this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2026
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That doesn't even make sense tho, why are they giving out 1000s of free keys?
If you have no marketing budget, then shipping keys to streamers. Like small streamers, with 10 concurrent viewers, they might actually install it and play the game.
That's 10 more people exposed to the game. Now send out 10.000 of these keys, even if 1% that'd be 100 streamers, actually play it. That's expose to 1000 people, if you're lucky that's 20 extra buyers - But it's also buyers way more likely to leave a positive review, given they've already seen the gameplay loop before buying it.
The early reviews are incredibly important for Steam to determine whether or not it should boost visibility of the game
Maybe in hopes that youtubers and streamers will play the game on their channels if they got it for free? That's probably what is meant by 'to get content on our game'.
Is me paying for a free key meant for a reviewer or streamer so bad, I leave steam reviews lol
Yeah, I've never bought this. "oh no, someone redeemed a code we gave away/already sold"
So if a person who received a key sells it to someone who might have bought it from the official channels then the devs do not receive that money but the so called “content creator” gets it. The content creator was supposed to make a video or whatever of the game in exchange for the key. It’s also a breach of trust. Basically “content creator” begs for a key and says it’s for video or a stream, but then sells it is just a dick move.
The devs can easily revoke the keys and burn the content creator, they're choosing to be victims here.
This right here is why I never believed the claims either.
I get the claim of they buy the key in lesser off regions for cheaper to sell at a higher price but, steam dashboard allows you to individually disable keys for any reason you like. I wouldn't imagine anyone actually daring to try to resell those(review keys), they would be blacklisting themselves from the industry.
There's the argument that the publisher/dev might be new to it and didn't log who got what key but, I wouldn't bet access to games on that.
It was a gift, no?
Who are you to tell me what to do with a gift. Its mine after you give it.
Software industry understands neither property nor consent.
Okay but then you are still a liar if you pretend to be a content creator so you can source free keys to flip. Why is a dev not allowed to be upset when they got duped by a liar?
Because they should be angry at their incompetent marketing people who didn't vet the keys they sent.
Each key they send has a cost, and this is part of it. There are technical solutions to their problems, in the form of running a beta for the streamers, and releasing beta-only keys
This is a fabricated story because the keys they're complaining about have no reason to exist. Its pure incompetence on the manufacturers marketing teams part.
Also, like, lol... that's entirely on the marketing people to do their job and vet.
I do not care, even in the slightest about a marketing departments "losses" from issuing CD keys.
Not even in the slightest. Its the cost of doing business.
No other industry, not even the software industry, gets to do this.
Unilever sends me some shit to review? They're not allowed to be upset about the eventual fate of those things.
CD keys are property, and property is tradable.
Just because the original intent is X or Y, doesn't mean dick for shit.
If they didn't like it, maybe they shouldn't issue so many free copies.
At some point they have to take responsibility for the keys they're minting. They can always issue time-limited keys.
There's so many technical solutions to it and so much crying over the resale that I just do not buy the story.
I think that's stretching the definition of "gift" a bit far, no? A gift doesn't come with strings attached (even if unenforceable).
Then I don't think you've ever received or given a gift? A Faustian bargain is not a gift.
If these streamers aren't being contracted, then it is basically the same as a gift. Selling the key is still perhaps morally dubious if there was an expectation of promotion, but that's as far as it goes.
These streamers are a business expense to drive their marketing department. They could time-limit the keys or limit them to a beta just for the streamers, but they just blindly issue fat tranches of keys and get upset when people use the copies of the game they minted.
The CD key is conceptually the same as a game cartridge. Why would I -not- give away my review copies of a Nintendo 64 title?
Ya'll cooked if you can't see it. You're all jumping infront of the bullet for companies who's purpose is to make money, like Apu.