G2A is one of the most toxic brands in the video game industry right now. In recent years, G2A has been outed as a key reseller that conveniently does little to combat fraud. Many developers have accused G2A of buying games that were originally purchased with stolen credit cards. When those charges are inevitably reversed, the developer ends up the victim as two other parties take all of the profit through nefarious means.
That's why it struck people as odd when Gearbox announced a partnership with G2A for the collector's edition of the upcoming Bulletstorm remaster. [Disclosure: Years ago, Destructoid had a brief advertising agreement with G2A.] How can a fellow developer support someone who enables theft from other creators? There was immediate backlash. The most notable example was probably YouTuber TotalBiscuit swearing off any future coverage of Gearbox titles.
G2A's business model isn't a recent development. Mike wrote a fantastic investigative piece in January 2016 about how the graymarket site retains just enough plausible deniability to stay off the hook for any legal infringement. Still, everyone in the business of video games knows exactly what G2A is. Its reputation precedes it.
Gearbox is acting like it's the last to find out. According to a report from Waypoint, Gearbox has given G2A a hardline ultimatum: Either change your ways or we're done with you. Here is Gearbox's list of demands, verbatim as published on Waypoint:
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