Vice: The Pursuit of Cheap Video Games Has Been Getting Switch Owners Banned

[Weltall Zero]

Don't buy from key resellers.
Don't buy from regions you don't reside in, just to take advantage of regional pricing.

Nintendo should just revoke access though. Banning entire Switches is ridiculously nuclear and anti-consumer.

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Don't buy keycodes from grey markets that allow users of said market to sell to you.

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While, as a game dev, I fully agree with the sentiment (and I'm trying to spread the word about resellers so that they're forced to at least allow devs to opt out their games from their store), the punishment should also match the crime. Losing access to all of your games because you bought what you perhaps misguidedly thought was a perfectly legal game code is far too harsh.

 

[GrrImAFridge]

Steam doesn't ban you for activating keys ever. You'll just lose access to content.

Even If you purchase directly from Steam, you'll just get 90 day purchase ban for account, that payment method will be permanently banned though.
(repeat offenders may get more severe punishments though)

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To add to this, Valve stopped banning/suspending accounts in early 2012* in favour of the restriction system you reference, precisely so users will always have access to their game library regardless of the extent to which they've broken the rules.

* Well, save for the GAFer who had his account disabled because he spent at least ~a year relentlessly hounding Steam Support and individual Valve employees about his Steam Community ban and refused to heed multiple warnings.

 

[Dyle]

I don't believe Nintendo has a way to revoke licenses from a system. It's why they don't offer refunds and why many of these people still have access to the stolen game even after account issues.

Since sales from the eShop are instantly tied to the primary system of the account holder that activates it, Nintendo's only recourse is to ban the account of the stolen merchandise.

Since it's not possible for a consumer to purchase a key direct from Nintendo. The only way this particular fraud can take place is for a stolen Credit Card to be used on a third party store/authorized partner [Gamestop/GMG/Walmart/Amazon/Best Buy/etc] since that's the only way to get a key without instant account activation. The fraud would not be detectable by Nintendo and only becomes detectable once the card owner notifies their card services about the stolen card and the transaction is reversed from the authorized third party, then Nintendo would be notified that the key issued is invalid.

Nintendo needs to come up with a way to revoke system licenses (which unfortunately would require online check-ins) to resolve this issue.

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Nintendo absolutely has a way to revoke licenses and do refunds, a simple search will bring up plenty of YMMV cases where people have been given refunds. It's more likely that not all customer service reps have the ability to do it which would result in cases where the one customer service rep can unban the player but has to write a ticket to get a coworker to revoke the license, which could cause a delay in removing the game in question or sometimes not getting the license revoked at all if it gets lost and forgotten

 

[Damaniel]

And this is why I'll never go all digital as long as I have the choice. I don't buy keys from resellers or out of region, but I don't like the idea that a company can revoke access to all of my legitimately purchased stuff (and not just the disputed stuff) for arbitrary reasons. You can't revoke a cartridge or disc.

 

[banter]

Losing access to all of your games because you bought what you perhaps misguidedly thought was a perfectly legal game code is far too harsh.

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From the article

Now, according to the updated policy, after someone shows proof of attempting to dispute the original purchase and pursue a refund, Nintendo can lift the ban. This can happen by attempting to get a refund from the seller (or the website where the code was purchased) or disputing the charge with their bank or card holder. The game downloaded with the code will no longer be in the user's library, but they can purchase it again. This policy update also comes with another warning: if the user encounters the problem again, Nintendo will issue a permanent ban.

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In other words, if you are one of those people, you'll get your account back. Just don't do it again.

 

[Merton]

Gameflip is fine, generally. The fact that they allow new users to make accts easily with no policing i the problem. I myself have bought a bunch of stuff on Gameflip, no issues. But I do my research there are sellers with a ton of feedback, positive and negative, you have to make the call. The user or people that were selling specifically Nintendo games, kept making new accts after getting called out with no rep, unknowing people were buying these games to save 15-20$, which is fine, but do your research. The problem isn't how Nintendo works or people buying/selling, it really boils down to Gameflip to police their site better. Now they have a shitstorm to deal with because of lack of checking on sellers.

 

[Kill3r7]

Gameflip is fine, generally. The fact that they allow new users to make accts easily with no policing i the problem. I myself have bought a bunch of stuff on Gameflip, no issues. But I do my research there are sellers with a ton of feedback, positive and negative, you have to make the call. The user or people that were selling specifically Nintendo games, kept making new accts after getting called out with no rep, unknowing people were buying these games to save 15-20$, which is fine, but do your research. The problem isn't how Nintendo works or people buying/selling, it really boils down to Gameflip to police their site better. Now they have a shitstorm to deal with because of lack of checking on sellers.

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The user in question had 400+ positive feedbacks. GameFlips feedback system and frankly any trading sites/forum isn't designed to deal with this.

 

[Tunesmith]

I'm trying to spread the word about resellers so that they're forced to at least allow devs to opt out their games from their store,

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You'll never get buy-in from reseller marketplaces that do not care about fraud taking place on their platform to do something like this that you as a developer can trust.

Nor should you as a developer aim to engage with those resellers in the first place, engagement only serves to validate that the marketplace in question has any place in the ecosystem of your game. G2A as a famous example invest a lot of resources to try to seem legitimate in this fashion.

Rather aim to have game distribution that don't rely on keycodes as redeemable objects in the first place but rather a direct entitlement.

If you're a smaller indie, Steam offers a framework that is very versatile and they then take the brunt of the hit when dealing with steam keys that got loose on the grey market without adversely impacting customers caught in the mix by happenstance.

 

[Merton]

The user in question had 400+ positive feedbacks. GameFlips feedback system and frankly any trading sites/forum isn't designed to deal with this.

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I think you have the wrong user, the one that kept selling bad codes, that I know of was Gameboy or something and then changed the name to something else and then Ron Swanson I believe. That's the user I know that was selling fraudulent codes.

 

[Phellps]

And this is why I'll never go all digital as long as I have the choice. I don't buy keys from resellers or out of region, but I don't like the idea that a company can revoke access to all of my legitimately purchased stuff (and not just the disputed stuff) for arbitrary reasons. You can't revoke a cartridge or disc.

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Yeah, actually, nowadays you can. Or, at least, you can get banned for using an illegal cartridge.
You can get your account back after your first strike, though, given how you might have bought a key without knowing it was a bought illegally. But after that, the company can't be so sure about your intentions. It's fraud. I don't think a permanent ban after multiple strikes is an exaggerated penalty.

 

[Kill3r7]

I think you have the wrong user, the one that kept selling bad codes, that I know of was Gameboy or something and then changed the name to something else and then Ron Swanson I believe. That's the user I know that was selling fraudulent codes.

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NintendoShop was the seller in question. He kept coming back under different names but that seller was the main culprit. At the time he had 400+ positive feedback ratings.

 

[Cels]

the headline really buries the lede imo and is bad editing/journalism

a better headline would mention how some third party sellers use credit card fraud to obtain codes -- which is the real cause of the bans, not simply regular folk wanting to save some money on games.

 

[banter]

the headline really buries the lede imo and is bad editing/journalism

a better headline would mention how some third party sellers use credit card fraud to obtain codes -- which is the real cause of the bans, not simply regular folk wanting to save some money on games.

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That's modern journalism unfortunately. Gotta get those clicks, say something that would be outrageous then reveal in the article that it's not exactly what the case is. But by the time the reader finds out they already got the click for ad money.

Then there's the ugly side: People who only read the headline. Then you get misinformation spread around.

 

[Weltall Zero]

From the article

In other words, if you are one of those people, you'll get your account back. Just don't do it again.

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Interesting, I completely misinterpreted these words. So it seems they restore your account if you show them proof you tried to get a refund from the shady seller. Strong-arming buyers into hitting resellers' bottom line this way is quite a brilliant strategy, I love it. :)

 

[Weltall Zero]

You'll never get buy-in from reseller marketplaces that do not care about fraud taking place on their platform to do something like this that you as a developer can trust.

Nor should you as a developer aim to engage with those resellers in the first place, engagement only serves to validate that the marketplace in question has any place in the ecosystem of your game. G2A as a famous example invest a lot of resources to try to seem legitimate in this fashion.

Rather aim to have game distribution that don't rely on keycodes as redeemable objects in the first place but rather a direct entitlement.

If you're a smaller indie, Steam offers a framework that is very versatile and they then take the brunt of the hit when dealing with steam keys that got loose on the grey market without adversely impacting customers caught in the mix by happenstance.

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That's interesting, I hadn't thought of it like that. I guess as devs we keep making the mistake that consumers care a lot about our long-term sustenability and would take the "this hurts devs" message before "these sites actually sell working keys".

Still, how should, say, developers that get their games on bundles or Humble Monthly deal with key resales? How exactly does Steam help with that?

 

[Tunesmith]

That's interesting, I hadn't thought of it like that. I guess as devs we keep making the mistake that consumers care a lot about our long-term sustenability and would take the "this hurts devs" message before "these sites actually sell working keys".

Still, how should, say, developers that get their games on bundles or Humble Monthly deal with key resales? How exactly does Steam help with that?

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I haven't used Humble in years so I'm not up to speed on how they deliver product but as a storefront one can use direct integration to Steam for entitlements as an alternative to issuing a key. Humble may not utilize this, or chose not to, for reasons of their own.

 

[Deleted member 22750]

Another fantastic Nintendo topic

they're on fire

 

[Reinhard]

Never buy games from sites where 3rd parties put up the keys for sale, it's rather obvious that a large number of the keys will have been bought with stolen credit card numbers and it is just a matter of time until a chargeback is done. Sony and Microsoft also give out bans for chargebacks.