Is DailyIndieGame legitimate?

I've been contacted by DailyIndieGame (DailyIndieGame.com ) saying they want to include my Steam game in one of their bundles, in which case I would need to send them a number of keys.

Has anyone had any dealings with them and can advise whether I should trust them or treat this as a scam?

Thanks

 

Never heard of them, but googling brings up a couple of reddit threads and the general tenor seems to be: The site is legit.

But then there are also stories like this one:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Sentinels_of_the_Store/discussions/0/1620599015860918910/

I think in the end it comes down to what your heart tells you. If you feel it's sketchy, decline.

 

Looks like they sell games for a few pennies each. I can't imagine you'd make any amount of money worth your trouble unless you were sending them tens of thousands of keys, and I wouldn't send tens of thousands of keys to anyone who is cold calling devs off Steam.

 

There is tons of scams going on, grabbing keys for free, then selling them.
In most cases, you get nothing in return. So why they need many keys for anyway?

Ask them for sources, whey they publicize. You should be able to see popularity level of their advertisements. If any.

If you want some publicity, ask youtubers, and release one key to them.
Or write own articles on game forums.

 

Thanks guys, pretty much echoes what I was already thinking myself. I had already googled the name, but I could only find references from people buying the bundles rather than developers supplying their keys.

I've since found this in the Steam terms and conditions
Please note that Steam keys cannot be sold on other sites unless the product is also available for purchase on Steam at no higher a price than is offered on any other service or website.

Which I guess I may be in breach of if the keys I send them are included in a cheap bundle and I don't reduce the price on the steam store to virtually nothing.

I think, all things considered, it isn't worth the risk. Thanks again for your input, much appreciated

 

My guess is the only thing they offered you is exposure, right? Get keys for free then sell them for a few pennies. No one looking for a game for $0.03 is going to change their mind and head over to Steam to pick it up at full price. You'd be better off setting up some kind of contest or giveaway yourself.

 

I know this is an old thread, and I hope everything worked out well for the OP, but I wanted to make this post (as a gamer and perhaps a developer in the future) for anyone who finds this page (including those who found it via a search engine, like I did).

There doesn't seem to be a lot of information about DailyIndieGame, so judging whether or not it is legit seems to be impossible. However, I would suggest anyone interested read the following post from a developer on a Steam discussion board, posted on December 20, 2017:

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Sentinels_of_the_Store/discussions/0/1620599015860918910/

For those who don't want to read that post, here's the short version of it.

A few years prior to the post, DIG (unsolicited) contacted the developer and wanted to include two of the developer's games in its bundles. The developer agreed and there were 16,339 total bundles sold. Two years later, the developer noticed a spike in the number of game activations on Steam. When the developer checked the Steamworks stats, it showed that 58,069 of the keys provided to DIG had been activated. The developer contacted DIG and received no response. The developer contacted DIG a few months later, asking how many of the developer's keys had been handed out, at which point DIG responded that it would be too much trouble to figure that out, but that "one bundle sold" doesn't mean one key; it could mean 2, 3, or more keys.

The developer posted an update on September 30, 2020, stating "DIG is now mass spamming developers on Steam via email", which sounds like the issue that started this thread.

I'll be clear that I know nothing about DIG, so I don't know if anything has changed. I found this page only because I performed a Google search to try to find out if DIG is legitimate. Having said that, I wanted to make this information available in this thread so people who find it can look at the developer's claims, research the issues more fully if they so desire, and form their own opinions.

 

I've been approached by DIG and requested more information. They offer the developer 70% of revenues but only pay out on sales over US$100. I would guess it's pretty difficult to get to that level if they're selling your game as part of a bundle for peanuts.

 

Every store has a minimum threshold you must reach before receiving payments. A $100 threshold is common but there are stores with lower limits like Itch.io which only requires you to hit $5.