TinyBuild and G2A row escalates as both sides issue ultimatums

The dispute between TinyBuild and G2A continues, with both firms disputing the other’s claims and issuing three-day ultimatums to demand co-operation.

The argument stems from claims that keys for Punch Club, SpeedRunners and Party Hard sold through the code marketplace have cost TinyBuild more than $450,000.

G2A released a press statement, questioning this figure and claiming it has previously reached out to TinyBuild to help prevent theft of its games.

“Many unjustified demands were made by tinyBuild regarding the removal of G2A marketplace merchant stock from the marketplace and compensation for their estimated value of products,” the firm wrote. “All questions asked of G2A were answered, all data requested by tinyBuild was given freely by G2A – including the number of sales and their median value for the life time of the product page. 

“All G2A asked was to cooperate with tinyBuild to rectify the issue, which is the list of the keys they deemed without any verification, as stolen. Only then can G2A compare these keys against the confidential G2A marketplace database and report those findings back to tinyBuild. Unfortunately tinyBuild never came back with the answers to resolve the issue.”

The marketplace concludes by demanding that TinyBuild provides the list of suspicious keys within three days, although no consequences of missing this deadline are suggested.

TinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik has since responded to G2A’s “aggressive press release”, claiming it tries to discredit his firm and that he has already explained to media and the industry why he won’t share the list of keys.

At the bottom of the original blog post, Nichiporchik has added a suggested solution: the G2A should allow publishers to set a minimum price for games sold through its marketplace, and set a minimum cut for publishers and developers out all third part sales of keys.

He adds that G2A needs to do a better job of verifying its merchants: “I just made an account and within an hour was able to sell a ton of keys, no verification whatsover.”

He concludes: “In the same fashion as G2A issued us a three-day ultimatum to share keys, we are issuing a three-day ultimatum for G2A to provide a solution for developers and publishers to benefit from the marketplace.

“Our proposed solutions are above. I’m sure there are smart people working at G2A that can come up with how to integrate something like that, or even better.

“Any business revolves around mutually beneficial partnerships. As everyone knows, there’s currently no way for a company like ours to benefit from the marketplace without undercutting actual retailers. If we have solutions to set minimum pricing, getting revenue shares, and/or flatout not allowing sales of our keys on the marketplace, the tides could turn into a positive direction for the industry as a whole.”