User:Moherson/G2A

G2A.COM Limited (commonly referred to as G2A) is a global digital marketplace specializing in gaming products. Although headquartered in Hong Kong, the company states that it has offices in various countries including Poland, The Netherlands and China. G2A is known as one of the leading marketplaces for games, software and prepaid activation codes. The main product offering found on the marketplace is game cd keys to such platforms as Steam, Origin and Xbox. It states it is the fastest growing global digital gaming marketplace and currently has over 12 million customers, 260,000 sellers, 50,000 digital products and employs over 700 people throughout all locations.

G2A.COM does not purchase or sell any products themselves, it delivers the platform for others to do so, acting as an intermediary by connecting the buyer to the seller. G2A states that it offers a range of systems including G2A Direct, a developer support system, G2A Pay, an international online checkout solution, and G2A Shield, a premium membership service, and has invested over 10 million USD in eSports, sponsoring gaming teams such as Cloud9, Natus Vincere, and Virtus Pro.

History
The company (under the original name Go2Arena) was established in 2010 by Bartosz Skwarczek and Dawid Rożek in Rzeszów, Poland, as an online game retailer. As their main demographic was young gamers with a lack of disposable income, their main objective was to sell video games at the lowest possible price. In order to achieve this goal, Skwarczek said that he had approached many large game developers at various events such as Gamescom, E3 and G-Star with the intention of securing partnership deals in order to become an official seller of their games. Due to a lack of interest from developers however, and together with variations in market trends, a decision was made to change the company’s business model from retailer to marketplace.

Products and Services
In 2016, the company began focusing on technological innovations by investing into the development of VR technology and 3D printing. It also includes a range of systems amongst its products and services, including G2A Pay, an international online checkout solution, G2A Direct, a developer support system, and G2A Shield, a premium membership service.

VR
The company states that it launched its flagship VR product, G2A Land, in 2015. Together with MSI, it was first shown during Gamescom 2015. In May 2016, G2A launched Gotham VR, which was involved in promoting the film Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

G2A 3d+
G2A 3D+ is a product which utilizes 3D printing technology to offer the consumer figurines based on online gaming characters. Licensed providers of 3D models are able to auction their products which customers can then place orders for.

G2A Pay
In January 2015, G2A introduced its online payment solution G2A Pay, which, it states, integrates over 150 different global payment methods such as PayPal, Skrill, WebMoney, and financial services companies such as Maestro, Visa, MasterCard and American Express. It also offers a chargeback protection feature which protects customers against illegal refunds (often called Chargeback Fraud because the chargeback process can be abused in order to secure a refund).

G2A Direct
G2A Direct was launched on 29th July 2016. It is a developer and publisher support system with a range of features including priority placement on G2A Marketplace, fraudulent chargeback protection, developer funding options and global access. It also includes dedicated account managers and dedicated database access, and allows developers to apply fees on third-party sales.

G2A Shield
G2A states that its paid membership service, G2A Shield, offers additional G2A Marketplace features including free G2A Coin transfers, up to 10% cashback, priority pre-order deliveries, a price match promise, one-contact resolution and access to 24/7 Live Chat.

Marketing activities
Throughout 2014 and 2015, G2A established partnerships with numerous eSports teams such as Cloud9, Natus Vincere, and Virtus Pro and has invested over 10 million USD in the industry to date.

In August 2016, G2A partnered with Sporting Clube de Portugal, who had previously signed Portuguese FIFA player, Francisco Cruz.

G2A states it collaborates with many YouTubers and streamers such as PewDiePie, Towelliee, Maximus Black and Castro 1021.

Charity
On 1st December 2015, multiple Twitch.tv streamers, YouTubers, websites and gamers participated in a program dubbed #GamingTuesday in order to raise funds for the charity Save The Children.

G2A, partnered with Bachir “Athene”Boumaaza, the creator of Gaming for Good, and created the Humanitarian Emergency All-Out Response Team (HEART). Both projects were designed to help and support children, charities and aid in disaster relief. G2A states that it has been working with Gaming for Good since 2013 and had previously partnered with Boumaaza in projects like Gamers got Hearts.

Between 2014-2015, G2A says that it raised over 500,000 USD for SaveTheChildren which was then amplified to five million USD

In January 2016, G2A states that it participated in the Polish charity auction event, The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Foundation, and bought a 2.5m-tall statue of the character Geralt of Rivia from the game The Witcher.

Awards
In the first half of 2016, G2A won seven international awards in multiple categories including Customer Service, New Product and Virtual Reality.

Riot Games sponsorship ban
Riot Games, developer of League of Legends, banned G2A from sponsoring teams during the 2015 League of Legends World Championship. Riot believed the keys sold on G2A were illegally obtained and made further claims that G2A was selling fully leveled accounts, which breached Riot's terms of service.

G2A replied that it had tried hard to find a “win-win” situation in order to resolve the issues with Riot Games and had banned accounts selling Elo-boosted League of Legends accounts, which was a key factor behind the ban. G2A claimed that Riot did not cooperate with it in its attempts to fix the issue and Riot instead made further demands such as banning the sale of game guides on G2A’s marketplace.

INTZ’s Tockers Gabriel ‘Tockers’ Claumann, was later fined over 1,000 USD at Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLoL) 2016, for wearing a shirt with the G2A website logo on the shoulder. Midway through the game, he was asked to apply masking tape over the logo and later told he would be fined. G2A paid this fine, stating that “no e-sports organization should be punished so severely for wearing a G2A branded T shirt.".

tinyBuild allegation
In June 2016, CEO of tinyBuild, Alex Nichiporchik, accused G2A of allowing key resellers to resell fraudulently-obtained game keys, costing the company 450,000 USD. G2A responded to tinyBuild's claims, stating that it offered to help to identify which keys had been fraudulently purchased as to determine which resellers had committed illegal chargebacks and remove them from G2A. G2A also questioned the 450,000 USD figure arrived at by tinyBuild, noting that its games had either been discounted several times on other sites or given away for free and consequently felt the figure was inflated. tinyBuild added that in communication with G2A, the company felt it was being pressured to participate in G2A's payment platform, which would take some of the sales revenue back to G2A, in exchange for rooting out fraud on its platform. .

The official G2A statement went on to say that it “gives full support to developers with prompt communication channels, uses advanced tools (exchanging blacklists, identifying suspicious merchants and auctions and ‘KYC’-Know Your Customers procedures), and offers award-winning protection solutions with G2A Shield.”

Following this debate, G2A announced strengthened front-end verification steps for its marketplace security which included social media profile and phone number verification, with further verification required after 10 or more products have been sold through one account while introducing its developer support system G2A Direct, which among other features, allows developers and publishers to apply to obtain developer fees of up to 10% on all of their products sold through G2A. .