Claims Indiegala sold them illegally.
Update: Developer SRM Games has opened a thread for affected users to request compensation keys. It looks like the developer is handing out beta keys as they were unable to get Valve’s approval to generate regular keys.
Original Story: Pit Blocks 3D is not exactly the kind of game you’d expect to be embroiled in a scandal, and yet here we are. Today’s Steam Scams comes to us from developer SRM Games who are taking quite a beating on Steam and elsewhere after a decision to not just revoke an unknown number of keys, but to verbally berate the people who bought said keys from an Indiegala bundle.
First; a history lesson. Pit Blocks 3D has appeared in at least two Indiegala bundle sales with the first being the Mech & Blocks bundle in 2018 and the latest being the Sacred Mysteries bundle from not too long ago. Pit Blocks 3D is not what you would call a runaway success by any measure, since Steam charts show the game peaking at two concurrent players. It has three reviews total.
This week a bunch of keys believed to be from the latest bundle were revoked by the developer. Naturally those people showed up on the forums to demand an explanation. Initially developer SRM Games posted the following apology:
The somber tone would not last long as after an avalanche of criticism directed at the decision, a few hours ago the same developer went into full meltdown mode, attacking anyone who had their key revoked and refusing to do anything to compensate them. The developer calls SRM a non-reputable source despite having a prior contract to sell their game through an Indiegala bundle, and goes on to state that those who bought the game through the bundle were “not legitimate fans” and do not deserve any support.
SRM Games goes on to state unequivocally that they do not want any of those people buying their games.
According to various posts on the forums, SRM Games had attempted to request keys from Valve only to be rejected. SRM Games becomes increasingly paranoid over the course of the discussion thread, eventually accusing those who are criticizing him of being in league with Indiegala.
“That is not true. I will tell you what I told Pedro. For all I know, you’re with the scammers that scammed me out of my keys, and you’re angry I finally caught on to your scam. I don’t know who you are, but I will take legal action against those that scammed me of the keys I gave to IndieGala.”
SRM Games later tries to claim that they “nearly died of a heart attack due to all of the hate.” They later threatens to sue some of their critics.
Indiegala has already commented on the situation, stating that the deal was done with a publisher, that the dev voided all keys including those sold, and never attempted to contact Indiegala before voiding the keys. The batch of keys voided also includes those not sent to Indiegala but sent to other stores as well.
Few things to clarify here:
1. The deal in question is a deal we closed with a publisher. A well-known one. ( yes many devs have deals with publishers for distribution on third party websites )2. After every bundle we send back the unsold keys or, if they agree, we offer to buy from publishers / devs some ( or all , depending how many ) leftovers in order to arrange further deals. We always add that sum of money on top of bundle proceeds calculations.
In this case we bought from the publisher all unsold keys after the bundle.3. The dev apparently voided all the keys, even the sold ones. We don’t know why.
4. The dev never tried to contact us directly before voiding the keys, despite our contacts are publicly available and we reply to every ticket within
48 hours at max. Even now, during COVID quarantine.5. As far as i understand the dev voided an entire batch of keys, it means that afected users are not only the ones that bought this game on indiegala, but also users who bought the game from other websites or shops. Or other bundles. ( presumably, we never received the full batch of keys, just a fraction, i will check with my assistant how many they were , but apparently the full batch has been voided)
Customers who had their copy voided from an Indiegala sale should contact customer service to receive a proportional compensation in the form of Galacredit to spend on the Indiegala store.
You heard it here first, don’t buy SRM Games titles. He literally doesn’t want you as a customer.
Credit to Discord user Dark Raven for finding this piece.
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