G2A to offer devs royalties from key sales

TinyBuild's Punch Club.

TinyBuild's Punch Club.

G2A, a marketplace for unprovenanced game keys, will trial a royalty initiative for devs whose games are resold through the site by third parties. This comes after it was drawn into a row with TinyBuild, which claimed $450,000 of TinyBuild games had been sold through G2A and not a penny had reached it.

A bitter dispute followed, and ultimatums were exchanged. Seemingly, G2A's stance—that TinyBuild should provide it with a full list of fraudulent keys within three days and sign up to its G2A.Pay service—has softened.

The new service, revealed to Eurogamer but currently absent from its official sites, will offer developers up to 10% of all sales made through the site. Customers will also be able to pay devs directly through a separate button on the game's G2A page.

In addition, G2A has pledged to grant devs and publishers access to its database to help track keys from source to sale. Major key resellers have long be suspected of using stolen credit cards to buy bundled keys in bulk before reselling them on G2A. That's a colossal problem to stamp out, but G2A appears to be taking a step in that direction.

The feature is due to go live July 29.