Developers Gearbox Software,known for their hit series such as Borderlands and Brothers in Arms, recently announced a partnership with digital game market G2A. The partnership was created for a distribution deal for the company’s latest release, Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition. After the announcement was met with an alarming amount of negative critique among fans, it seems the developers are rethinking their deal.

Shortly after the partnership was announced, popular video game reviewer John Bain (better known as TotalBiscuit) took to Twitter to express his outrage at the proposed deal. G2A has been under fire from indie developers and fans for a while now. The company has proved to be more than a little shady when it comes to turning a profit. G2A has been known to present numerous game sales without any unpaid buyer protection along with illegitimate keys being sold through their service. These video game keys proved to be stolen created calamitous financial losses from independent game developers. TotalBiscuit sent out an open letter to the world letting Gearbox Software know that if they continued forward with their partnership with G2A, he would no longer review or cover any games developed by the company. His letter spread like a wild fire over social media sites such as Twitter and Reddit, with many fans threatening to boycott as well.

The news of the uprising quickly got the attention of the Gearbox executives, which led to the company inviting TotalBiscuit to a conference call to get the whole scoop about G2A’s poor business. He explained to them that G2A’s business model was immoral and downright thievery. After the conference call, Gearbox Software modified the terms of the proposal that would force the distribution company to either correct their business model, or lose the partnership all together. Changes to the deal required a free fraud protection to replace the paid service G2A has in place within 30 days of Bulletstorm’s release (April 7, 2017). Within 60 days prior to the launch, the company must execute throttling for non-certified publishers and developers by user ID, title, and account payable levels to incite an improved fraud flagging process. The last stipulation is that not beyond 90 days the company must provide  a web service or an application programming interface (API) with the intent of providing developers and publishers the proper means to search for and flag illegitimate keys for prompt removal.

Gearbox made it clear that if not all of the demands were met, they would remove themselves from the proposed partnership and would seek other distributors for Bulleststorm. Judging by the latest reports, G2A is not quite ready to run a legitimate business as Gearsoft Software has begun the necessary motions to terminate the partnership. This proves that the gaming community has a strong voice. Games wouldn’t be around if developers didn’t exist, and the community will not sit by idly and let shady business shatter the integrity of the hard working developers.

Did Gearsoft Software make the right move by listening to the community and giving G2A an ultimatum? Are there any disagreements over the claims against G2A? Leave a comment in the section below, or join the discussion on Don’t Feed the Gamers’ official Disqus channel. Never miss the hottest gaming and entertainment news by following DFTG on Twitter for 24/7 news coverage.