A Conversation with an HRK Rep

Rachellove's Conversation with HRK Rep

Date: Sunday, September 27, 2015

*please note that the Rep’s username has been changed to “HRK Rep” for identity protection.
**The times are in US Pacific Time, in case you were wondering ... so yes I was up from midnight to 2AM talking :P
***This is an informal conversation, so there will be grammatical errors. Please overlook these and focus on the information conveyed!
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12:20 AM - HRK Rep: Hello
12:20 AM - rachellove : Hi there
12:20 AM - HRK Rep: I'm (name removed) from HRK Game
12:21 AM - HRK Rep: I have read your posts on Steamgifts. I should mention that there are some misunderstanding about HRK and SG users.
12:21 AM - rachellove : There's a lot of suspicion, yes.
12:21 AM - rachellove : I apologize if I have further spread the fire
12:22 AM - HRK Rep: We do not purchase our bundles from grey markets.
12:22 AM - HRK Rep: We had 2 bundles recently, the first one, we had a contract directly with Sigma-Team the publisher of those titles.
12:23 AM - HRK Rep: The second with Merge Games, the publisher of those strategy games we have on HRK strategy bundle.
12:24 AM - HRK Rep: It's so unfortenate that some of SG users may think that the keys are purchased from anonymous sources. Since there are thousands of games and it's not really hard to make some contracts with their developers ;)
12:24 AM - rachellove : well that is definitely good to hear!
12:24 AM - rachellove : although you do not directly sell grey market keys, what about this aversion to g2a?
12:25 AM - rachellove : you are affiliated with them, right?
12:25 AM - HRK Rep: We do only use their payment gateways to avoid FRAUD.
12:26 AM - HRK Rep: G2A PAY has over 30 payment methods and many local payment methods which made the way of purchase so easy for the custoemrs.
12:26 AM - HRK Rep: That's why we use G2A PAY.
12:27 AM - rachellove : I see that makes sense!
12:27 AM - rachellove : thank you for clarifying.
12:27 AM - HRK Rep: No worries.
12:29 AM - HRK Rep: If there is any question about any sections on HRK, please let me know. We will soon add all of our partners to HRK and you can see their contracts and logos. I hope it can make HRK more transparent
12:29 AM - rachellove : sounds great! actually, if you could, would you mind responding to some people's concerns on the threads?
12:30 AM - rachellove : i can change the OP and include the information you conveyed here ... but it would help if you and the HRK reps could respond to the community members
12:30 AM - rachellove : i think it helps a lot to be able to engage with them.
12:30 AM - HRK Rep: Sure. I can answer all the questions and the concerns that SG memebers may have.
12:31 AM - rachellove : great! I'm so glad you contacted me.
12:32 AM - rachellove : I was wondering about all the controversy around HRK myself
12:32 AM - rachellove : shall I say that I was contacted by you and refer them to you? or ... copy and paste the information you wrote here?
12:32 AM - HRK Rep: Do as you wish.
12:33 AM - rachellove : I also like being able to personally engage with developers of websites as it gives me more ease and comfort.
12:33 AM - HRK Rep: I have no problem with it. :)
12:33 AM - rachellove : okay! what is your SG username, btw?
12:34 AM - HRK Rep: I can't not provide you our contract agreements with the developer since it's againts the terms of agreement. But I can provide you the name of some of our partners
12:34 AM - HRK Rep: And you can ask them directly by email about us.
12:34 AM - rachellove : okay! hm.. please provide me with your email
12:34 AM - rachellove : i mean the company's email!
12:35 AM - rachellove : i also have heard that you buy keys from other bundle sites and distribute them at higher costs. Is this correct?
(12:34 AM) - HRK Rep: Info@HRKGame.com
12:35 AM - rachellove : thanks! i'll add that to the OP
12:37 AM - HRK Rep: In the past we used some unofficial sources to supply our games for HRK Lottery, But now we don't need to. Not for lottery nor for other sections on HRK.
12:38 AM - HRK Rep: We never purchased any game bundle directly from any other bundle website. We purchased them from suppliers, I don't know where they come from.
12:39 AM - rachellove : I see ... so all the keys you distribute are from the actual developers themselves
12:40 AM - HRK Rep: For indie games yes. For AAA games we have connections with authorized distributers around the world.
12:41 AM - rachellove : ah! okay. So, for example, games like Cities: Skylines are distributed via authorized distributors ... not the company themselves?
12:42 AM - HRK Rep: You mean from the publisher?
12:43 AM - HRK Rep: A game like Cities: Skyilnes were supplied by an authorized distributer.
12:45 AM - rachellove : sorry, yes publisher.
12:47 AM - HRK Rep: We didn't purchase Cities Skylines from Paradox Intractive directly.
12:47 AM - HRK Rep: But their official distributer.
12:48 AM - rachellove : I see. Hm.. that makes sense. So you have no affiliation with IG, Groupees, or other bundle sites. You are your own entity and you do not purchase from these sites but through authorized sellers.
12:49 AM - rachellove : for AAA games, and for the indie games, the devs themselves.
12:51 AM - HRK Rep: It's against the contract agreements that bundle websites sign with developers to distribute their games outside of their platform.
12:52 AM - rachellove : Oh! I was not aware of that. okay, well it's good knowing that at least.
12:53 AM - rachellove : I have a question regarding the FIFA 16 game ... it is currently $41 ... how is the price so low when other sites sell it for a lot higher?
12:53 AM - rachellove : or mad max for $22?
12:53 AM - rachellove : It's great that you offer low prices, but how do you or the devs/publishers make money
12:53 AM - rachellove : I understand if this is asking for too much and against your company protocol.
12:54 AM - HRK Rep: Good question.
12:54 AM - HRK Rep: For example a game like FIFA 16 worth for $59.00 when you want to purchase it from a store near your house.
12:55 AM - HRK Rep: It's a physical product and has some fees like shipment fees
12:55 AM - HRK Rep: And also costs money for the physical pack and DVDs
12:56 AM - HRK Rep: It's so cheaper if publishers distribute them digitally. That's what they are doing now.
12:56 AM - HRK Rep: There would be no cost for them and less taxes since it's a digital product
12:56 AM - rachellove : I see ... but Fifa 16 is distributed / published by EA ... so do you work out the pricing with them?
12:57 AM - HRK Rep: And there is actually a price break when you purchase like 2-10k units of a product
12:58 AM - HRK Rep: As I mentioned we don't work with Major Publishers like EA yet. But we have connections with their authorized distributers.
12:59 AM - rachellove : oh! so a "deal" you get with the distributers for buying mass quantities, thereby allowing you to sell the games for cheaper at your discretion
12:59 AM - HRK Rep: That's right.
1:00 AM - HRK Rep: Also, if you are a game developer, if you sell your game on steam, you should share your revenue with valve up to 50% of the game price
1:01 AM - HRK Rep: While if you distribute them outside of it, you can have all of the revenue yourself
1:01 AM - HRK Rep: That's why we have a lot of online stores these years.
1:02 AM - HRK Rep: Publishers distribute their games with lower price. So they don't share any revenue with Valve.
1:02 AM - rachellove : oh! people would make more money selling outside as compared to Valve
1:02 AM - rachellove : makes sense ..
1:02 AM - rachellove : there have been a lot of bundle sites blossoming lately.
1:03 AM - HRK Rep: Bundles are different with AAA games.
1:03 AM - HRK Rep: Bundles are built for 2 reasons: 1- to promote the games so you advertise your game, 2- to sell your game as low as possible to make some money for your next development
1:04 AM - HRK Rep: Most of developers place their games on bundles to promote it. not to devalue it..
1:06 AM - rachellove : i would think that bundles do help with sales and advertising
1:06 AM - rachellove : so it's not all "bad" to see games in bundles
1:09 AM - HRK Rep is now Online.
1:09 AM - HRK Rep: It's more advertising than sell.
1:10 AM - HRK Rep: Although HRK shares better revenue than other websites, I see some bundle websites share like $0.07 for each unit sold on their website.
1:10 AM - HRK Rep: How much should  a developer sell from their game to make some money?
1:11 AM - HRK Rep: At max, you can sell it for 10k units if you have a really good game in a good bundle.
1:11 AM - HRK Rep: 10k pcs = $700
1:12 AM - HRK Rep: They can't even efford the costs of development..
1:13 AM - HRK Rep: That's why we created HRK Lottery, to help developers to have a high revenue for their games that being sold on HRK and also advertise their games
1:14 AM - rachellove : oh! the lottery is where you pay $2 for one game, and a reduced price for a chance at 8 games, right?
1:15 AM - HRK Rep: HRK Lottery is where you pay $2 and you have 10% chance to win AAA games.
1:15 AM - HRK Rep: $2 we take from the customers, a part of it for AAA games, other part for developer revenue and what is left is for HRK development team
1:19 AM - rachellove : I see ... what % do you keep, if you don't mind me asking?
1:19 AM - rachellove : I like Humble Bundle's method of sliders where you can manually adjust how much is going to who
1:21 AM - HRK Rep: Well, the whole algorithm is classified to avoid competitors make the same work
1:22 AM - HRK Rep: and use our invented algorithm which has benefits for developers and customers at the same time.
1:23 AM - rachellove : May i also ask who these "authorized" sellers are? or rather, where HRK keys come from. I know you said from authorized sellers for the AAA games, but i'm not too familiar with the market for selling and distributing games.
1:23 AM - rachellove : the algorithm makes sense
1:23 AM - HRK Rep: Humble Bundle shares 70% with developers. We share the same for Bundles. But for HRK Lottery we even give more revenue with sale guarranteee
1:24 AM - rachellove : it sounds your team is very intelligent ... to have come up with a mathematical way to make sure that the devs still profit and users have a chance
1:25 AM - HRK Rep is now Online.
1:27 AM - HRK Rep: Thanks for your compliment. We spent a long time to make research about this business.
1:28 AM - HRK Rep: And new ways and strategies for the digital marketing.
1:28 AM - rachellove : I'm also curious as to why, if there are no issues with stolen key, why G2A shield protection is turned on ... i was charged a monthly bill by them without knowing ... which is partly my ignorance, but if you do not sell grey market keys, why you would need such protection ... IG and HB don't use this type of key protection against "fraud"
1:28 AM - rachellove : I only recently heard of HRK about 1-2 months ago! so it's good to hear that you did a lot of research
1:30 AM - HRK Rep: G2A PAY has an API. Which turns on the shield option by defult for all of the stores which use G2A PAY and G2A uses G2A PAY itself with turned on sheild by defult.
1:30 AM - HRK Rep: This is not about HRK, all of 200 stores that use G2APAY have the same option by defult.
1:30 AM - HRK Rep: It' may seem a little tricky from G2A PAY side. But we are not responsible for this.
1:33 AM - HRK Rep: From one side, G2A PAY shield is very cheap. Pay $1 and stay safe from grey market keys that being sold on {LINK REMOVED} But from another side, if there is like 5M users that purchase products from G2A every month, they don't see the shield and there would be like $4M or $5M for a shield that you might never use
1:34 AM - HRK Rep: It's like an insurance, you pay for it monthly, but you may never get sick for a year.
1:35 AM - rachellove : I see ..
1:35 AM - rachellove : but .. if you aren't selling the grey market keys in the first place, is it really necessary to have that extra "insurance"?
1:35 AM - rachellove : I understand it's for safety precautions!
1:37 AM - HRK Rep: Not really. But as I mentioned it is not something for HRK. It's for all of the websites and we do not have access to disable it. We are negotating with G2A PAY team to remove it. Since it is an API, it's hard for IT team to remove it specially for 1 store among 200
1:37 AM - rachellove : oh! so in the future you foresee that it will not be there
1:38 AM - HRK Rep: Sure. There is no reason for that when the keys are sold by the publishers direcctly on HRK.
1:38 AM - rachellove : i would imagine  that G2A doesn't wantto remove their service because they are the ones profitting ...
1:38 AM - HRK Rep: Excactly.
1:39 AM - HRK Rep: But we are fighting about this until we remove it :)
1:40 AM - rachellove : how is this fight going? are you succeeding?
1:41 AM - HRK Rep: It effects on our business. This is not something that we can keep for a long time. It ruins the reputation as you mentioned.
1:43 AM - rachellove : yeah i definitely does. I was angered by it , and i don't think many people trust G2A
1:43 AM - rachellove : how did you become affiliated with them in the first place? was it ... something forced? as you say, it came with the diff stores/websites you are in contact with/partnered with
1:46 AM - HRK Rep: G2A is the fastest growing market place in the world. Although there are some scammers on it, which is normal for a market place, but it provides customers games with cheapest prices.
1:47 AM - HRK Rep: Also, G2A PAY provides many payment methods which is easy to purchase and user friendly structure.
1:48 AM - rachellove : hm... I didn't realize that! G2A definitely does sound like a big market .
1:48 AM - rachellove : I guess I am not too familiar with it.
1:49 AM - rachellove : you really took your time to answer these questions
1:49 AM - rachellove : i appreciate it!
1:49 AM - rachellove : would it be possible for me to copy and paste this convo into pastebin?
1:50 AM - rachellove : i'll edit the text so your username will not show up
1:50 AM - HRK Rep: No worries.
1:50 AM - rachellove : i'm also open to keeping you as a friend ! in case other issues come up, or if you just want to chat as a  "friend"
1:51 AM - HRK Rep: I can see you are a curious girl with all of these bundle stuff. And you surely see some websites help charity as well.
1:52 AM - HRK Rep: While it looks very nice to help charities, but there is some facts that they don't tell to their customers.
1:52 AM - HRK Rep: When you use charity option, payment fees cost lower.
1:53 AM - HRK Rep: For example Paypal deducts 2.4% for a normal payment. But for charity cause it takes only 1.2%
1:53 AM - HRK Rep: So you can transfer payments with lower costs because you are telling people that you help charity!
1:55 AM - rachellove : I am quite curious and analytical, yes. But i like to be informed and know what i'm getting involved with.
1:56 AM - rachellove : hm.. so even with charity option not all the $ is being sent to where it is suppose to go.
1:56 AM - HRK Rep: No.
1:57 AM - HRK Rep: But they can transfer other payments with lower fee since they have charity involved. a profit for website owners.
1:58 AM - rachellove : meh .. that doesn't sound very pleasing to the consumer at all
1:59 AM - rachellove : but ... i'm glad at least HB offers that option ...
1:59 AM - rachellove : it just helps me feel better as a consumer I suppose.
1:59 AM - rachellove : but thanks for the xplanation.
1:59 AM - HRK Rep: Sure, no problems
2:01 AM - rachellove : do you prefer that users contact you via steam, or email?
2:01 AM - HRK Rep: Please mention our website email on it: Info@HRKGame.com
2:02 AM - HRK Rep: Our support team will resnponse to all of the email there.