Keyshop integration on GG.deals - process explained

remike

What are keyshops?

Keyshops are unauthorized game distributors that resell cd-keys at market price. They don't have ties with official game publishers and the origin of their stock is unknown (most often, the keys come from retail versions or were purchased in cheaper regions). These stores operate legally (reselling digital content is legal), but they are definitely in a grey zone. Purchasing your games from keyshops does not support game developers directly, however the developers did profit upon original purchase made by the vendor.

Most of the time, buying from keyshops will work out well and will save you money. However, there are some risks associated with the process. A comprehensive list of all risks can be found here https://gg.deals/page/keyshops-risks/

Keyshops on GG.deals

GG.deals added optional support for unauthorized resellers in September 2019, based on popular demand and poll results. Users who opt-in to view these offers are able to save money while being aware of the risks associated with the purchase. The integration of keyshops was only partial, meaning you could only see unauthorized resellers on game cards, but not in any other parts on GG.deals.

The reason why the integration was not full to start with is that keyshops cannot be treated just like other digital stores. A large group of GG.deals users only purchase their games through official distribution channels and we give them an option to hide unauthorized resellers altogether. This creates "two worlds" - one in which keyshops exist and one with official stores only. And it really complicates things a lot. Two worlds mean:

two different historical lows
two different deal ratings
two different prices to consider in the price filter
etc

Process of keyshop integration - 5 stages

Here is the overview of how the integration was created to begin with and how the process will continue to improve in the future. The end goal is to have a full keyshop integration, where users who like keyshops can enjoy all functionalities of GG.deals with all stores included.

Stage 1 - September 2019 (https://gg.deals/announcement/ggdeals-adds-optional-support-for-unauthorized-resellers/)

Game card integration (compare prices in keyshops in a separate table)
Voucher integration (view keyshop vouchers)

Stage 2 - December 2020 (https://gg.deals/announcement/improved-price-history-on-ggdeals-track-price-changes-from-all-stores/)

Keyshop price history
Historical low includes keyshop price on game cards

Stage 3 - 31 August 2021 (https://gg.deals/announcement/ggdeals-preview-discover-our-new-look-and-leave-us-your-feedback/)

game view integration (https://gg.deals/games/) - see both prices - official and keyshops
main search integration - see the lowest price from both worlds
partial homepage integration (Popular games, Nw releases, Preorders, Most Wanted)

(available under https://preview.gg.deals/ for the time being)

Stage 4 - 30 September 2022 (https://gg.deals/announcement/new-feature-on-ggdeals-browse-keyshop-offers-on-the-deals-page/)

deals view integration (https://gg.deals/deals/best-deals/)
deal rating includes keyshops
wishlist integration
Full homepage integration

Stage 5 - COMING SOON

price alerts integration

We are hoping to complete the keyshop integration as soon as possible, however, it is a process that takes time and involves multiple challenges. This thread will be updated once new stages of integration are available.

Last, but not least - it is our priority to give you the option of disabling keyshops altogether. Should you ever decide to disable keyshop offers, you will always have such an option available.

EDIT 30.09 - Stage 4 in now live!

Stealth_and_Deckbuilding

remike i dont know why developpers so concentrate on the fucntions about switching of on-off of keyshops.
is it so important to take care of the persons who dislike them?

CitrusMoth

Thanks for the update. Can't wait for Wishlist integration, that's going to be huge!

Mixxer5

Can't wait for keyshop prices showing on wishlist- I missed numerous good deals because I didn't enter game card.

Puf

I like this website, so it saddens me that the updated version prominently features keyshops. Keyshops have been shown to actively hurt developers and publishers, some even call them worse than "just pirating the game". Making the keyshop integration opt-out does not help new gamers understand just how harmful keyshops are. Keyshops integration should be opt-in, with a huge disclaimer when enabling them. (What even happened to the "poor developer" image pop-up that appeared in the keyshop section in the old design?)

remike

Puf I appreciate your feedback. We decided to go for "opt out" system, because we felt like our effort would go unnoticed otherwise.

It's much easier for a user with a strong stance against keyshops to click "disable" (because they know what they want), than for a user without a stance to click "enable" (they don't know what they want and they might not notice / understand the options that are available for them).

As for hurting developers - one may argue that the entire concept of a price comparison website, with price history, historical low feature, price alerts, currency conversion etc is hurting the developers. By default the priorities of two parties clash - our goal is to help gamers find the lowest price and the cheapest store, while the developers' goal is to sell the game at the highest price point from a store offering the highest profit margin.

While we respect for the game developers, this project is not created for them, but for the gamers, who enjoy saving money. It is up to the gamers to make a decision about how they want to support the developers.

Puf

remike Hey, thanks for the reply. Although I see your point with the concept of the website, I still think that there's a large gap between chasing discounts in official stores, and buying in keyshops. While discounts are set by developers (and some opt to never do discounts, like Beat Saber), and official stores may take a cut out of their own pocket (most famously, Epic does this with the $5 vouchers, developers get paid as if users paid the full price), keyshops often operate with keys bought by stolen credit cards (resulting in chargebacks and a net-loss for the developer, as well as the key being revoked for the buyer, e.g. https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/363410/G2A_to_pay_Factorio_dev_39600_after_allowing_illegal_game_key_sales.php) or keys from regions with lower pricing (which incentivizes publishers to stop regional pricing, making games unaffordable for "poor" parts of world).

You are right that using or not using keyshops is largery an ethical stance (well, that and the risk of being sold a used / later revoked key). However, most gamers have zero idea on what's the difference between GreenManGaming and G2A, they're just some websites that sell games... And gg.deals including keyshops by default and putting them on the same level as official stores essentially makes that decision for them.

If you're going to make keyshops opt-out, at least please try to educate players on what are the implications of using keyshops. gg.deals used to be much better at this:

keyshops were on a separate page
opening the keyshop page for indie games popped up a window explaining it that buying from keyshops does not support the developer (including a drawing depicting a poor developer)
the "risks" button for keyshops used to be red and actually look like a button, now it's just small black text

Some of these might not work with the new design, but there are definitely ways you can inform the users -- some ideas (separate ideas, not necessarily meant to be combined):

make the "keyshops" section collapsed by default and show an explanatory message on uncollapsing it for the first time
make the (currently gray and small) link "Risks and information" more visible
add some short explanatory text under "official stores" and "keyshops" section headers to help users understand the difference (eg. "Official stores are approved by the developer and are generally reliable" and "Keyshops operate in a grey zone, there are risks associated with using them (link)")
make the "N risks" buttons more prominent -- make them pop-out again, maybe move next to the "SHOP" button so the user sees it and understands that there are risks when shopping there (like I just masterfully mocked up in MSPaint: )

remike

Thank you for a very insightful post, Puf

While I agree that the so called "educational" part is very important, we also need to remember about the user experience. Most of the solutions you suggested could potentially harm the experience of users who are already aware of risks and make informed purchasing decisions. And we're actually talking about the majority of our userbase, according to our polls and internal clicks statistics. We really don't want to divide users into "bad users" and "good users" - GG.deals needs to work for everyone.

The red bar on the image you suggested, could ironically make the keyshops... more visible. The entire layout of game cards is rather minimalistic at the moment, so from the UX stand point, adding some red elements would make the section stand out more. The users' eyes would automatically be drawn towards keyshops, potentially resulting in less clicks in the official store section.

You were asking about the "poor developer" image that was removed in the new layout. The reason why we removed it was, once again, UX. Multiple users complained about that pop-up, critising how annoying it was. While you may say that "it's good it was annoying", we really don't want users leaving the site due to poor UX.

Having said all that, I do respect your feedback. The work on the new layout is not finished yet and we will certainly look at how we can improve the educational aspect of GG.deals, without harming the UX. You may have notised that we recently redesigned the menu to make disabling keyshops more visible. The switch in the user menu is accompanied by a warning about the risks. It shows we constantly have this issue in mind and it will stay this way in the future design improvements.

Puf

remike I do understand that you don't want to annoy users -- "big" warnings like this should be one-time only (so per user account, and per cookie for not logged in users). Other stuff I suggested (the "passive" UI changes) however probably won't annoy anyone, since only new users will notice anyway and old users will know and ignore them.

My complaints are all about the "new user" experience. Currently, I just don't feel comfortable recommending gg.deals to new people, without warning them about keyshops at the same time. You should just keep in mind that when taking in feedback from the community, you will get mostly info from the "hardcore old-timers" who use the website every day, and not much from "newbies".

You are right about the red elements -- maybe make it gray (like the rest of the button) by default...

...and turn to saturated red on hover, the same way SHOP turns to blue?

It would need some tinkering, but I hope you see the general idea -- some passive way to tell users "hey, this SHOP button is different -- more dangerous -- than the other one" without annoying the long-timers.

Dabu

Hey !
Do we have any status on Stage 3 and 4 ?
I love GG and I use it daily but unfortunately, I have over 450 games in Steam wishlist...

Which means that I have to enter every single game card to get the best price on keyshops 😅

Please tell me that it's almost finished, I already missed so many deals due to my lack of overseer on prices 😁

Jansenzoon

Amazing stuff. Completing these stages would render GG.deals a serious competitor to all other major price comparison sites such as Allkeyshop and IsThereAnyDeal. Considering its very slick and accessible UI and great feature set it would probably become the best service out there!

sergiogg963

This will be the Stage 3?

Dabu

sergiogg963

Stage 3 allows you to select which type of sellers you want to see directly on the list view.

Which means that we should also be able to search by keyshop prices. This stage is awaited to be unroll, so you can't see it right now.

sergiogg963

when will be the stage 3? <3

remike

sergiogg963 Very soon - it's a matter of week or two. The works are nearly finished and we're testing it right now.

Heraizen

remike This is great. Is there an ETA on keyshop price alerts?

sergiogg963

remike thanks for the reply 🙂 this is my favorite website to compare prices since i know it

Royalgamer06

remike So, 2 weeks nearly passed. Will today be the day? 🤞

Royalgamer06

I, for one, am very excited! Any day now!

remike

Due to holiday season, the update will be slightly delayed. Will will have some news very soon.

Royalgamer06

remike sigh... alright