Developer rips off Indiegala customers from 2015.
Update: The developer has posted an apology and instructions on how to get a new key.
Original Story: Today’s Steam Scam article is on a topic we haven’t heard of in quite some time. Developer Zeiva Inc. is in hot water this week after fraudulently revoking keys for several games on the Steam store several years after they were purchased.
Going by the Steam forums, the keys are related to the games Train of Afterlife and X-Note, both of which appear to have been featured in an Indiegala or Fanatical bundle from around 2015. Threads have popped up in both games forums from angry players who woke up this morning to discover that their keys had been revoked by the publisher six years after the fact. Both titles are visual novels and apparently appeared in the same bundle.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an Indiegala game get revoked by the developer, usually over payment disputes with an ex-publisher. But let’s not mince words here; Zeiva Inc. by revoking keys people paid for legitimately is engaging in fraud. Straight up criminal fraud. And while nobody is operating under the delusion that the developer will face any sort of official punishment for doing so, this is going to be a permanent black mark on the developer’s reputation. Whether or not they try to fix it at this point.
We’ve seen a lot of developers pull this in the past, almost none of them are still operating today due to the reputational damage that resulted from the backlash. It’s dirty, it’s anti-consumer, and it’s illegal. And no matter how much the developer thinks they’re in the right to pull a stunt like this, it never ends up with them being remembered in a positive light.
Unfortunately for those affected, you’ll need to contact Indiegala about potentially getting some sort of compensation or fix. Valve doesn’t particularly care what developers do with third party sales. You also have the ability to leave reviews on the game if you played it, and I suggest you take advantage of that. Both titles are already getting slammed in their reviews. The developer has yet to comment.
Thank you to everyone who submitted this tip.
MMO Fallout 