RageSquid backs key reseller criticism: ‘We’d rather players pirated our game’

RageSquid, the studio behind physics-based arcade title Action Henk, has added its own voice to the growing criticism of key reselling site G2A.

Last week Punch Club and Party Hard creator TinyBuild slammed the online marketplace for ‘facilitating a fraud-fueled economy’ by allowing the sale of allegedly fraudulent game codes which failed to recoup the developer.

CEO Alex Nichiporchik later clarified his position by arguing: “If we have solutions to set minimum pricing, getting revenue shares, and/or flatout not allowing sales of our keys on the marketplace, the tides could turn into a positive direction for the industry as a whole.”

Now, RageSquid founder Lex Decrauw has told players that he would rather see his studio’s games pirated than acquired through platforms such as G2A.

“Please just torrent my game instead of supporting shady resellers, I’ll even give you the download link,” he posted on Reddit.

“I understand people aren’t always able or willing to pay full price for a game, but seeing people play my game is the most important thing to me. Just torrent it instead of putting money in the wrong hands.”

Decrauw later expanded on his comments to PCGamesN, explaining the supposed benefits of players illegally downloading a game rather than buying a ‘legitimate’ copy through a key reseller.

"The first is that we make games to entertain people – we want to see people play what we made and we want to see them have a good time,” he said. “That’s why we don’t mind if people pirate our game, especially if the alternative is that they would never play the game at all.

"Piracy isn’t all bad. If someone pirated the game, likes it and tells their friends ‘This game is great, you should try it!’, those friends who might’ve never heard of the game might play it and perhaps even buy it. That’s good enough for us."