Indie game studio Dicehit Games recently made an unusual appeal on social media: if players intend to purchase cheap activation keys for games like Runeveil from the gray market, they should just play the pirated version instead. These low-priced keys were originally promotional items given freely to content creators and media; when resold, the developers receive nothing.
The incident began when Dicehit Games discovered that activation keys for their deck-building Roguelike game, Runeveil, and another title, ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs, were being sold at extremely low prices on gray-market key reselling platforms like Instant-Gaming. Upon investigation, it was confirmed that these keys originated from promotional codes previously distributed free of charge to content creators, media outlets, and reviewers. The intention was to gain exposure and reviews, but instead, they were being resold for profit.
"We receive no exposure, and our goodwill is being exploited," Dicehit Games wrote in an August 10 post. "If you think our game is too expensive and plan to buy it from a key site, you might as well just play the pirated version."
Dicehit Games clarified that not all key resales are improper—some studios do sell large batches of keys to distributors as a financing strategy. However, Dicehit Games did not authorize any third parties to sell activation keys for their games.
With only four team members, it was impossible to track which keys were activated by genuine reviewers and which were resold. Therefore, the studio chose not to actively ban any keys to avoid mistakenly penalizing honest reviewers.
In subsequent posts, the team broke down the numbers: whether players choose piracy or purchase resold keys, developers earn nothing. However, at least with piracy, resellers don't take a cut. Moreover, pirates might still recommend the game to friends, whereas key resellers simply pocket the price difference.
Dicehit Games' experience has resonated widely within the indie developer community. In recent years, issues such as gray-market key reselling and Steam refund abuse have continued to erode the viability of small teams. Previously, some indie developers suffered significant losses due to players refunding games immediately after completion (with one title facing 55,000 refunds), while the developers of Farthest Frontier publicly called out players who used pirated copies yet still submitted bug reports.