Valve doesn't care about keys -- they didn't see any money.

You are being very vague, probably intentionally to hide the shady parts of the cases you are referring to, but yes -- publishers can abuse the system, and Steam isn't going to care unless it turns bad enough so Valve might see their own business being threatened.

As long as people keep buying keys from sites that encourage fraud, theft or breaking agreements made with devs to obtain the keys this will keep happening. Theres a reason why the steam filters don't block every site that sells keys and why isthereanydeal.com doesn't include them all.

They only revoke keys that are basically black market keys and not supposed to be sold because they where stolen in some manner.

If you stick with legit retailers or Steam you won't ever have your keys revoked. But by from shady sites that sells them dirt cheap and you can expect it to be revoked.

Originally posted by Kargor:

You are being very vague, probably intentionally to hide the shady parts of the cases you are referring to,

You could simply ask for clarification instead of assuming I am trying to be shady.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/397760/discussions/
This is the latest game in question. A game I obtained from groupees.com

A game that if you look at the discussion, the developer actually gave keys to willfully, so they were legally obtained from there.

Originally posted by Drunken Masta ₃⁶:

Originally posted by Kargor:

You are being very vague, probably intentionally to hide the shady parts of the cases you are referring to,

You could simply ask for clarification instead of assuming I am trying to be shady.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/397760/discussions/
This is the latest game in question. A game I obtained from groupees.com

A game that if you look at the discussion, the developer actually gave keys to willfully, so they were legally obtained from there.

Have you contacted groupees letting them know your key has been revoked and asking them to provide you with a replacement key?

As the system is currently set up, I could put up a bad game, sell thousands of keys through a 3rd party, make a bit of easy cash, then revoke the keys with no questions asked.

Originally posted by Darren:

Have you contacted groupees letting them know your key has been revoked and asking them to provide you with a replacement key?

After a bundle is over, Groupees sends all remaining keys back to the developers.

Originally posted by Ham the Terrible:

As the system is currently set up, I could put up a bad game, sell thousands of keys through a 3rd party, make a bit of easy cash, then revoke the keys with no questions asked.

You could:

- Turn the servers off if it were a multiplayer game.
- Stop providing further updates
- Add a DRM method that requires authentication with your server and then turn your server off

All of which would get you in significantly less trouble than revoking keys (since you aren't required to do any of the following but you do have a legal obligation to provide keys to the people who purchased them off you directly).

Contact whoever you bought they key off and ask them to get a replacement key. Assuming you paid a legitimate company for it and they paid the developer you should have no issues. They are also much better placed for legal action against the developer should they actually be doing something dodgy.

Originally posted by Ham the Terrible:

Originally posted by Darren:

Have you contacted groupees letting them know your key has been revoked and asking them to provide you with a replacement key?

After a bundle is over, Groupees sends all remaining keys back to the developers.

Sure. But you don't want a remaining key :) you want Groupees to contact the developer on your behalf and say: "This is Ham the Terrible he purchased key 1234-5678 from us which he tells us has now been revoked. As previously indicated this was one of the keys we paid you for on X date. Could you please supply a replacement key for him?" and then the developer (if acting in good faith) will send groupees the new key and they will on send it to you.

The developer can easily see that groupees paid him, and can confirm that said key was in the list of revoked ones, and therefore fix it. Where as if you just contact him directly he can't prove anything.

Originally posted by Zefar:

They only revoke keys that are basically black market keys and not supposed to be sold because they where stolen in some manner.

If you stick with legit retailers or Steam you won't ever have your keys revoked. But by from shady sites that sells them dirt cheap and you can expect it to be revoked.

Come-on Zefar, we all know that isn't true, we've all had keys revoked by either malicious or inconsiderate developers through no fault of our own.

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

Originally posted by Zefar:

They only revoke keys that are basically black market keys and not supposed to be sold because they where stolen in some manner.

If you stick with legit retailers or Steam you won't ever have your keys revoked. But by from shady sites that sells them dirt cheap and you can expect it to be revoked.

Come-on Zefar, we all know that isn't true, we've all had keys revoked by either malicious or inconsiderate developers through no fault of our own.

I never have, but I do buy most of my games from Steam directly, and the handful that I don't tend to be big name AAA games from legitimate resellers. I don't buy a lot of bundles (I don't like ending up with games I don't want), and definitely don't frequent grey market sites.

Originally posted by Drunken Masta ₃⁶:

I am curious about their process for approving this.

I, like quite a few others, had a game revoked today that was legitimately purchased. The same thing happend to another game about a month ago. The earlier one was sort of resolved for some people I guess, via the developer redistributing keys for those who had proof of purchase. And this one does not like it is going to get resolved in the same manner unfortunately.

Valve does not vet such things. If your legitimately purchased key was revoked you take it up with the store youlegitimately purchased it from.

One person on my friends list also had about 4 or 5 other games revoked.

There have been several of these issues lately with devs revoking keys. It's kind of unsettling to know one of my games can be removed at any time, and without any real communication as to the reasoning it was removed.

I am hoping this does not become a trend.

Depends on trend. See. this is not something that happens where keys are legitimate. Only illicitly obtained keys have that problem. At the heart every so often devs go through their records and match every key or batch of keys to a payment. if the find a key or batch of keys issued that they do not have a payment record for, they revoke it/them.

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

Originally posted by Zefar:

They only revoke keys that are basically black market keys and not supposed to be sold because they where stolen in some manner.

If you stick with legit retailers or Steam you won't ever have your keys revoked. But by from shady sites that sells them dirt cheap and you can expect it to be revoked.

Come-on Zefar, we all know that isn't true, we've all had keys revoked by either malicious or inconsiderate developers through no fault of our own.

Uhm nope... the majority of people who buy from legit third party retailers do not experience this sort of thing.

WHy because this is the sort of thing a legit retailer has contingencies for. They will after a brief investigation supply you with a new key, or refund you .

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

Originally posted by Zefar:

They only revoke keys that are basically black market keys and not supposed to be sold because they where stolen in some manner.

If you stick with legit retailers or Steam you won't ever have your keys revoked. But by from shady sites that sells them dirt cheap and you can expect it to be revoked.

Come-on Zefar, we all know that isn't true, we've all had keys revoked by either malicious or inconsiderate developers through no fault of our own.

Hundreds of keys activated across several accounts here.

Number of keys revoked: 0

Don't act like its something that happens to everyone and honestly any site handing out multiple copies of the games in a bundle for the same price as geting one copy of each should have set peoples common sense that something wasn't right.

"Only illicitly obtained keys have that problem"

Both games I had revoked. Both obtained legitimately.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/gid/103582791459059211/announcements/detail/3037010986400419954

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/375330/discussions/0/1734342161870915871/?ctp=7#c1734342161871163967

I was able to get bustbal resolved luckily. But not the former.

Now I don't have to prove to you where I got the keys from *cough*groupees*cough*desura*cough* but those 2 links are to just shoot holes in your theory that keys only get revoked if they are illicit.

Both cases the devs admitted to fault.

Originally posted by Drunken Masta ₃⁶:

Now I don't have to prove to you where I got the keys from *cough*groupees*cough*desura*cough* but those 2 links are to just shoot holes in your theory that keys only get revoked if they are illicit.

Both cases the devs admitted to fault.

This is he said/she said. If you have a problem with a key you obtained from a third-party website then you need to register your complaint with that website or the publisher themselves if you feel you have a valid complaint.