Resellers Are Charging People For Games That Are Actually Free

The shady world of key resellers is a murky, grimdark place to visit, but also incredibly stupid. Just a couple of weeks ago Frostpunk 2 developers 11 Bit Studios were astonished to see Kinguin selling keys for their just-announced game, long before they’d decided on a price themselves. Now, as spotted by World Of Darkness’s Outstar Walker, there’s another trying to sell keys for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt. Which, when it comes out tomorrow, is going to be free

Brand community developer for World Of Darkness, Walker is certainly one to know how much free-to-play battle royale Bloodhunt will cost when it releases, especially when that amount is zero. So with plenty of clap emojis, she makes it clear that people oughtn’t be paying.

public service announcement:
DON'T 👏🏻 BUY 👏🏻 BLOODHUNT
IT'S 👏🏻 FREE

(more key resellers are putting a price tag on the key, it's going to be FREE and you can play it starting from tomorrow, DON'T BUY IT) pic.twitter.com/CVvt7VgXpt

— outstar 🧛🏻 ''professional vampire simp'' (@outstarwalker) September 6, 2021

Buying from resellers can, of course, sometimes save people money, but it often comes at a cost. In this case, quite literally. Bloodhunt, from developers Sharkmob, is the franchise’s first foray into battle royaleing, and like most in the genre, is free to download, presumably intending to make its money from in-game purchases. However, if you went to CDKeys, that doesn’t merit a link, you could get it for the low, low price of $19.59!

Now, it would be wrong to start throwing around words like “dishonest” or “greedy,” because take a closer look! That $19.59 is quite the bargain, compared to the RRP they made up of $20.99. You’re saving $1.40 right there, off the fictional total price. Sure, you can see that discounted by roughly another $19.59 if you were to get it from a reputable source, like its own Steam page, but then would you have the same sense of having been conned? What price can you put on that?

In summary, don’t buy games from resellers, because it’s shady as all hell.