Discounted Versions of Games Have Appeared on the Retailer’s Website
Update #2 (7/17/2018): A GOG spokesperson has responded to us, saying, “We’ve informed our partners who were affected by this incident, and they made appropriate steps, and as far as I know the games are not available to purchase on Amazon, and users got refunds.”
Update #1 (2:56 PM): The story has been updated with claims from ResetEra users who’ve said that they’ve received refunds.
Original Story:
It currently appears that the pirated digital versions of several games have been spotted on Amazon. Heavily discounted versions of Lords of Xulima, Surviving Mars and Frostpunk have all reportedly been seen on the retail site recently.
In the case of Lords of Xulima, the game’s developer tried to get the pirated digital download of their game removed from Amazon in October 2017 but COGconnected can confirm that the webpage for that download is still up.
Lewie Procter, the founder of a site that lists bargain prices for games, tweeted on Saturday that when he notified Amazon that they had sold him pirated software, they simply told him that they couldn’t do anything about it. However, several ResetEra users have claimed that they’ve been approved for refunds after contacting Amazon about unwittingly purchasing pirated games.
The official Twitter account for Surviving Mars stated on Saturday that the discounted digital download of their game that is listed on Amazon is not a sale they approved. “This is not a sale we’ve approved and we’re suspect of the legality of it,” tweeted the account. “We can confirm that no updates will work with it and we’d advise steering clear of it.”
They’ve also tweeted that they’re looking into the situation.
Additionally, a Reddit user purchased and downloaded a digital version of Frostpunk that was going for $2.99 on Amazon and the user claims that this was a pirated version of the game.
“I decided to pay $3 to play detective. It’s piracy,” the user wrote. “Someone took the GOG version of the game, repackaged it with their own installer signed and published by ‘Ace Media Group LLC’ and submitted it to Amazon.”
For price comparisons, Lords of Xulima is currently priced at $19.99 on Steam, Surviving Mars costs $39.99, and Frostpunk costs $29.99.
We’ve contacted Amazon & GOG about this and will update the story if they get back to us.