As some of you may be aware, there was a report recently announcing that GreenManGaming is selling keys for The Witcher 3 without the developer's (CD Projekt Red) permission. This caused us some concern, as it would define GMG as an unauthorized reseller, which is something we are very strictly against in /r/GameDeals.

Upon hearing the story, we contacted representatives from both sides and began our own inquiries and dialogue to ascertain and understand the situation at hand without waiting for the media outlets. We have discussed this issue at great length, and are continuing to do so amongst ourselves and with the representatives. Our concerns are where GMG obtained these keys and their legitimacy. CDPR stating they did not supply GMG with them worried us and the question of their source has arisen. There is also the potential of keys being revoked, which is something that has not been made clear and is our utmost concern and worry even if it may not be a particularly likely scenario.

We try extremely hard and spend a fair chunk of our time to try to keep /r/GameDeals as safe and pleasurable as we can. We are human and are not perfect of course, but do the best that we can to balance out the content here. We know that many of us have purchased from GMG without issue before, and that there are likely many of you who do not care where the keys came from as long as they work, but that is not the goal or level of integrity /r/GameDeals strives for itself and the deals found here.

We have reached out to GMG regarding this situation, but until this has been resolved we are placing a temporary ban on all submissions from GMG. We unfortunately realize this may mean that some deals are missed, but the safety of you guys is our primary concern.

This is not a decision we made lightly, but one we feel is necessary to maintain the integrity of /r/GameDeals and ensure that every site posted here is safe for you guys to purchase from. There's no one solution that would satisfy everyone, but we hope you understand how we came to this decision.

Thank you,
~GameDeals mods

Those principles focused on being indie, DRM-free, cross-platform, worldwide, PWYW, and charity focused. Our excitement and unwavering support came from those qualities.

Slowly, they are shedding each of these and becoming more of a typical retailer. That's fine, it probably makes them more money.

However, Humble, and the gaming community at large, need to be more than willing to accept that every quality they shed is legitimate grounds for criticism - the kind of criticism for being anti-consumer, greedy, and deceptive that we occasionally direct at any other retailer.

As they make this transition, we need to appropriately shift our way of viewing them from a "For the Gamer!" operation to a more typical retail bureaucracy.

This isn't me "hating on" Humble, but rather making the subtle point that as they change we need to change how we consider them.

Edit: Move on, you have all completely missed the point.

They're banned. It's time to end it. They have a big bundle today I nearly missed because the post is not allowed on gamedeals.

What does everyone else think?

New free game announcements each month like https://community.stadia.com/t5/Stadia-Community-Blog/Even-More-This-Week-on-Stadia-Five-new-games-in-Stadia-Pro/ba-p/23371. Only condition is that it's for Pro users only. But keep in mind there's a trial so you could if you wanted pick up free trial and just claim the games and cancel. You still keep the games.

EDIT: [Stadia] was now allowed in my recent post. It could have been entirely my fault if somehow the title was incorrect (although it's the exact one) or perhaps [Stadia] has now been added. Either way, it's there and it works. No drama https://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/comments/gshsdl/stadia_get_packed_little_nightmares_superhot/

From a factual basis the quote from the HB Blog says "Every 24 hours beginning May 13 at 11 a.m. Pacific Time, we will feature a brand new daily bundle. Expect some unique bundles curated specifically for this event. You will also see special deals on games packaged with great extras. We are also opening up the vault and bringing back some bundles for one-night-only reunion shows". The Banner Saga is clearly one of the "games with great extras" and doesn't represent the bundles that are going to come up in the following days.

Secondly, if there's a bundle you don't want, then you just don't buy it. You don't lose anything, you save money and the majority of people on /r/gamedeals already have large backlogs to work through.

Am I missing something here?

Totally random prediction, Humble is on a two week break and Origin Access has launched. The next Humble will be the third Humble Origin Bundle and will include a month's Origin Access in the BTA tier.

Ok, so maybe not next week, but it would be a really good way for EA to promote Origin Access.

Just sticky a post during the sale and that's it. Posting it everyday is confusing and a bit annoying.

Ok - slight rant incoming:

On Jan 10 I bought Guardinas of the Galaxy from Green Man Gaming and, upon installing, found that the game won't go past the launcher. It just crashed.

I reached out to GMG, explained my issue and asked for a refund. Upon request, I've sent them the DxDiag file as well. My PC is average (10th gen i7, 1080, 16 GB of 3200MHz DDR4). In the following week, they took me through the usual troubleshooting steps and none of it worked.

After almost 2 weeks they said there's nothing they can do about it, and that they cannot issue a refund according to this phrase in their TOS: Refunds will not be issued due to your dissatisfaction with the product or if your computer does not meet the minimum Product requirements.

I kept my calm and explained that I am not dissatisfied - the game just won't launch and that my computer is far above the minimum specs. To no avail:

Im sorry to hear after troubleshooting the game you have still faced the same issue with it launching. Unfortunately as stated by my colleague we are unable to offer a refund once a key has been disclosed to you and redeemed.

I have been a customer of theirs for over 10 years. Plus, I never had this issue with humble, wingamestore or other resellers.

This might apply just to my specific case, but my advice is to stay away from GMG.

They had a pricing error which resulted in them lieing about the customers still getting the keys until after Chirstmas. So now if anyone gave it to someone and told them they would have to wait because of the message stating they would get the keys they got screwed.

Considering they are STILL making errors and any of those can be removed I don't think it is safe to buy from there at the moment.

List of available games to choose:

1. GTA 3

2. GTA Vice City

3. GTA San Andreas

4. Bully Scholarship Edition

5. LA Noire: Complete Edition

6. Max Payne 3: Complete Edition

I'm honestly not looking unavoidably going to start shit; I'm just wondering what's the final verdict from the mods of r/gamedeals.

There was this megathread about the whole thing, including u/indieg's comment.

Which... apparently appeased everyone...?

Did the mod team of r/gamedeals get assurances about this whole debacle that we just didn't hear?

/nonbiased
And I feel this post would be incomplete without a GMG question. Let's all keep in mind that GMG did nothing as shady as signing up with g2a. But yeah, I'm mostly just jealous I didn't come up with that money laundering scheme first.

So, when are GMG posts going to be allowed back?

A Twitch Prime bundle every month, they said. Yet, we're two days from the end of this month and there's not even a hint from Amazon on the Twitch Blog as to what it might be.

Have they lost their bottle as they have to go head-to-head with Humble on Friday? Or have they given up completely? Or are they expecting this to be so exciting that it completely knocks it out of the park?

A couple weeks ago, there were several deals floating around to get Bioshock Infinite for around $14 and under. Gamefly was the cheapest at something like $10.87 after a coupon code. I was tempted to use GreenManGaming since I had used them before, but I hadn't tried Gamefly yet for digital purchases, and since they were a few bucks cheaper, I figured I'd give them a shot.

I had used Gamefly's Netflix-like service A few years ago, and when I purchased, I didn't realize that the credit card that I had on file was no longer valid. About 15 minutes after I had placed the order, I get an e-mail saying the card was declined and gave me a link to update my card info.

I used their link and entered my current card info and submitted it. They never resubmitted the order. I e-mailed them to ask why my order wasn't being re-submitted with the correct card indo and got this canned reply:

Thank you for placing an order with GameFly! We did review and confirm that your recent purchase did not complete due to an unsuccessful charge. To review or update your card information for this purchase, please see https://www.gamefly.com/activity/purchasehistory/storepurchases/ . You may also want to contact your financial institution.

I replied and again told them that I updated my card info and asked why the order wasn't put through again, and the reply I got was:

If you go to your purchase history and follow the prompts located there, it should automatically attempt to recharge for the title.

I figured that I'd try calling them during the enormous 4 hour window they have where we lowly peon customers can cal them, but before that window opened, they cancelled the order. When I finally did speak to someone, they said there was "nothing they could do" to reinstate the order, and by that time not only had the Gamefly deal expired, all of the other deals online had also expired. I am still beyond pissed off about this, and I will never, ever use their service again.

TL;DR - Gamefly pissed around long enough on a failed order for Bioshock Infinite for it to be cancelled, and all of the online deals for it had expired.

Right now we have this title "[Bundle Stars] F1 2015 Pre-purchase - 10% off and get F1 Race Stars Steam key free ($49.49 / £35.99 / €44.99)" and it doesn't use free properly. If I have to pay it isn't free. I'd rather call it a package or even a bundle but in no shape or form is F1 Race Stars free. It doesn't come up too often on /r/gamedeals but when it comes up I am cringing. It comes off as a clickbaity title to me and I love gamedeals for not being clickbaity like most other subreddits.

If it is indeed permitted to choose such a title, should we post PSN and xbox live gold games as free when buying the subscription?

Or advertise a bundle with "Buy x and get a,b,c and z for free!"

I go on /r/gamedeals frequently to look up the newest bundle/sale, and I am mostly looking for reviews of the different games in the bundles. While for some bundles such as the big-name Humble bundles and the occasional Groupees Be Mine and Bundlestars there are constructive conversation about the merits and flaws of the games in the bundle, I often find that the conversation veers toward bashing the sites and admins for not having strong enough titles or charging too much. I understand the current state of bundles being thrown at us all the time, but I feel like each bundle/site should be given the same close examination and thought instead of impulsive "I regret I preordered" or "[insert bundle here] is the worst bundle I have ever seen". While there are obvious some bundle sites that have the larger audience and has more visibility (compare Humble to Bundle Bandits), there should be some kind of common point of the posts. I am suggesting a stickied post that has a brief summary of each game in the bundle, including dev info (what other games did he/she make), the genre of game, a link to gameplay footage, and maybe a short pros/cons listing.

I hope what I am asking isn't too much for the /r/gamedeals / /r/gamedealsmeta community. You can give your thoughts here or through a PM. Thanks for your time!

To referral links in the case of TB & Chrono.gg, So that we can link the daily Chrono.gg deal to the /tb hyperlink?

Or is that a site-wide rule, Understand if they want to remail impartial, But it would be a nice gesture

IMO, this site should not be allowed on /r/gamedeals. There are a couple of reasons, as discussed on The Co-Optional Podcast.

Firstly, referrals in this manner encourage the bending and/or breaking of FTC rules regarding disclosure of financial benefits.

Secondly, the site encourages YouTubers to go anti-consumer and unjustly heap praise on a game in the hope that they get more kickbacks from sales.

Thirdly, the site is linking to videos and presenting the appearance of affiliation of major YouTubers where there is none. I.e. they are using NorthernLion's videos to promote games on sale while the guy is on holiday and has been since before the site launched.

NorthernLion has made no mention of the site either in the video description or on his social media accounts.

Wth is wrong with Ubi? That's almost as bad as Activision is with cod...

Generally, I've noticed that some of the games in the monthly were on their historical low about a month or so before appearing in the bundle. Also, I've noticed that some of the games are by the people that Humble is on quite good terms with (i.e. those who were in the early HiBs and those who were in the Build a Bundles.). Also worth noting that games from the devs in the current HiB are somewhat likely, because humble already spoke to them recently.

So, besides ARK, what are the other 5 games you guys predict will be in the monthly? I already subbed for this month because of ARK, but it's fun to speculate.

Anyway, that's my predictions, I couldn't find a fifth game that seemed to fit the bill, so I'll guess that's some toss or just some old game that I didn't bother looking at price history for.

Also, just for shits and giggles, heres some that I hope wil happen, but probably won't.

Interested to hear everyone else's predictions.