A was not at fault, but indie developers "mismanaging their keys". He would also claim that the nature of economics between Eastern European companies and those in Western Europe and North America is also an issue. Klimov said that just as retail boxes could be unsold, bundle keys could also remain unsold or unused, and that a site like G2A is inevitable to offload and resell them.[54]

In 2019, G2A proposed the development of a "Key Blocker" tool, through which developers can block the sale of keys that have been issued through promotions and giveaways.[48] G2A stated they would need at least one hundred developers to show support for creating the tool, but only 19 developers would register. Unknown Worlds Entertainment founder Charlie Cleveland condemned G2A for "put(ting) the impetus on developers to have to take action..., while G2A profits off gray-market sales and credit card fraud."[55]

Riot Games sponsorship ban

[edit]

Riot Games banned G2A from sponsoring teams during the 2015 League of Legends World Championship, in response to a breach in Riot's terms of service where G2A was selling fully leveled accounts.[56][57]

In 2016, INTZ's Gabriel 'Tockers' Claumann was fined over US$1,000 at Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLoL), for wearing a T-shirt with G2A's logo on the shoulder. Midway through the game, he was asked to apply masking tape over the logo and told he would be fined.[58][59]

Gearbox partnership

[edit]

On 3 April 2017, Gearbox Publishing announced a partnership with G2A to sell collector's editions of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition.[60] YouTube game critic John 'TotalBiscuit' Bain was critical of the promotion, citing G2A's negative press coverage and accusations against the company, and threatened to withhold covering Bulletstorm, or any other Gearbox game unless Gearbox canceled the deal. On 6 April 2017, one day before Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition's release, Gearbox published a list of ultimatums made together with Bain for G2A to accept, which focused on G2A Shield, an open API for game developers, and G2A's payment system.[61] When G2A didn't respond, Gearbox ended its partnership.[62][63]

Product key fraud

[edit]

Around June 2019, Unknown Worlds Entertainment accused the site of using promoted advertising in Google and other search engine results to promote sales of their games through G2A rather than other channels. They stated that they see no revenue from sales on G2A, and instead encouraged users to illegally download their games rather than purchase them on G2A. G2A countered these claims by proving [failed verification] that all of its keys were legitimate through previous programs, such as G2A Direct. G2A also asked developers to audit their keys, and guaranteed to pay the developers 10 times the value of any charge-backs resulting from problematic keys sold on G2A.[64] Only [editorializing] two of them raised the issue: Unknown Worlds asserting $30,000 of chargebacks related to bad keys for Natural Selection 2 through G2A, and Wube Software for $6,600 of chargebacks for Factorio keys.[55] In the case of Wube, G2A settled with the developers in May 2020 after confirming 198 keys were improperly purchased, settling for $39,600, tenfold the keys' cost.[65]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Divisions". G2A.COM - Official Corporate Website. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  2. ^ "Top 101 Fintech Companies from The Netherlands". www.fintech.coffee. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  3. ^ "G2A.COM contact details". G2A.COM. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  4. ^ Jim Martin. "How does G2A work?". PC Advisor. International Data Group. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  5. ^ a b "G2A.COM EXPANDS GLOBAL REACH, DIVERSIFIES DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT OFFERINGS WITH NEW NCAA ATHLETE ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM". Yahoo Finance. 13 May 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
  6. ^ "G2A.COM Founder on Drift Masters European Championship". esports-news.co.uk. 3 June 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
  7. ^ Team, EBM ADMIN (12 March 2024). "Interview With Bartosz Skwarczek- Founder of G2A.COM". European Business Magazine. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
  8. ^ "The Early History of G2A". PR Newswire. 3 January 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  9. ^ Team, EBM ADMIN (11 March 2024). "Interview With Bartosz Skwarczek- Founder of G2A.COM". European Business Magazine. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
  10. ^ G2A.com. "The Early History of G2A". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 8 May 2024.{{cite press release}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ "Wyborcza.pl". rzeszow.wyborcza.pl. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  12. ^ INTERIA.PL. "G2A Arena – nowoczesne centrum wystawiennicze zyskało nową nazwę" (in Polish). Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  13. ^ Madan, Asher (12 February 2018). "Game marketplace G2A partners with Microsoft for recommendation and fraud protection systems". Windows Central.
  14. ^ "NEXMO AND G2A" (PDF). nexmo.com. 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 October 2021.
  15. ^ "G2A now provides electronics, hoping to become a "one-stop shop" for gaming". PCGamesN. 23 August 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  16. ^ "El futuro de G2A es la inteligencia artificial". IGN España (in European Spanish). 1 August 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  17. ^ "Ravelin gets hired by online marketplace G2A.com to help contain fraud, while accelerating growth". www.sourcesecurity.com. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
  18. ^ "G2A Rapidly Routs Friendly Fraud with Artificial Intelligence". Justt. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
  19. ^ "Underpinned by its 'Gate 2 Adventure' strategy, G2A.COM is striving to establish the world's largest and most trusted digital entertainment marketplace". South China Morning Post. 23 November 2023. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
  20. ^ "Support Hub - G2A.COM". supporthub.g2a.com. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  21. ^ "G2A Co-Founder Launches New Fintech Business. ZEN is Licensed In Lithuania and Will Issue Mastercard Cards". www.cashless.pl. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  22. ^ Ghosh, Sudipto (20 December 2023). "MarTech Interview with Bartosz Skwarczek, G2A.COM". MarTech Series. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  23. ^ "G2A Land Makes Playable Public Debut". VRFocus. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  24. ^ "G2A Land Hurtles onto Oculus Rift". VRFocus. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  25. ^ Mucharzewski, Mateusz (19 February 2018). "Studio należące do G2A usamodzielnia się i zmienia nazwę na Monad Rock". Graczpospolita.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  26. ^ "Ride Through the Streets of Gotham City With G2A and MSI's Latest VR App". VRFocus. Archived from the original on 25 January 2017. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  27. ^ "G2A makes further steps into games development, announces virtual reality shooter Blunt Force". MCV/DEVELOP. 19 December 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  28. ^ "G2A are developing their own VR game, Blunt Force, and it's a time-bending WW2 shooter". PCGamesN. 19 December 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  29. ^ "G2A announces VR title Blunt Force | bit-tech.net". bit-tech.net. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
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  32. ^ "G2A Dev Studio goes independent as Monad Rock". Capsule Computers. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  33. ^ "G2A dev Studio goes solo for the first time, Launches its first Game". 20 February 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  34. ^ "G2A developer studio spins out as Monrad Rock". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  35. ^ Gregory Ibañez (22 July 2016). "G2A Becomes Title Sponsor for Virtus.Pro and Na'Vi". PVP Live. Archived from the original on 8 November 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  36. ^ "Sauny, masaże, sypialnie, games room... tak się pracuje w biurze marzeń G2A w Rzeszowie". ESPORTMANIA.PL (in Polish). 19 December 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  37. ^ "x-kom AGO". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  38. ^ Piecyk, Marcin (29 January 2020). "G2A będzie dalej wspierać drużynę x-kom AGO. Jej fani dostaną 3 proc. cashback na zakupy". Nowiny (in Polish). Retrieved 1 April 2020.
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  40. ^ "Bootcamp Virtus.pro i Na'Vi w Rzeszowie!". ESPORT NOW. 16 May 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  41. ^ "Team Atlantis 😷 (@Team_Atlantis) | Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  42. ^ "About". Team Atlantis. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  43. ^ Atlantis 😷, Team (6 November 2019). "We're happy to announce our new partnership with @G2A_com! pic.twitter.com/2pZMzaX8T2". @Team_Atlantis. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  44. ^ Gaming, Illuminar (2 March 2020). "Z poniedziałku przynosimy dobrą nowinę! Illuminar oraz @arcane_wave rozpoczynają współpracę z @G2A_com! Oprócz wsparcia naszych zawodników CS:GO czy FIFA, wspólnie z nowym partnerem skupimy się na rozwoju naszej sekcji streamerskiej i aktywnościach dla społeczności!pic.twitter.com/talI7ZuDHr". @illuminaRGaming (in Polish). Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  45. ^ "How The Controversial Steam Key Marketplace G2A Got So Big". Kotaku. 8 January 2016. It's cheaper because individuals are selling the keys, not Blizzard. But it also means you don't know where the keys came from. Did someone simply have an extra key, or did they use stolen credit cards to defraud a game developer? There's no way to know, and unlike other prominent marketplaces, G2A doesn't automatically provide consumers with insurance for their purchases
  46. ^ "The truth behind those mysteriously cheap gray market game codes". Polygon. 9 February 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  47. ^ "G2A : haro sur les flibustiers de la clé Steam". Canard PC. 27 April 2017. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  48. ^ a b Kerr, Chris (12 July 2019). "Under fire from game devs, G2A proposes new 'Key Blocker' tool". Gamasutra. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  49. ^ "The tinyBuild Summer Madness Giveaway". tinyBuild.
  50. ^ Charlie Hall (22 June 2016). "As war of words between indie dev and reseller intensifies, IGDA distances itself". Polygon. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  51. ^ Wesley Yin-Poole (28 June 2016). "G2A to give developers royalties on third-party auctions". Eurogamer. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
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  53. ^ "G2A heckled by developers at its own panel". Polygon. 20 April 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2017. Polygon reached out to many of those developers involved in the G2A Direct program. It's a partnership that allows developers to, among other things, keep a 10 percent portion of every game sold on the G2A marketplace regardless of its provenance. Most of those who answered our questions were lukewarm about the program, with one stating that the only reason he joined up was because he couldn't get G2A to take down the keys for his games that were already on sale.
  54. ^ McKEand, Kirk (22 January 2018). ""G2A is not evil," it's a symptom of indie devs mismanaging their keys". PCGamesN. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  55. ^ a b Chalk, Andy (12 August 2019). "Subnautica dev to G2A: 'You now owe us $300,000'". PC Gamer. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
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  58. ^ Mike Kent (19 February 2016). "Brazilian LoL Player Fined For G2A Logo". Archived from the original on 25 January 2017. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  59. ^ "G2A Pays Young Gamer's Fine for Banned Logo at e-sports Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLoL) 2016"". Yahoo! Finance. 15 February 2016. Archived from the original on 8 November 2016.
  60. ^ "Gearbox Publishing and G2A.COM team up on a collector's edition of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition" (Press release). Gamasutra. 3 April 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  61. ^ Wawro, Alex (6 April 2017). "Gearbox partners with G2A, then vows to back out unless G2A takes steps to fight fraud". Gamasutra. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  62. ^ Hall, Charlie (7 April 2017). "G2A's relationship with Gearbox ends with the launch of Bulletstorm remake". Polygon. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  63. ^ Matulef, Jeffrey (10 April 2017). "G2A responds to Gearbox's withdrawal and TotalBiscuit's demands". Eurogamer. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  64. ^ McAloon, Alissa (5 July 2019). "Developers and G2A clash over the impact of grey market keys on indies". Gamasutra. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  65. ^ Batchelor, James (20 May 2020). "G2A and Wube Software settle $40,000 chargeback dispute". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
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