"Just Pirate It": Indie Developers Urge Players to Steal Their Own Game to Deprive Resellers of Profit

Recently, gamers noticed the Runeveil project from Dicehit studio. The reason was a statement that is hard to expect to hear from a video game developer.

They didn't just "approve piracy," but urged players to download a cracked version of their own game. The reason for such an unusual social media post was the situation with the black market for keys. The creators of Runeveil noticed that their game was being sold for pennies on third-party marketplaces that distribute Steam keys and other digital goods. At the same time, the developers themselves receive nothing from these transactions – all profits go to the sellers.

The creators of Runeveil noted that keys they sent to bloggers to create content for their game are being sold online. Now, the developers have urged players to pirate their game so that no one profits from reselling the keys:

For those unaware: these sites sell codes that we distributed for free [to bloggers] to create content for our game. However, we received nothing in return; our goodwill was abused. If any of our games are too expensive for you and you're considering using a code selling site – it's better to just download a pirated version.

Runeveil is a card roguelike where players enter an arena as an elemental mage and fight opponents. Overall, the game has received "positive" reviews.