Is this safe?

[SankoPanko]

Can anyone please tell me if my laptop is able to run this game

This is my laptop info:
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M
Memory 8.2 GB
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition Service Pack 1 (build 7601), 64-bit

 

[Bjorn0305]

Maybe Paradox could drop their official vendor list? That way it would be dead simple to identify resellers.

 

[Mav12]

Can anyone please tell me if my laptop is able to run this game

This is my laptop info:
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M
Memory 8.2 GB
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition Service Pack 1 (build 7601), 64-bit

theres already a mega thread for asking that

 

[Scamps]

It is not safe. Steam purchases are blocked in Crimea since January 20, and next ... who knows ... sanctions may spread.

 

[Nohiro]

im' a little bit late on this post but... i supose that instant gaming is not a legit/legal seller then ? cause the game is 50 % off there... Which is odd because the game is pretty new and the most strange part is that the send you a picture of the cd ke yapparently so... i'm not sure it's legit.

 

[MaxxPower]

I buy most of my games, that aren't heavily discounted on steam, from those key sites. That's maybe 2-3 games a year so not very much.
I just don't see the reason why i should pay 50-60€ when you can get it for half that price in other regions or on a sale, half a year later.
I never had any problems with those keys. Just make sure you get one that is multi-regional or specifically for your region, and not a russian one.

That said, since C:S is already only 30€ on launch, there is not much reason to buy elsewhere.

 

[Miwi]

A lot of these offers are a result of currency differencies. Specially in these times where Steam sold games with equal Dollar / Euro prices (1 US$ = 1 €). You could easily save about 30% when 1 US$ was 1,40 €. Because sometimes I am in Colombia I purchased various games from Steam there, there is nothing illegal. If you log in to Steam in another continent as it was in my case they show you all prices in US$, so you even don't get offered another currency. If you purchased then with your credit card you got the official exchange rate. Means a game that normally costs you 30 € you purchased for 30 US$ and that turned out something like 20 € in your credit card account. But you didn't had to really travel to another country to make deals like this, setting up in your browser an US proxy or a VPN simulated the same advantage ;-)
Nowadays the exchange rate between Euro/US$ is almost 1:1 so this currency effect has almost gone.

 

[Nohiro]

Yeah i know about the currency changes etc... But how is this legal ? i know there's some legit resellers (at stop at gmg most of the time) and yeah it's only 30 euro (well 27.99) so i'm probably gonna get it direcltly on steam to support paradox cause a city builder better than simcity is pretty rare those days. It's just Odd that devs doesn't do anything about those kind of reseller.

 

[Greygor69]

Rule of Thumb: If a price looks too good to be true, it's because it is.

Danger Will Robinson, Danger.

 

[MaxxPower]

Why would it not be legal?
You are free to buy a product on any store you want.

It's the publishers own "fault" that these key stores even exist.
If they would sell their games for the same price world wide, then there would be no reason to buy keys form other regions.

 

[Nohiro]

Why would it not be legal?
You are free to buy a product on any store you want.

It's the publishers own "fault" that these key stores even exist.
If they would sell their games for the same price world wide, then there would be no reason to buy keys form other regions.

Well there's sometimes accidents, like the 7000 keys of sniper elite revoked on steam, but this wanst legit key cause they were stolen. I agree on the fact that is the publisher fault (and also maybe the humble bundle guys who started the "get more for less" thing...

 

[MaxxPower]

Yes that's true.
But that's maybe 0,01% of the keys and the publishers use these cases to scare people away from key stores.

 

[Greygor69]

Why would it not be legal?
You are free to buy a product on any store you want.

It's the publishers own "fault" that these key stores even exist.
If they would sell their games for the same price world wide, then there would be no reason to buy keys form other regions.

So a game that is priced based on affordability in the US would be the same price as the Philippines where the average monthly pay is a 1/4 if not much less than the US.

Because you could bet they wouldn't pick the lower price.

 

[MaxxPower]

I'm not saying, they should price it the same around the world. That's why there are quotation marks on "fault".
I'm just saying, that this is the reason why key stores exist, and why the keys they are selling are not illegal.

 

[Bjorn0305]

I'm not saying, they should price it the same around the world. That's why there are quotation marks on "fault".
I'm just saying, that this is the reason why key stores exist, and why the keys they are selling are not illegal.

But how do you know they are not stolen keys. If they are stolen, then that would be illegal. At THQ, we had to block keys from some of these retailers as the keys got stolen from another vendor. Issues arise later when multiple people try to use the same key - and then open customer service tickets because they bought their game at X store whereas someone else got the same key from store Y. (I'm glad that we were tracking each key so we were able to identify the proper owner).

Selling real keys because you are a licensed vendor is legal.
Selling real keys because you are a sub-contractor to a licensed vendor is legal.
Selling stolen keys is illegal.

So - as long as you know your store is legit - go for it and save your hard-earned money. If the store is not legit, you may lose your game down the line if Valve, the publisher, the vendor or any of the legal retailers for your key decide to take action.