Some who bought CD keys for Modern Warfare 2 — no physical media in other words — from import resellers have seen their access to the game vanish, as Activision has apparently asked Valve to ban such keys.
A poster in Valve’s official forums complained that a key he bought through G2Play.net no longer lets him open and play the game. A Valve representative, BurtonJ, called such sales “illegitimate” and confirmed the ban. He recommends buying a full version of the game — maybe through Steam? Hint hint.
VE3D, which spotted the thread, points out that calling the key sales “illegitimate” is not entirely true. The keys are typically sold legally in Asia and other territories and while game makers try to ban it, their ability to do so is not absolute. Of course, the interest is clear: The keys being sold cost less than the full game, and both publisher and digital distributor want to protect their bottom lines.
Valve’s only advice to grey-market key buyers is ask for a refund and get a “legitimate” copy of the game.
opm881
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 3:32 PMWouldn’t australians under australia’s fair import laws be able to argue that their keys have to be unbanned and be allowed to use them again?
Akra
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 4:03 PMWell, if publishers priced their games better; people wouldn’t look for the cheap option. Instead they ban people who look to get the best deals.
Newguy
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 4:48 PMBrilliant.
It’s like blindly fighting piracy without stepping back and wonder why people keep pirating their games.
Joseph
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 4:57 PM“Of course, the interest is clear: The keys being sold cost less than the full game, and both publisher and digital distributor want to protect their bottom lines.”
How do the resellers get the keys without paying activision the price activision want for them?
Deadlydorito
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 5:07 PMBUY IT AGAIN!!!!
Well how about screw you? pirate that shit if you already bought it once.
Mr Waffle
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 7:23 PMHow dare they legally buy a product. Mongrels should be strung up and shot!
sigh…
alinos
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 7:35 PMyeah this is BS and while it doesnt effect me this cant be legal anyway since so long as those keys were legitimatly purchased by someone theres no reason to ban them
George Wong
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 7:35 PMCancelled 4 copies of the Prestige Edition. Not interested the slightest without dedicated server support.
Batiu-Drami
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 10:42 PMThe Prestige Editition wasn’t released on PC. I bet you never had a preorder, and this is why IW don’t care about people ‘boycotting’ the PC version.
AussieSniper
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 8:15 PMI hate Valve and Activision more and more each day.
alinos
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 9:45 PMhow is Valve to blame for this its not there policy in anyway
there as much at the mercy of activision for this game as we are they want the profits of having all future DLC sales go through them in some way as well as the profits they get from hosting the game and prevention of rival digi distro sales
if valve accepted the codes to begin with then they were legit codes and acti are just being a Holes like usual
Khuntza
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 11:05 PMMost of you have totally missed the point.. people who bought these keys thought they were doing so legally but they weren’t.. they are pirated keys..
How dare they ban these keys? That’s like asking a Movie studio to give you a refund on a pirated copy of a movie you bought from the markets..
Mr Waffle
Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 12:34 AMDid you miss the part where every article reporting it says they were volume Asian-region keys? Which are completely legal? Sigh…
Jester
Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 7:34 PMGotta love people who read only the comments and not the article.
Choc
Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 12:26 AMThey aren’t pirated keys, they are keys taht were not meant to be sold in particular regions
as someone said you are importing these keys, its not illegal and its not against the law and if someone with cash takes them to court in Australia they will cop a massive fine from the ACCC
Thermal Ions
Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 4:53 PMIt may not be illegal to import keys from other regions, but it could be against the EULA? Do you even receive a copy of the EULA that is applicable to the key when you purchase it?
I’ve a number of games where the EULA specifies you are only licensed to use the game in the “original country of purchase” (which with these keys could be interpreted to be the countries the keys are coming from) or where it specifically details “not for distribution outside of ….”. Not to mention the usual overriding clause that they can terminate your license at any time without cause or notice.
It’s got nothing to do with their actions being legal/illegal – we’re not talking a criminal issue here. It’s a civil matter as to whether they’ve acted within the terms of the agreement you’ve entered into. The thing is, do you even know the terms of that agreement?
Having said that, I believe the publishers really need to address the root cause of their problem (key market) rather than the approach they’re taking.
Nato
Monday, November 23, 2009 at 3:32 PMEULA can’t be unlawful. If it was taken to court in Australia any EULA that references region restriction would be thrown out.
Just because it’s in an EULA doesn’t make it law.
Matt
Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 2:35 AMquite ridiculous if you ask me, and might give the OFLC an idea to make every game go through steam so they can ban people who imported RC games, i was thinking of importing off play asia as its about half the price here of retail, but not going to bother if this shit is going to happen
Asdasd
Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 3:01 PMI don’t think Valve handled it the best they could, but telling Activision to piss off would probably end up with the game getting pulled from Steam.
Lance McDonald
Monday, November 23, 2009 at 10:10 AMGray-market sales are legal and extremely protected in Australia. This isn’t going to go down well for Activision. Sony lost their entire EULA for the PS2 by trying to break the grey-market in Australia. I don’t think activision stand a chance.
Laura Spele
Sunday, January 9, 2011 at 8:26 PMSome odern Warfare 2 keys are banned , some not.
Tested yesterday.
Laura
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