Factorio Devs Take G2A Up On Their 10x Restitution Offer

G2A talks a big game, but now Wube Software, the folks behind Factorio, is calling them on their claims. The team has applied to G2A's offer to pay back the cost of chargebacks from fraudulent purchases by a factor of ten.

The online digital game key resale company has been under an inquisitive eye as of late. They've been criticized for allowing users to sell game keys of questionable origin. Sometimes these are game keys obtained from giveaways or people posing as members of the press. The rest of the time, the keys are purchased using a stolen credit card and the key is resold before a chargeback is issued.

To try and save face, G2A announced an offer to "pay developers ten times the money they lost" on fraudulent key purchases, provided that the developer can prove it.

Wube Software is taking them on their word. According to a recent statement by Wube PR lead Scott Klonan, the company believes that over 300 keys resold via stolen credit cards and they've contacted G2A about seeking the previously promised restitution.

"With an average chargeback fee of about $20, we estimate the total amount of fees we paid because of chargebacks is about $6,600. a deeper evaluation of our historic accounting records to get a more exact figure."

Wube claims to know for certain that a number of these fraudulent keys were sold there, since they have received various emails from players asking why their game key was revoked not long after purchasing it through the platform. If we assumed that half of these sales were G2A related, and they do give 10 times as much money in return, that'd be a hefty transaction of $33,000 to the developers.

They also remark that after using the Humble Widget as a payment option, which has its own fraud protection, the chargebacks and issues almost stopped entirely.

According to Klonan, G2A has not been very timely about the email. They sent them an email listing every key they've had to revoke, and G2A has said they will check them against keys sold through their marketplace. This was about a week ago.

Klonan also expressed discontent with G2A's usage of Factorio in their advertising. But it current sounds like they can't prevent it.