Ubisoft reactivating some fraudulent Far Cry 4 keys

Ubisoft has reversed its stance on game keys it claims were obtained for resale fraudulently, restoring any sourced from Electronic Arts' Origin website to gamers' accounts with nary an apology.

Ubisoft generated considerable ill-will late last month when it deleted copies of Far Cry 4 from users' accounts following claims that the keys had been obtained fraudulently. While the users themselves had bought the keys in good faith from grey-market resellers, Ubisoft claimed that the keys themselves were obtained for resale by credit card fraud. Many of the keys had been originally acquired from EA's Origin service at full price using fraudulent account details and stolen cards, then sold through marketplace-style reseller services to the unsuspecting final owner.

At the time, Ubisoft defended its actions. 'We regularly deactivate keys that were fraudulently obtained and resold,' a company spokesperson told press. 'In this case, we are currently investigating the origin of the fraud, and will update customers as soon as we have more information to share.'

That investigation appears to be complete, and for some buyers there's good news: a sub-set of deactivated Far Cry 4 keys is being reactivated and will reappear in users' accounts. The reversal only applies, however, to those keys originally sourced from Origin and whose buyers had already activated and begun to play the game.

'After further investigation into the matter of keys that were fraudulently purchased on EA's Origin store, we are reinstating keys for consumers who already had successfully activated and started playing the games,' Ubisoft explained in an updated statement this week. 'Any remaining fraudulently obtained and resold keys have been deactivated. 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.'