G2A claims Business Insider Innovation award

Business Insider has apparently handed its Innovation Initiator award to controversial key reseller G2A.

The announcement was made via G2A itself.

G2A has been recognized by Business Insider for its strong focus on innovation and the research and development of new products, services, and solutions,” the company said.

G2A was founded in 2010 as a regular online retailer, and in just seven short years has become a global transaction ecosystem which houses the world’s fastest growing digital gaming marketplace for game key codes and other digital products. Aside from the marketplace, G2A has developed many diverse products, including: G2A PAY, G2A Dev Studio, G2A 3D and 3D Plus and G2A Gear.

G2A has also established its own developer and publisher program, G2A Direct, which offers developers the chance to create their own storefront on G2A.COM as well as benefit from worldwide promotional and marketing campaigns. G2A plans to further add to and expand its product portfolio, and continue on the path of being an initiator of innovation.”

G2A is rarely out of the headlines. Just recently Gearbox first partnered and thenvery publicly unpartneredwith them for the launch of the Bulletstorm remaster. But G2A’s colourful exploits go back must further and include fallings out withTinyBuild,UbisoftandRiot. A persistentcharm offensivefrom G2A has done very little to help.

In April it again sparked controversy when in a talk called ‘G2A Unplugged’ at Reboot Develop, G2A rep Marius Mirek attempted to explain the retailer’s business model and alleviate the audience’s concerns.

When asked by host Dan Pearson about its status as a ‘grey market reseller’, Mirek immediately pushed back, as reported byPolygon.

I know we’re called a grey marketplace but as our team sees it there’s nothing really grey about it, beyond people not understanding our business model,” he said, before turning to the largely development-based audience and adding: We’ve noticed really quickly that gamers want to access your games. They don’t have $60 or $70 to acquire the game that they want.

Codes that are available on G2A, they come from various places. Either from sales or bundles or from people who have acquired keys at some point and they just want to sell it and buy the game they want.”

As anyone who was following the fallout on Twitter will know, this did not go down well.