Grey-market game key reseller G2A has called DLC “cash grabs” in a tweet posted to their official Twitter account. Prior to that statement, G2A’s Twitter account posted an image with the text “Why do game creators make use pay for DLC?”. Ostensibly, the tweet was meant to encourage discussion (albeit it in a somewhat blunt fashion) about the practices of game developers selling downloadable content instead of providing it for free. However, the tweet has received a measure of backlash that may be overshadowing its original intent.
https://twitter.com/G2A_com/status/1117700432497790978
The tweet in question was prominently highlighted by @toadsanime on Twitter who subsequently pointed out that G2A sells DLC themselves. Specifically, he noted that there are over 3,000 entries for DLC on the website.
G2A followed up further on in the reply chain with another tweet calling DLC “cash grabs”:
https://twitter.com/G2A_com/status/1117753460462510081
And that was followed with another tweet pointing out some specific games:
https://twitter.com/G2A_com/status/1117753810540040194
G2A is a grey-market key reseller. To put it simply, this website is a clearing-house for video game serial keys. The company formerly ran a program called G2A Shield that guaranteed sales and would replace a key if it turned out to not be functional because it was deactivated or otherwise fraudulently supplied.
Some developers are not fond of the service, with one going as far as to ask that people pirate his game rather than purchase it through G2A. Developers do not make any money from G2A sales as it is a third-party sale of a product that ideally would have been acquired through legal means.
The tweet about DLC may turn out to be yet another PR gaffe for a company that does not have the best reputation in all quarters of the gaming world. Two years ago, a disastrous Reddit AMA saw a company representative face a lot of ire from Redditors and ultimately resulted in a user of the service being banned for posting a fake auction to make a point.
