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Factorio dev Wube says G2A has dragged heels on compensation pledge

Factorio dev Wube says G2A has dragged heels on compensation pledge

Last week, online key marketplace G2A promised to compensate developers who had lost keys and money to credit card fraud ten times the amount they lost but Factorio maker Wube says the Polish firm isn't being very fast to deliver.

In a blog post, the studio said that it saw over 300 Steam keys purchased with stolen credit cards at launch, with each instance resulting in a chargeback fee of $20. As a result, Wube says it lost $6,600.

Following this, the Factorio dev reached out to G2A, saying that the firm isn't "exactly prompt" in getting back on the subject. So far, the company is looking into the aforementioned keys and hasn't come back to Wube since.

The studio has said it would rather its users buy from Wube directly or one of its partners as opposed to a grey market seller. The developer says this isn't purely for selfish reasons, either, as well as it would rather consumers pirate than buy from G2A, echoing No More Robots' Mike Rose and other indie developers

"If you buy from a grey-market site and have a problem with the game, or something goes wrong, you will have to deal with their support system," Wube wrote.

"I don't have the exact details of how to request a refund or customer support from G2A, or how long they will take to respond to your issue.

"If you buy from us directly, we offer a 28-day refund policy. If you have a problem with the game, you decide it's not your cup of tea, you thought the biters were too cute, just send us an email and you will have a refund in short order. We also deal only with Factorio related support problems, we don't process orders of thousands of different games, so you can be sure your case will be handled expediently by team members who know the game in and out."


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.