Online shop Green Man Gaming has agreements with many developers and publishers to sell keys for their games. One company it does not have an agreement with is Activision -- and the company has come into conflict with the Call of Duty publisher and a game discount forum on Reddit over its Black Ops III Steam keys.
This happens some months after The Witcher 3 developer CD Project RED asked players not to buy keys for the game from GMG because of their unknown provenance.
In fact, that Witcher 3 dustup lies at the heart of this latest issue -- because it put the moderators of the GameDeals subreddit onto the company, and caused its mods to investigate just what was up with its Black Ops III keys.
GMG CEO Paul Sulyok told GameSpot, however, that there's an important distinction to be drawn here:
"Let's be clear here; there is a difference between being an authorized retailer for some titles, and being a retailer selling keys that have been sourced responsibly through authorized third parties with revenue going back to the publisher."
His full statement is worth a read, and highlights some of the conflicts in the current key-reselling and online game sales spaces.
It's also well worth noting that not all companies view GMG so dimly; Nintendo recently partnered with the company to sell download codes for its games via its storefront.
The company also offers financing for independent developers, in addition to selling keys for games.