Late last week it was reported that a number of websites owned by 7 Entertainment were reselling Humble Bundle PC Steam game codes for profit. Over the weekend the company, which owns the likes of Kinguin.com and Fast2Play, has stated its intentions to rectify this problematic moral and legal situation.
GameInformer published a story about game keys from Humble Indie Bundle (and other charity bundle) purchases which were being bought and sold for profit by web sites under 7 Entertainment's wing. The sites in question allow third parties to sell their digital goods, the core activity of the sites is likened to "an Ebay for gamers".
A representative of 7 Entertainment wrote to say that the practice of reselling the charity bundle keys is prohibited under the site's terms of service and promised to investigate and resolve such malpractice this week. 'Matt' went on to explain that the keys must have got onto its sites as it "can only verify validity of the key, not knowing its source". Without this data from the vendors under investigation, 7 Entertainment has removed the questionably sourced products from its site.
It is pointed out that Humble Bundle has started to operate differently in the way Steam codes are distributed now. Bundle buyers now don't receive keys in an email but a link to activate games directly on the Steam platform. Matt signs off by saying "I hope this information will help you understand that neither Kinguin nor Fast2play.com meant to cause any harm to producers, developers of those games and Humble Bundle organization, which we strongly support".
While it was a surprise to hear of this high profile reselling and profiting from 'bargain bin' bought charity games it seems like 7 Entertainment has put its foot down quickly to address the situation, despite having no way to check the source of games codes. Hopefully the changes in the way Steam keys are distributed by Humble Bundle will fix the problem on 7 Entertainment's behalf anyway.
