Hi Indies, I got approached by someone wanting to bulk purchase keys for my game for a bundle, yay! Except they only offer $0.10 per key for a game released in March at $11.99. Am I right to think this is way too low? I'm not unfamiliar with selling my previous games even this cheap for bundles, but I think it's way under what is reasonable at this time. Thoughts?

Except they only offer $0.10 per key for a game

I could be wrong however it just feels like a scam, how many keys do they want?

If you aren't making any money as is then there is no harm in the deal, or if it is for a good cause, however the discount for bundle purchases is normally a discount.

Resellers will often make a deal on sharing profit, this really sounds shady.

I think you should consider ho they are, what they intend to do with them, how many keys they want, and the effect on your revenue and your brands in the worst case.




A reputable company buying 50 or 100 keys for the stated purpose of rewarding their employees? Sure, consider a higher rate.

An unknown person out of nowhere claiming to work with a major bundling group? No way, too shady. If they are verified from a major group then they would know better, bundle groups don't typically approach developers for bulk keys that way, they ask for mutual deals that help both of you.

A scalper buying bulk keys can hurt until all the keys are gone, can harm your brand by people thinking your keys the bought cheaply are bad or revoked.

From what you described I'd ask them to verify themselves, then take it all to the distributor (Steam?) and see if they can help stop the group or issue alerts,

If the game's not making money any more whatsoever, and someone offers you $10k for 100k keys... then sure, that's $10k that you wouldn't have made otherwise!

If the game is still selling copies though, and someone wants to buy 1000 keys for $100... then, no.

but I think it's way under what is reasonable at this time.

You have effectively answered your own question here.

I think you should consider who they are, what they intend to do with them, how many keys they want, and the effect on your revenue and your brands in the worst case.

-snip-

From what you described I'd ask them to verify themselves, then take it all to the distributor (Steam?) and see if they can help stop the group or issue alerts,

There are a number of "marketing" groups prevalent on steam that approach greenlight developers and offer to "boost" their yes votes via a variety of different mechanisms. Essentially however what they do is trade off free keys to a bunch of kiddies in their group in return for them having voted yes on a greenlight item. Effectively "gaming" the current greenlight process. The cost of buying bulk keys being less than the received "fee" for marketing. You may have run into one of these entities.

Verifying who they are, what their intended purpose is and how this will affect your business and reputation are all important things to give due consideration to, but so is the potential financial benefit of said sale.

In addition to the reputation and intent of your would-be buyers, you should consider the current value of your game and effect the sale might have.

Even if the buyer is reputable and not intending anything untoward, you probably don't want to devalue a game that is still selling well for a higher price.

Thanks all! It's a reputable site (not a reseller) that works like a bundle, and has featured titles such as DX:HR, Alien Isolation, Wolfenstein New Order etc. So not just an "indie scraper bundle"

They're responding with how much marketing and buzz it will do but... I don't know, I was part of some small give aways and one bundle so far and can't quite say I noticed much of an impact, viability-wise.

Thanks all! It's a reputable site (not a reseller) that works like a bundle, and has featured titles such as DX:HR, Alien Isolation, Wolfenstein New Order etc.

That just means they got a hold of several Steam keys for those games, not that the developers/publishers of those games are willing to work with them.

They're responding with how much marketing and buzz it will do but... I don't know, I was part of some small give aways and one bundle so far and can't quite say I noticed much of an impact, viability-wise

Some developers even in big bundles like Humble Bundle claim they didn't get any significant exposure boost (but that the cut of Humble Bundle profits can be nice).

If a random internet user wanted to buy N copies of your game ("to sell on ebay!"), what price would you offer him?

What minimum quantity of keys would you make them buy before getting a slightly better discount?

Definitely more than 10 cents, which is why I am declining the offer heh

So it is roughly factor 100. The issue, even if this is not a reseller, will be, that the one buying a bundle will resell unused keys himself.

So, it might be not the best idea to flood the market with 100.000 keys for $100, just to get lot of re-selled keys (-profit) and negative reviews from uninterested bundle buyers (-profit).