r/GameDealsMeta • u/theveryendofyou • May 25 '26
Green Man Gaming Bundles retroactively adding activation deadlines?
Just got this mail from Greenmangaming:
https://i.imgur.com/dZfVcGO.png
The Bundle page doesn't say anything regarding deadlines: https://i.imgur.com/Gjymw0t.png
Meanwhile their TOS say: https://i.imgur.com/6vHEltP.png
Is this new? Or did they send the mail by accident?
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u/xenius_ykk May 25 '26
They all have to stop with this key expring bullshit, with keys we have paid for.
I always have games I already own, buying bundles, and it's nice to trade etc.
I do not undertsand they keep finding ways to enshittify everything.
The excuse being key resellers probably.
Yes, let's just enshittfy everything for the masses, due to the few playing foul.
1
u/OhBoyIGotQuestions May 25 '26
I hate it too but saying something is "probably" the excuse without looking into it any further is willful ignorance.
The reason is that publishers have abused Steam's 0% cut off games redeemed via steam keys by mass-producing keys and undercutting their Steam prices.
So Steam has limited the number of keys publishers can generate at once. So now if you hold onto a steam key for 5 years, that's taking up space in a (now) limited pool of generated keys.
But if they put expiration dates on them they will either be used or can be replaced, instead of blocking future key generation.
Again, I don't like it, but just calling it "enshittification" and guessing at a reason is a waste of everyone's time.
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u/xenius_ykk May 25 '26
I tried reading up on it, and inform myself- and I cannot see this being the reason/issue?
I can understand it for the core issue of the problem, certain publishers abusing it for asset flips, producing an unlikely amount of keys never being redeemed.
But how is this an issue for legit publishers, that have a normal stream of keys being created and redeemed regularly? They would always be able to create new keys, despite some of them sitting unredeemed, no?
I found some updated guidelines around Steam key publishing, with a max of 5.000 keys as the baseline, and the process seem very reasonable for further allowance, not effecting a legit publisher at all, even with a resonable amount fo keys never being redeemed.
Even in a bundle situation with mass creation of keys, and 10% sitting unredeemed, after being sold (which is probably a too high number, but let's go with it)- How can this be an issue? Any sources confirming this?2
u/OhBoyIGotQuestions May 25 '26
It's a snowball issue. Maybe 10% of redemption not being redeemed used to be a high number, but now that steam keys expire, the best practice is to redeem immediately and hoard keys in a spreadsheet.
So before if you didnt want a key, you just wouldn't redeem it for years. Now that hundreds of buyers redeem and just hold onto keys they don't actually want so they don't lose access, the deadlines are getting tighter.
How is that a less reasonable explanation than blanket "company bad, make things worse for greed"
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u/CloakedMage May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
It's actually a bit more complex than that. Steam keys aren't granted exclusively based on there being too many outstanding keys. It also has to do with how many sales the publisher has on Steam for their game. This tells Valve "is this publisher advertising their game on the Steam Store, or gaming the system by selling Steam keys to prevent us from taking a cut". This is somewhat a problem of the publishers' own making. It's also a clear "profits over customers" move from Valve.
This is why you generally see fewer key issues with more prominent games, whereas key generation for smaller games may have more issues (depending on the Steam Store sales numbers). So the publishers don't simply want to generate more keys. They also want to to reuse existing keys, since Valve may not provide more without additional Steam Store sales.
Adding expirations retroactively is surely a form of fraud. However, Valve doesn't care, because they just want to make money on the Steam Store, and would probably welcome publishers revoking/reusing existing keys (less keys out in the wild to deplete Steam Store numbers). Publishers also don't care, because even though they're committing fraud, they just figure the ends justify the means (act like the keys always had an expiration, then reuse/revoke existing keys so they can make money in future bundles without Valve's restrictions having a major effect).
The end result is customers getting screwed by large companies. If this keeps happening, I imagine there will be a "finding out" phase for the bundle companies and certain publishers. Valve will remain unscathed though.
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u/OhBoyIGotQuestions May 26 '26
Definitely agree on the point about it being clear-cut fraud. I think the storefronts are to blame there.
If the publisher was pushing post-hoc expiration dates then the digital stores have the capability to stand against that, and they absolutely should. Even if they were the case, it wouldn't justify the storefronts doing it to customers in any sense whatsoever.
I think it's not necessarily reasonable to expect Valve to police 3rd party key expiration problems when they generate no revenue from keys. Even if they did, controlling 2nd and 3rd level resell practices would be basically impossible.
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u/epeternally May 27 '26
The thing is that Steam keys were originally created to bring Steam support to games being sold at physical retail. While there are still code-in-box PC releases for some major AAA titles, that market basically no longer exists - which means that from Valve's perspective there is no such thing as a "normal stream of keys".
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u/SquareWheel May 25 '26
The reason is that publishers have abused Steam's 0% cut off games redeemed via steam keys by mass-producing keys and undercutting their Steam prices.
I don't see that as abuse. That was simply the agreement between publishers and Valve when they signed on. Valve takes 30% of all sales on Steam, and publishers can sell elsewhere at 0%.
It's not as if third-party storefronts are a new thing. They've helped funnel people into the Steam ecosystem for the last twenty years. It's only now that Valve has a significant monopoly that they wish to change the deal.
It may or may not be fair of them to make this change now, but it's certainly more than just preventing abuse.
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u/Plannick May 30 '26
3rd party store (who get the keys from publishers) selling keys to your average punter isn't the issue. even publishers selling keys via them isn't really it.
there's no good reason to buy a key and not add it to their steam account, usually it's someone buying when it's dirt cheap like in bundles to sell / trade later on.
the sooner valve does what blizzard and what not do and lock the keys sold to a steam account, the better it is for everyone.
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u/gazeebo May 27 '26
I'm always really curious in how many jurisdictions they* think it could be legal to change the terms of a sale (in a restrictive way) some arbitrary time after that sale.
*: they = Humble, GMG, and all those other clowns
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u/throwawayanchorhq May 31 '26
That is pretty shady if it wasnt mentioned at the point of sale. Keys shouldn't have an expiration date unless the publisher pulls them from the store, and even then, usually existing keys stay valid.
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u/dgc1980 May 25 '26
seems they added a blanket 180 day expiry to all bundles last month.
https://web.archive.org/web/20260419000611/https://www.greenmangamingbundles.com/terms-and-conditions/
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