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7 Entertainment Updates Terms To Prohibit The Resale Of Humble Bundle Keys
Yesterday we reported on the questionable sale of Humble Indie Bundle game keys on PC distribution sites owned by 7 Entertainment. The company has offered a statement on the situation, and updated its terms and conditions to help prevent future sales of keys purchased through Humble Indie Bundle and other similar charity sites.
7 Entertainment's websites, including Kinguin.com and Fast2Play, serve as a platform for distributors to sell digital goods. Our recent story examined its sale of PC games purchased through Humble Indie Bundle promotions that were being sold for profit. A representative from 7 Entertainment has responded to our inquiry, detailing their intentions to rectify the situation in the next week.
You can find the full statement below, which was addressed to the author of the original story, intern Isaac Federspiel:
My name is Matt and I am a representative of 7 Entertainment, the owner of Kinguin platform. First of all, we would like to apologize for the situation. It was never in our intention to expose any indie developer to any financial losses or to cause them troubles. Please be advised, Kinguin is a digital platform for vendors from all around the world to sell theirs digital goods. Kinguin is not the owner of those products. If you can put it simple - Kinguin is like an Ebay for gamers.
We have already contacted vendors selling those products in order to receive some information regarding the origin of those keys. We are sure that this situation will be resolved within next week. Our Terms of Service is really clear - it’s prohibited to sell games commonly offered as free or games from any charity events.
That said, we strongly believe that products offered by our vendors give benefit to indie developers at its original purchase. If someone puts his offer on our marketplace, we can only verify validity of the key, not knowing its source.
I want to state it very clearly - Kinguin Team supports Humble Bundle events with all our hearts. It’s a great way to raise some money for noble goals, while supporting indie game developers.
Fast2play.com is our other project - english e-store with a wide choice of products. All products come from official suppliers and again, we don’t have any means to verify the source of codes. We were assured those products come from official distribution and we are still waiting for explanations from the supplier. Until the resolution of this problem, all those products were removed from our site. I want to mention that Humble Bundle is no longer providing any user with keys, just a link to activate it directly on STEAM platform. On Fast2play.com you are not able to buy accounts, digital currencies (like World of Warcraft gold) or other digital goods that are not available for sale via official channels.
I hope this information will help you understand that neither Kinguin nor Fast2play.com meant to cause any harm to producers, developers of those games and Humble Bundle organization, which we strongly support.
If you take a look at the terms and conditions page on Kinguin.com, you'll find a new addendum that prohibits the sale of free keys or those purchased through charity events.
5.13 It's prohibited to sell products commonly offered as free and products available to purchase on charity events.
Thanks to reader and Kinguin.com user Daniel Talarico who expressed his concerns to the website and helped us receive a statement.
Our Take
Obviously, the resale of PC games sold at a discounted price for charity is a highly questionable act that hurts the creators of the games. I'm happy to see 7 Entertainment making a concerted effort to rectify the situation.
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