Keys were purchased with stolen credit cards
Just over a week after Ubisoft deactivated digital copies of Far Cry 4 purchased through various third-party resellers, the publisher has reactivated copies of the game that have been played in some capacity and has permanently deactivated the rest. Apparently, the codes in question had been purchased from Origin using stolen credit cards, leading to the mass deactivation.
“We are working with EA to prevent situations like this from happening again, and we will continue to deactivate keys that are found to be fraudulently obtained and resold,” Ubisoft said in a statement to Game Informer. The keys in question came from sites such as G2A, a peer-to-peer code selling website.
G2A’s marketing manager, Marek Zimny, spoke to Destructoid back in January regarding the mass code deactivation. “G2A is well aware of this process and will do everything possible to compensate for that. For users who have made transactions without G2A Shield, we will check if the corresponding merchant was responsible for the withdrawal of the code,” Zimny said. “If so, these users will get a compensation.”
Ubisoft reiterated the importance of buying codes from less shady retailers (like Amazon) or approved shady retailers (like GameStop). “We strongly recommend that players purchase keys and downloadable games only from the Uplay shop or trusted retailers.”
Ubisoft Reinstating Fraudulent Far Cry 4 Keys For Customers Already Playing [Game Informer]