Dev Tells Players to Pirate Rather Than Buy From Key Shops
The developer's blunt stance, telling players to pirate rather than buy from key shops, frames unauthorized key sales as worse for the studio than piracy itself, since the developer sees no revenue from either but key shops turn the game into profit for an unknown third party.
Reporting from 1 source: Automaton.
dicehit games, developer of the deck-building roguelike Runeveil, posted on X on August 11 telling players to pirate its games rather than buy Steam keys from unauthorized resellers. The post followed the discovery that Runeveil keys appear to be sold on a key shop site. The developer said it receives no money either way and prefers piracy over an unknown third party profiting from its work.
dicehit games, the studio behind the deck-building roguelike Runeveil, told players on X on August 11 that they should pirate its games rather than buy Steam keys from unauthorized resellers. The post came after the studio found Runeveil keys listed on a key shop site.
The developer said keys distributed to streamers, video posters, and media for promotional purposes are being sold without permission. It added that if a player is going to buy a key from such a site at half the retail price, it would rather they play the pirated version and save money until a sale. In both cases the studio receives no money, but it said it prefers piracy to an unknown third party profiting from its work.
The statement echoes a past comment from Mike Rose, head of indie publisher No More Robots, who said he would rather people pirate games than buy them on G2A.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.