It's More than Just Gaming

Hello everyone, welcome.  Today I am going to be talking about Keyhub, a website I recently learned about.  For those of you that are unaware (as I was), Keyhub is a price comparison site that deals exclusively in Game Keys, so if there is a game you particularly fancy then you can compare prices from several websites and then purchase the cheapest.  I was contacted by Gvantsa, their Adminsitrative and Human Resources person asking if I would like to do some form of shared promotion.  In truth, I was a bit apprehensive as I was unfamiliar with the site and their base (Georgia, the country) was an unknown to me as far as reputation for scams goes.  I had a chat with Gvantsa via skype to get a feel for Keyhub and then went away to do some digging.

What is Keyhub?

As I noted it is a price comparison site for video game keys.  From my conversation and digging, I learned that they don’t have stock (I guess you wouldn’t anyway as the keys are for games redeemable on virtual platforms, such as Steam).  Keyhub has a number of affiliate websites that they direct people to.  As an affiliate of a website myself, I understand this to mean that when a browser clicks an affiliate link and makes a purchase then Keyhub will receive a commission.

Are the Affiliates Legitimate?

I was a bit concerned, initially, that the affiliates might be sites that sell hacked keys and if so, I wasn’t keen on being associated with that.  However, Keyhub have a number of videos on their site demonstrating how they check if their partners are legitimate (See below).  This was nice, but I went a bit further using a couple of consumer review sites to check up on the affiliates.  I used Trust Pilot and Scam Adviser.  Am happy to report that with most of the affiliates I checked out they had high scores on both.  On the sites with lower scores, they looked like high scores were the norm but there were a handful of very unsatisfied customers.  My suggestion at this point, if using any site like this (Keyhub or their affiliates) check the scores on the aforementioned consumer sites.

As part of the process of writing this article, I had an email conversation with Gvantsa and asked her how Keyhub insure that their affiliates are legitimate.  I quote her response below:

We make sure to check their history, TrustPilot score, TrustPilot reviews, we also check their FB comments. We keep on randomly & anonymously buy(ing) keys from them & activate them to make sure there are no issues – you can check some of the videos & blogs here – https://www.keyhub.com/blog/posts/. We check the following information: How long are they on the market, Who are they (distributors, official sellers, marketplace), where are they based, game platforms, payment methods, their social media channels, contact info and more

I further asked what would happen if a client had a problem with a purchased key, and they contacted Keyhub for a refund.  I was supplied with a email trail of a recent situation where a customer did indeed have a problem and contacted Keyhub.  I won’t publish the emails, but from reading through the client was informed about the affiliate nature of the purchase, and then the affiliate was contacted by Keyhub and a refund arranged.   I then asked what Keyhub would do with serial offenders in regards their affiliates.  Gvantsa replied:

 If one of our affiliates demonstrates unsatisfactory levels of service we will take (them) out from our affiliate program, cause we want to support only good and legit stores.

Affiliates supported by Keyhub are:

Gamivo, G2A, Game Laden, Buygames, Fanatical, Games Planet, Games Deal, G2Play, Game Billet, cjscdkey, gamekeys4all, gamers-outlet, gamersgate, gamesrepublic, gamingdragon, gog, nokeys, playstart, psngames, steam, urcdkeys, voidu, scdkey, cdkeys, on 9, 2game, mmoga, HRK, Instant gaming, Kinguin, green man gaming, mtcgame, coolshop

There are some pretty recognisable and reputable names on that list.  In answer to the original question, as best as I can determine, yes they are indeed legitmate.

Who are Keyhub?

After satisfying myself on the legitimacy of the site I decided that I would like to put a human face on the organisation

They look like a friendly bunch, don’t they?  In the back we have, (left to right) Sebastien, Gvantsa, Giulia and up front, (also left to right) Flavia and Priyam.

As you can see, Keyhub is run by young folks who appreciate gaming as much as their clients, Gvantsa told me that they have a Nintendo Switch in the office and they love their retro games.  Her particular favourite being Mario Kart.  I was always rubbish at Mario Kart, but I was always rubbish at racing games in general.  Basically, I’m not built for speed.  Weirdly, that particular trait also translates into boardgames.  I’m really rubbish at racing boardgames too.

The Service

I didn’t take hours to do an exhaustive search of video games, however there were 2 on my steam list both either £39.99 or £49.99.  Warhammer: Total War 2 currently retails for £39.99 and has DLC coming to just under £20 on Steam.  I liked the first game but am too miserly to pay £40 for a core game (particularly when some of the DLC is additional factions and it feels like they overcharged for an incomplete game).  I checked Keyhub.

A number of CD keys were recommended and they were all in the region of £20.  Sadly I couldn’t find the DLC but quite a considerable saving to start with.  I would have liked to see the Tomb Kings DLC, but at least the core game was there and as I searched through the various categories, I did find other DLC products.  (Stellaris DLC was available, which would be tempting if my computer would actually run Stellaris…)

I would say, the site is better suited to someone who knows what they are looking for, rather than browsing.  I could only find the search feature on the home page and would have liked to see it on each page, and whilst you could navigate by category there was precious little information on any of the games in question on the site.  I realise it is a price comparison site, and that system specs and game information should be available on the relevant affiliate site, however this makes browsing a little bit tedious.  So, as I say, it is more a site to go to with a game in mind.  Unless you have more patience than I.  On my first pass I also found one product where the image used to represent it was blurry, but when I went back on a second and third pass I couldn’t find it, which satisfied my inner critic.

Conclusion

I was a bit skeptical about Keyhub at first, however looking at games that interest me there was at least a 50% saving and the evidence tends to suggest that all is on the up and up, so if you are a fan of video games, it looks like it is worth a look the next time you intend to expand your collection.  I know I will when I feel like venturing back into the world of Warhammer…