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Steam keys for Metro Exodus were stolen from physical copies and illegally sold

PC-tan

PC-tan

Member
Feb 25, 2018
1,321
Have you ever wondered what happened to the Steam keys that the Metro Exodus physical copy was supposed to have shipped with? Well it seems that they were stolen and then sold on some key sites, not only that if you purchased one of these stolen keys it will be removed from your Steam library since it's an illegal good. The only places that were allowed to sell they keys were Humble Bundle and Razer.


Here is the official statement

STEAM
Metro Exodus

Metro Exodus > General Discussions > Topic Details
This topic has been pinned, so it's probably important

Deep Silver [developer] Mar 28 @ 6:09am
"Metro Exodus 3rd party site keys
We have been made aware of illegal stolen keys being sold by an unofficial key reseller.

These keys have been obtained illegally from the factory where physical key printing had taken place prior to the announcement of exclusivity with Epic Games, due to the criminal nature of these keys, all unlicensed keys have been deactivated and activation / download of Metro Exodus without the executable file is no longer possible. In addition, the software will be removed from the Steam library of any players using an unauthorised code. The keys being sold on this platform are stolen goods, and are therefore illegal.

If you have been affected we strongly recommend you contact the seller who sold you the unlicensed key and demand a refund.

The only supported key sellers for Metro Exodus were Humblebundle and the Razer store.

Metro Exodus will return to Steam after 14 February 2020."

https://steamcommunity.com/app/412020/discussions/0/1771511442683077969/?ctp=3
 
OP
OP
PC-tan

PC-tan

Member
Feb 25, 2018
1,321
I do know that some people have point out in the past that this is one of the issues with licenses for digital games since they can be removed and there is always the possibility that it's a stolen copy and you just don't know it (I say this since I think GMG was selling keys as well but they were not listed by Deepsilver).

And sorry if this was already posted I tried to see if anyone posted this already and didn't see anything (maybe I'm just bad at searching)
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

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Oct 25, 2017
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At least we know what happened to them. The whole Epic Sticker covering the Steam Sticker had us all wondering just where those keys went.
 
Kittens McMittens

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But I thought key reseller sites were supposed to be good for consumers? 😸
 
ghostcrew

ghostcrew

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Oct 27, 2017
30,349
Interested to see which sites this leads back to. Which other stores were selling keys other than Humble and Razer?
 
Pocky4Th3Win

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Oct 31, 2017
4,078
Minnesota
That's normal with the grey market key sites, with this it's just easier to know which are stolen. Wish they would state which site sold them.
 
Kittens McMittens

Kittens McMittens

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Nov 14, 2017
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Mullet2000

Mullet2000

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Oct 25, 2017
5,896
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While it's super shitty that these were stolen keys...I think it's a pretty bad look to take the licenses away from customers.

It's not really the customers' fault and this only really happened because the exclusivity deal was so last minute.

Bad situation all-round, though.
 
ramoisdead

ramoisdead

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Oct 25, 2017
19,525
ghostcrew said:
Interested to see which sites this leads back to. Which other stores were selling keys other than Humble and Razer?
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No other that were authorized. One can conclude they were sold on Reddit or G2A or Kinguin. Usually people are warned to stay away from those places since more often than not, the key being sold was not meant for retail but either review or promotional purposes.
 
ghostcrew

ghostcrew

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Oct 27, 2017
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ramoisdead said:
No other that were authorized. One can conclude they were sold on Reddit or G2A or Kinguin. Usually people are warned to stay away from those places since more often than not, the key being sold was not meant for retail but either review or promotional purposes.
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Yeah I figured it'd probably be G2A or Kinguin... I've only seen keys on cdkeys and, as far as I'm aware, they're Epic codes.
 
Alvis

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Oct 25, 2017
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Kittens McMittens said:
But I thought key reseller sites were supposed to be good for consumers? 😸
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Yes, authorised ones, and the non-authorised ones who obtain keys from legitimate means (Instant Gaming, cdkeys, etc) are. G2A, for example. is shit.

But since you're a shitposter whose only intention is to drop a hot take in order to troll and derail the thread, you don't care about this.
 
Spacejaws

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Oct 27, 2017
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Kittens McMittens said:
OK, it's good that most consumers can easily tell which ones are authorised key resellers then.



I think that this is a legitimate problem with the whole business model of key resellers. It's impossible for most consumers to know reliably what they are buying.
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Mate don't buy a physical 2nd hand game from a store like CeX and Game then or anything second hand. Technically you have no idea where any of it came from. This is obviously some opportunistic person at the factory level who was asked to throw out the steam keys but must have tested one and found it still worked. The real problem here is it doesn't seem like those old keys were not disposed of correctly and they probably just asked some underpaid workers to open up every case and dump them.

I'm confused why they didn't just deactivate the keys in the first place. Surely the devs would have had a list of keys that came with physical cases. Did they just not bother and hope all the keys would disappear?
 

Merc

Member
Jun 10, 2018
1,252
Mullet2000 said:
While it's super shitty that these were stolen keys...I think it's a pretty bad look to take the licenses away from customers.

It's not really the customers' fault and this only really happened because the exclusivity deal was so last minute.

Bad situation all-round, though.
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Agree. I do not think they should be penalizing the customers and deactivating their game. It's not their fault and a bad message to send to purchasers. They probably wont buy the game again.
 
Armaros

Armaros

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Oct 25, 2017
4,901
Kittens McMittens said:
OK, it's good that most consumers can easily tell which ones are authorised key resellers then.



I think that this is a legitimate problem with the whole business model of key resellers. It's impossible for most consumers to know reliably what they are buying.
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Can you not pretend ignorance and bad faith arguing after your stint in other Epic vs Steam threads? This is pretty blatant.
 
Unicorn

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Oct 29, 2017
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That spammer in BST, were those keys legit? Not that I wanted them, but the constant reposting for key bundles made it seem even more suspect and I wouldn't be surprised if those are now blocked keys.
 
ramoisdead

ramoisdead

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Oct 25, 2017
19,525
ghostcrew said:
Yeah I figured it'd probably be G2A or Kinguin... I've only seen keys on cdkeys and, as far as I'm aware, they're Epic codes.
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cdkeys is one of those grey area key resellers that sells keys from physical copies sold in countries that have it for less. Usually you can tell what region it can be activated from. It's sort of the equivalent of someone changing their region on Switch to buy a game from the Eshop for less.
 
Sean Mirrsen

Sean Mirrsen

Banned
May 9, 2018
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Kittens McMittens said:
But I thought key reseller sites were supposed to be good for consumers? 😸
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They are. Nothing was done out of the ordinary here. This is the equivalent of a shipment of a recalled product finding its way onto the street. In this case, perfectly good product that is being recalled due to corporate shenanigans.

(being taken away from those who purchased it is another matter, as that's just illegal purchase. In this case, Steam is uniquely equipped to track the illegally obtained keys.

I imagine if Steam couldn't track each key individually, for instance not keeping track of which keys were requested for what purpose, and couldn't revoke the licenses, DeepSilver could be in breach of exclusivity contract here.)
 
Lant_War

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PC-tan said:
I do know that some people have point out in the past that this is one of the issues with licenses for digital games since they can be removed and there is always the possibility that it's a stolen copy and you just don't know it (I say this since I think GMG was selling keys as well but they were not listed by Deepsilver).

And sorry if this was already posted I tried to see if anyone posted this already and didn't see anything (maybe I'm just bad at searching)
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As long as you're buying from authorized dealers, you'll never have to worry about that. Buy from G2A and the likes and you'll get this.
 
OP
OP
PC-tan

PC-tan

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Feb 25, 2018
1,321
It also seems like these keys were not meant to contain the full game in the first place. Something about the Binaries being disabled from the start. So people would not really be affected from the game being removed from their library since it's a non functional game.

Deep silver just happened to mention all of this to let customers know that there are keys out there that were stolen and that will not work.


"We were not aware that they had gotten into the wrong hands. The binaries were disabled on these keys from the beginning, the community brought it to our attention that the games they had from the reseller were not updating. After an investigation we have become aware that they were stolen."
 
eonden

eonden

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PC-tan said:
It also seems like these keys were not meant to contain the full game in the first place. Something about the Binaries being disabled from the start. So people would not really be affected from the game being removed from their library since it's a non functional game.

Deep silver just happened to mention all of this to let customers know that there are keys out there that were stolen and that will not work.


"We were not aware that they had gotten into the wrong hands. The binaries were disabled on these keys from the beginning, the community brought it to our attention that the games they had from the reseller were not updating. After an investigation we have become aware that they were stolen."
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A game in steam can have more than one sub for a game (for instance to differentiate different regions or uses).
It probably means that the keys where from a subscription that was not updated since the announcement of exclusivity, while the other legit subs (Humble Store and Steam) where updated.
 
Duxxy3

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The whole thing is just a bad look for Epic and Deep Silver. They never should have made that agreement.
 
spam musubi

spam musubi

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Oct 25, 2017
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pagrab said:
Weren't cdkeys and gmg selling them as well?
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GMG have in the past refused to clarify where they get their keys for titles that they don't directly get from the publishers. There was a big blowback a few years ago where they passed off gray market keys as direct from publisher after which they put a disclaimer on each store page stating whether the key comes from a publisher or an "authorized reseller", but they've refused to disclose where they actually get their not-from-publisher keys, including titles where publishers explicitly did not make a deal with GMG. So I wouldn't buy not direct-from-pub keys on GMG.
 

Harlequin

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,614
Merc said:
Agree. I do not think they should be penalizing the customers and deactivating their game. It's not their fault and a bad message to send to purchasers. They probably wont buy the game again.
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I mean, that wouldn't really make a difference to Deep Silver then, would it? If they don't deactivate the licences, it's a "lost sale" for them. If they do deactivate and people don't rebuy the game later because they're pissed, it's more or less the same result. Only in the first case, you avoid the bad publicity and in the latter case, there's a chance that at least a small number of people will rebuy the game later. I guess this comes down to how many keys were stolen and how many of those stolen keys were sold. Like, if it was a relatively small number, they should've just let people keep the game but if all the keys that were originally meant to be packaged got stolen and resold, I could see it being pretty big number of keys.
 
inner-G

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Chairmanchuck said:
I would argue that the people in the PC ecosystem know that GMG, Amazon, Voidu etc. are authorized and to stay the fuck away from Kinguin, MMOGA or G2A.

Especially the ones that know that "Metro Exodus is being removed from Steam for 1 year."
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I'm a fairly hardcore PC gamer but I didn't;t know that anyone thought Kinguin or G2A was shady. I know tons of people who bought Windows 10 keys from Kinguin
 
Hektor

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low-G

low-G

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Why couldn't Deep Silver disable them when they knew they had a deal with Epic? Also the keys got leaked from their stock rooms? Seems like sloppy practices.

pagrab said:
Weren't cdkeys and gmg selling them as well?
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GMG did not. GMG never opened preorders for the game, making me wary it was going to Epic before it happened, although they must have had other reasons not to.
 
SirFritz

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Jan 22, 2018
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So what was on the retail metro discs anyway? Was it still a steam installer or an epic one?
 
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