Kinguin is a platform that says “its mission is to provide sellers and buyers all around the world the possibility to trade video games at a fair price with no hassle”. So basically, Kinguin is a secondary market for video games. Their promise is that you can get your games at fair prices and with no hassle.
Yes, Kinguin is legit. It is not a scam because they will never steal your money or credit card details. And you will receive the game keys you purchased without a problem.
Getting games at fair prices and with no hassle are good selling points; but do Kinguin really offer that or is it another advert-speak? In the first place, is Kinguin legit? Is Kinguin a place that you really should be heading for the next purchase of digital codes and game keys?
This Kinguin review will shine the spotlight on Kinguin in order to provide the information that will help you answer these questions and more.
The platform Kinguin.net is a secondary market place for games keys. It is owned and operated by a private company (Kinguin Digital Limited) registered and based in Hong Kong. In just over 6 years since its establishment in 2013, Kinguin has grown to become the largest alternative market place for Steam, Origin, and Battle.Net; and they now have over four million members worldwide.
The website is available to users from anywhere in the world. You only need to be 16 years and above to create an account; and if younger than 16 years, you’ll need the consent of a legal guardian for the processing of an account. The website is available not only in the English Language but in seven other international languages including French and Portuguese.
The mission statement of Kinguin says everything about the company. They simply provide a platform where buyers and sellers from around the world come together to buy and sell video games. Thus, Kinguin is just the marketplace, and not the seller of the digital codes and keys that you’ll buy in the platform. You’ll simply be buying codes from another user of the platform.
All the negative reviews you’ll find about Kinguin stems from them being a market place. The important considerations are: who are the sellers; and most importantly, where do they get the digital codes and keys that they sell?
Scandal after scandal has hit the game keys market places including Kinguin. The market places have been known to be a beehive of fraudulent activities; keys gotten through stolen credit cards and other fraudulent means make their way into the market places.
Kinguin even acknowledges this in their terms and condition. They say that there are a lot of transaction risks associated with buying from a market place like them; and they went on to list some of the risks as misrepresentation of products and services, illegal acts, poor quality, failure to meet required specifications, defective or hazardous products, illegal products, delays or erroneous deliveries or payment, incorrect cost escalation, warranty problems, and accidents during transport.
Illegal acts and illegal products stood out to us. You’re more likely to find illegal products in the market places than in authorized dealers or business entities. Should you care where the keys you buy come from as long as you’re buying them legitimately and they work? An ethical mind will, but even the less ethical mind should because they could end up losing their money.
Take for example a particular case that rocked Kinguin; many gamers who bought keys in the platform were left frustrated when their games keys were revoked by the games company (Ubisoft). The reason for Ubisoft’s action was that the keys were obtained by stolen credit cards before they made their way to Kinguin. As a result of the keys being revoked, innocent buyers who had bought in Kinguin could not launch their games remotely. Not only were they then deprived of exciting gaming action, but they also lost whatever money they’d spent on buying the keys.
The risks associated with buying game keys in a market place like Kinguin are well documented. Kinguin states it clearly in their Terms and Condition that because the identity of internet users is difficult to verify, they are unable to confirm and does not confirm the alleged identity of users (including but not limited to sellers). They conclude that you should use various means, including common sense, to assess who you are going to deal with.
However, it should be noted that Kinguin takes some steps to limit insidious activities in the platform. For example, a C2C (customer to customer) seller is not allowed to sell more than five keys at a time. This is something similar to a bank limiting the amount of daily withdrawal that can be made from your bank account so that if the account is hacked your losses will be limited.
Also, the funds earned by any C2C seller in Kinguin will be available on the seller’s account only if the buyer of the product confirms that the product works. It is only when the customer who bought the product does not report an issue within 7 days of the purchase that the funds will be released and made available to the seller’s account. Another check is that C2C sellers cannot withdraw funds obtained from selling a key. They’ll have to use the funds to buy another key in the platform. This rules out quickly selling keys to get a little money.
Also, being a merchant in Kinguin is not the free-for-all that it is in some of the equally big keys resellers in the industry. While some market places will admit users as merchants without verifying their credentials; in Kinguin there is a full application process, where you’ll have to provide a valid ID and even explain the source of the codes.
You already know that the games keys secondary market place (be it Kinguin or any other market place) is a shady, or at best gray, business environment. There’s the real chance of getting fake keys that won’t work. Yes, you could also get keys that work well, but many of those will be stolen keys or keys bought with stolen identities and misrepresentations.
Thus, when you see a feature like “Kinguin Buyer Protection”, it sounds like the protective divine hand that will help you walk through the valley of the shadow of death unscathed. Kinguin advertises the “Buyer Protection” with the slogan “Shop safe, stay happy”; saying that you’re guaranteed a good experience when you add the buyer protection to your purchase. However, the Buyer Protection is an add-on that’ll cost you a little extra. By adding it during checkout, you’ll be charged about 10% or more of the cost of the product.
Kinguin advertises that with the buyer protection: you’ll be the first priority for their customer care support; that’ll you’ll get a 100% refund on “Random Games” if you already have the title; and that they’ll defend your purchase against fakes, cheats, and trolls.
However, it would seem that the Kinguin “buyer protection” effectively “protects” only on paper. Customer reviews gleaned from multiple independent platforms shows that the Kinguin buyer protection is effective only in correspondence with Kinguin, but less effective in protecting against fakes.
In a particular case, a gamer bought a key from Kinguin which didn’t work. Yes, the purchase had buyer protection; after contacting Kinguin about it, they requested a proof the key didn’t work, proof of purchase, etc. Lots of screenshots went through, and the correspondence with Kinguin was surprisingly smooth. Kinguin then requested that the gamer goes to the game publisher (Bethesda) to get the activation date from the key. Of course, the game publisher will not help with that because the purchase was from a secondary market place (Kinguin). Finally, Kinguin’s position is that they can’t do anything to help except the required information is provided. Needless to say, the gamer lost his money (about 40 euros).
So it’s clear that a fake is in the picture, and Kinguin has all the proof of it (a fake key sold by a seller on their platform). But even with their buyer protection and its promise to “defend your purchase against fakes, cheats and trolls”, nothing was done.
Yes, Kinguin is legit. It is not a scam. If you don’t want to be ripped off, whether an online platform is legit or a scam is something you’ll want to determine before using it. There are many scammers on the internet, and they are coming up with new ways to scam people. Creating a scam platform that’ll lure people into placing orders for items that will never be delivered is something that has worked for these scammers. So before placing any order in Kinguin, the big question you should ask is whether Kinguin is legit or a scam.
Many netizens use the words “legit” and “scam” casually; they’ll rapidly label any platform that they have a little inconvenience with as scam, and they’ll glowingly call legit any platform that they have smooth sailing in. We will take a different approach because it’s a fact that even the bests of platforms can present an occasional inconvenience. Also, the worst of platforms can present an occasional smooth sailing. Take it from us, even the pure-scam sites will sometimes clear some small orders to convince people into coming back for a big order.
We’ll look at whether Kinguin is legit from two perspectives; the first is legality. There’s no doubt that Kinguin is 100% legal. The website Kinguin.net is owned and operated by Kinguin Digital Limited, which is a company that is duly registered in Honk Kong, with company number 1664967, and with registered office in the Hing Building, Central Hong Kong. They also comply 100% with local and international laws in every major jurisdiction including the EU Directive 2008/8/EC. Suffice it to say that scam platforms do not seek legal recognition through company registration; also most often than not, scam platforms exist only virtually with no physical trace of a place of business. Thus, in terms of legality, being a 100% legal company with a registered office building lends a voice to the argument of Kinguin being legit.
The other perspective we’ll look at in determining whether Kinguin is legit is whether products you’ll get there are functional (that is, work as intended). Whether products are functional is greatly influenced by Kinguin’s status as a market place. It is not Kinguin that sells keys to you in the platform; instead, you’re buying from fellow users. Thus, even Kinguin does not totally know where the keys come are sourced or whether they will work.
As has been documented, though Kinguin takes more security steps than some of the other secondary markets in the industry, there is a very big chance that the keys you’ll get in the platform will not work. And where keys work fine initially, there is a chance that you’ll wake up one day to find that they’ve been revoked and no longer work. What is more, you’re not likely to get a refund; and you’ll find yourself losing whatever you committed to buying the game. That said; because of this very real chance of getting keys that will not work (or that might be revoked), in many review platforms, Kinguin is not considered legit.
However, it should be said that Kinguin is just a marketplace; and a market place is not just filled by cheats, trolls and fakes. Though you’ll definitely find these elements, there are also legitimate resellers trading functional products. You may visit CDkeys.com, if you are looking for other sites like Kinguin.
Kinguin is safe. Safety in this context is the ability of the platform to safeguard the information that you share with it, in order to prevent unauthorized third parties from intercepting and accessing the information. When making any online purchase, you’ll share personal information as well as sensitive information such as your credit card details. You definitely don’t want that information to leak to cyber fraudsters who are very eager to get it in order to defraud you.
In this regards, there’s no doubt that Kinguin is safe. Kinguin states that they take technical and organizational measures to protect data; though, we’ll like to know the details of the technical measures to be assured that they are relatively fail-proof, we can be boosted by the fact that of the negative reviews that have been hurled at Kinguin, not one has to do with a data breach complaint.
We can say that in Kinguin, all the pages where you are required to enter your credit card data or sensitive information are secured. We can also say that Kinguin does not see or store your credit card information. The information can be seen by only their payment services which will enable the processing of your payment. That Kinguin does not see or store payment card detail means that even if the systems of Kinguin are breached, the hackers will still be unable to access your payment card details.
Thus, it’s safe to say that Kinguin is safe in that there’s no chance of your personal information or payment details leaking into the hands of unauthorized persons.
You’ll find that Kinguin has a wide product range. You can get keys for the following platforms: Android, Battle.Net, EA Origin, Epic Games, Free2Play, GOG COM, NC Soft, and Nintendo. No matter your game preference, you’ll find something for exciting gaming action. The game genres include action, adventure, anime, fighting, hidden object, horror, indie, and more.
Apart from game keys, you’ll also find keys for a lot of software including Windows software, MS Office Suite, and Antivirus suites.
The very first consideration in any purchase is the price. No matter the satisfaction you’ll derive from a product, you’ll be hesitant to go ahead with the purchase if you perceive that the product is not reasonably priced. Thus, the ideal market place should feature items that are reasonably priced.
In fact, the games secondary market places exist because of gamers need to get cheap games. With all the documented risks involved in getting games from market places like Kinguin, if you’re wondering why anyone will still go to these market places to purchase their games, it’s because the games are offered at mind-boggling discounts. You’ll find that the prices of games quoted by games publishers or their authorized sellers will be significantly higher than you’ll find the games in Kinguin, sometimes by as much as 80%. No white market price (game publisher or authorized reseller) can beat the prices of Kinguin. QED.
Even in the gray market itself, Kinguin holds some of the lowest prices you’ll find. You’ll find games in Kinguin for less than they’re listed in many of the other secondary market places. Thus, if you’ll really have to shop in the secondary marketplaces, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t look at Kinguin.
Part of the no-hassle service that any online store promises are easy payments; and it is no different for the game keys resellers. The ideal reseller will provide easy payment process; and the first step to providing that is supporting a wide range of payment options so that no matter where you are in the world, you’ll not have problem with paying for your order.
Kinguin support ticks the box in this regard by supporting options such as PayPal, credit and debit cards, PaySafeCard, and BoaCompra. They also accept bank transfers and Smart2Pay methods, as well as methods that are available locally in only specific countries such as DineroMail, Boleto and Gpay. If you have joined the cryptocurrency movement, you’ll also find joy in Kinguin as they also support Bitcoin.
With support for global payment options as well as local (region-specific) options, finding a method to pay for your orders will not be a challenge, no matter where you are resident in the world.
Another thing that you should consider is how long it takes after paying for your order before you’ll receive your game key. Except you’ll be okay with waiting for long before you’ll start playing your game, you’ll want a place where keys are delivered rapidly.
In this regard, Kinguin is not the Usain Bolt of the industry, but they do relatively okay. Dispatches in Kinguin will not take more than 15 minutes after creating an invoice. Like all the keys resellers dealing on digital products, you’ll receive the game key you purchase via e-mail. However, it should be said that the 15 minutes lead time does not apply to pre-orders. When you buy a pre-order, you will receive the product key around the release date of the game.
It would sound like simple logic to be able to return defective products to the seller. In fact, because of the fact that online purchase is characterized by blind purchase (that is, completing the purchase of an item without first physically assessing it), it’s almost criminal for online stores do not allow returns and issue refunds. However, it’s a whole different story in the world of digital codes reselling; and it’s so for two reasons.
The first reason is the nature of the product being sold. With physical products, you’ll simply mail the item back to the reseller, who will repackage it to be resold. However because CD keys are digital products, there’s no physical “returning” of the product to the seller. The only way you’ll be without the product after having received delivery of the order is for the keys to be revoked. That brings us to the second reason, which is the “power” of the seller.
In the world of digital codes and keys reselling, the sellers do not have the ability to revoke keys. Thus, once the sellers deliver the keys to you after you pay for your order, and you have tried/ used the keys, there’s really no way to “return” the product. Even when you buy from a seller than can revoke a key; once a key is revoked, it cannot be resold. Thus, the returned product is useless to the seller, who will have to absorb the cost. For these reasons you’ll find that resellers of CD keys do not offer refunds.
So returns are technically not possible in Kinguin. It’s clearly stated in their terms and condition that they reserve the right “not to accept any returns of already delivered items/ game keys”. However, if you add Kinguin Buyer Protection to your purchase, you become a “VIP customer”, and you’ll be able to get refunds for unused products.
There are times when you’ll change your mind about a purchase right at the point of (or immediately after) making payment. If that is the case, you’ll want a place where you’ll be able to cancel the order so that the transaction will be stopped; and delivery of the product halted, and you’ll not be charged.
However, because game keys are digital products, and delivery is usually swift, cancelling an order is not something that is seen very often in the industry. However, Kinguin allows for cancelling orders depending on the status of the order. If your order status is “pending payment”, it means the payment was not finalized. If you’ve changed your mind about the order, you only need to go to your purchase history and cancel the order. If the order is paid for, but its status is “processing” or “on hold”, you’ll have to contact customer care through live chat to request its cancellation before it is dispatched.
However, if the order status is “completed”; it means that the purchased items have been delivered, and cancelling the order is no longer possible. You can only return the product (if unused) for a refund, and that is only if you have Kinguin Buyer Protection on the purchase.
Promotions allow buyers to get items free of charge or for less than their full price. Thus, the ideal seller/ reseller will be one that runs lots of promotions.
Kinguin ticks the box in this regard because you’ll find lots of promotions on the platform. For example, on getting to the landing page of their website, we were welcomed by a pop-up that told us to choose a lucky coin and win a discount. Of the three coins displayed, we clicked one, and got “Sorry! Try again”; we were lucky on the second coin and got a 3% discount.
Also, Kinguin uses an in-store currency called Krowns. If you buy with the digital currency, you’ll get an exclusive 10% discount applicable storewide
Just as we know that death is inevitable, so we know that complaints and problems are inevitable when using any platform. Thus, the ideal platform will make provision for addressing such questions/ complaints when they arise. That is where the customer support service comes in. You’ll want the platform to have multiple channels for reaching out to their customer support agents. Most importantly, you’ll want a responsive service that when contacted will provide you with needed assistance and promptly.
The channels that Kinguin provides for directly contacting them are email and live chat. You may send them an email using the online contact form that can be found in their website, or you may send the email directly from your email account using the email address helpdesk@kinguin.net. Kinguin promises to answer support submissions swiftly. We can say that you’ll get your response in a few hours which is relatively fast. You’ll even get faster responses if you add the buyer protection to your purchase.
However, if you’ll rather not wait for feedback when you contact the customer care team, you may use the live chat feature. Through the live chat, Kinguin not only offers instant feedback but also offer 24/ 7 support. While it’s good that Kinguin offers an instant feedback option, we like online platforms that add telephone support service to the armoury.
Kinguin is legitimate and one of the names you’ll definitely find if you’re looking for a place to buy game keys. Their popularity stems from their operating model, which is as a game keys secondary marketplace where you can get cheap games.
If your chief concern is getting cheap games, Kinguin is a place you’ll want to look. No authorized game seller can near the prices in Kinguin; and even in the gray market, prices in Kinguin are some of the lowest you’ll find. Not only are prices floored; with support for different payment methods, you’ll not have a problem paying for your order; and with an efficient delivery system, you’ll get your order in 15 minutes.
However, while Kinguin is a 100% legal company, the platform is not considered legit in many review sites because of the resultant effects of operating as a secondary market place where individuals come together to buy and sell game keys to each other. It means that there’s no way of knowing how the game keys are sourced you’ll be buying in Kinguin. There’s the chance that the keys will not work; and even if they work initially, there’s the risk of the keys being revoked. The only good thing to come out of Kinguin’s status as a market place is that you not only can buy games in Kinguin but if you have game keys to sell, you can put them up for sale in the platform.
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They took my money and sent a key that did not work. I sent in a ticket and there is no ticket or record that I bought anything from them...scammers
Avoid. Not worth your money
KWTVGHJD8LK
Avoid.
I've purchased Guild Wars 2 code which doesn't work and Kinguin sided with the seller, refusing a refund or any solution. Proof can be uploaded on request.
07.01.2020 Update
"Dear Buyer,
Please, accept our most sincere apology for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, we cannot assist you with this issue any further.
Please, accept this 10% discount code as compensation for the inconvenience: #####-###########
Should any questions or doubts arise, please feel free to contact us.
Kind regards,
Karlito"
Latest reply from Kinguin.
First, they sold me a product that doesn't work and now they don't want to refund me the money but giving me a code to make another purchase. It's like buying again from someone who already cheated you and took your money away from you.
Customer service close to zero.
Closing account and never buying anything from them again.
And that is a final thought - AVOID KINGUIN, if something goes wrong their warranty is not worth a penny, you are getting nothing.
Well, they placed my order on hold. Needed some legit document that I am actually at that location I ordered from (billing address). I immediately served and it's still on hold. They just don't reply to the ticket anymore but took my money. Kinguin is not trustable. Forget them.
Well, i only got fooled once, but i had paid 1€ so i didn't really care.
I have bought a lot of games in this platform, a LOT, and never, safe one exception, been fooled.
It didn't really bother me because it was already sketchy when i tried to buy that game. I can even say which game it was, Victor Vran. I later bought it from a trusted user.
The games i bought are all there where i activated them (i think).
So you get 5 stars from me.
Kinguin Digital Limited sells bogus product activation keys, PayPal will not refund my money.
ThEy wIlL NeVeR sTeAl YoUr MoNey, well yeah . they did steal my money and ofc i did not get any refunds and shit this is why you should never trust websites like kinguin or g2a just buy it on the platform itself or buy a LEGIT WALLET from any store that sells them
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Kinguin is a rippoff selling keys that do not work and get support from paypal not to refund stuff that does
not work.
I used to be an avid and loyal Kinguin customer until I tried playing their recent "Ninja Krowns" promotion on 06/13/2019, which is either bug ridden or a scam. I have had 0 chance of winning/redeeming my "Ninja Krowns" for a game due to mysterious and frequent "bugs" that Kinguin's support report that they are working on. The first "bug" was my balance showing 0 on their redeem page, even though I had over 200 Ninja Krowns and couldn't select a game. When that was resolved and I was able to select a game (Borderlands 2 GOTY), I received the error message "You have already claimed this game. Please make another selection", even though the game never showed up in my library, nor did I receive a receipt for it. Once that "bug" was supposedly resolved, the redeem page wouldn't refresh/reload after the hourly timer ran out, and when I manually reloaded the page, all of the new games were "SOLD OUT" even though it was only a few seconds after the timer ended. I have contacted the Kinguin support group and have received replies like "We have escalated this issue to the appropriate department and it should be resolved shortly", "We have been working on this issue and hopefully it should be resolved for this weekend" or my all time favorite "There are no guarantees of availability due to limited supply". Their site has no promotion/contest rules or even a F.A.Q. link. Now I totally understand that there are no guarantees of winning, but by law a promotion/contest has to give some chance of success, even if its slight, but for the last 3 weeks I have had 0 % chance of success, and even when I was able to click on a selection in time, I didn't get the item, I got bogus message telling me I have already claimed it, even though I didn't get it. I have filed complaints with the FTC, the FCC and the BBB.
Kinguin is a scam! I got Borderlands Handsome collection and the key doesn't work, they don't want to give me a new key and told me they can refund the Ninja Krowns, I have waited so long and they want me to play bidding again? Wasting my time giving them the screenshot for nothing.
Thank You For Your amazing Information about kinguin.
Been selling games on that platform since 2014. In 2018 they started to impose a waiting time of 2 months for payouts (used to be 1 month), and when you actually click on payout they still make you wait weeks, eventually months before they perform a simple payout. The company appears to have financial problems which is reflected in the payouts, for me personally this is a joke and I'm not able to sell as I'm used to cause this people steal us sellers money for their own shady business practices and investments, they are working with our money without our consent which is illegal imo.
Bad site, bad service, shady business practices and VERY VERY disappoining customer service they got (they just turn off LiveChat when they feel like it), I don't recommend anyone to buy anything on the even I am a seller myself...
Kinguin is scamming merchants. Merchants didn't get payments for months. That is reason why most main sellers go out from this platform and stay there only new sellers with high prices of games.
Someone ordered whatever they sell using my PayPal account. I reported it to them and to PayPal immediately, and PayPal refused my money. This scam site then sent me a threatening email that I had to return the money to their PayPal account or they would take “legal action.” What’s great is that in the email they acknowledge that someone else had control of my credentials, but they’ve “done me no wrong,,” so I should just pay them. (They might want to check their terms of service as a vendor on PayPal....)
Maybe they were once a legitimate site, but it’s pretty clear that they’re not any longer. Can’t wait for their response so I can report them for fraud. Just wanted to warn anyone thinking of actually setting up an account with these criminals.
Sorry, “refunded” in place of “refused” in the above. I can’t find a place to edit. My apologies.