Green Man Gaming is an eCommerce portal from British-based online

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

retailer, distributor and publisher, ''Green Man''. It has gained 4.7 million users since its 2010 release.

Business model

Green Man Gaming works with companies like

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

Uplay Ubisoft Connect (formerly Uplay) is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications service developed by Ubisoft to provide an experience similar to the achievements/trophies offered by various other game compa ...

Origin Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * Origin (comics), ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * The Origin (Buffy comic), ''The Origin'' (Bu ...

, and the

Epic Games Store The Epic Games Store is a digital video game storefront for Microsoft Windows and macOS, operated by Epic Games. It launched in December 2018 as both a website and a standalone launcher, of which the latter is required to download and play gam ...

to sell game keys that customers then redeem on those respective platforms at retail and discounted prices.

History

In 2009, Paul Sulyok formed Green Man Gaming with Lee Packham. Sulyok had previously been the CEO of Prize Fight, an online gaming platform, and Packham had been responsible for developing the technology behind Prize Fight. Green Man Gaming officially started trading on the 10th of May 2010. Lee Packham developed and managed the initial launch of the retail platform, and created a new method for facilitating a Video Game Exchange for Green Man Gaming. Users who downloaded games from its "Capsule" gaming client with

SecuROM SecuROM was a CD/DVD copy protection and digital rights management (DRM) product developed by Sony DADC. It aims to prevent unauthorised copying and reverse engineering of software, primarily commercial computer games running on Microsoft Win ...

DRM DRM may refer to: Government, military and politics * Defense reform movement, U.S. campaign inspired by Col. John Boyd * Democratic Republic of Madagascar, a former socialist state (1975–1992) on Madagascar * Direction du renseignement milita ...

could then trade some of their digital games for credits, which could be used to purchase anything on the Green Man Gaming website. This worked by deactivating the code required to play the game, which was then re-sold as a 'pre-owned' game. Capsule was retired in 2016. At the end of 2011, Callum Jay joined Green Man Gaming as the CFO, coming from a background in finance direction. Tim Sawyer also joined Green Man Gaming as their EVP Operations in 2011, previously serving as the head of e-commerce at MeMega Retail Ltd. After a year-long sabbatical at Twitter to develop TweetDeck's iOS, Lee Packham returned to Green Man Gaming as co-founder and EVP Engineering. On 9 July 2012, Green Man Gaming announced its merger with

Playfire Playfire was a social gaming networking website targeted towards core gamers, video game players. Playfire allowed users the ability to automatically track their in-game achievements, trophies, and gameplay, as well as earn rewards for playing th ...

. At the time of acquisition, Playfire had more than 1.2 million users, tracking over 50,000 video games on the website and allowing users to automatically track their gameplay and in-game achievements or trophies from

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

, and

Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an Internet, online multiplayer video game, multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox ...

. At the end of July 2012, Green Man Gaming expanded its multi-platform portfolio to include selling boxed games, and PC-DVD, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, and PS4 games, as well as consoles and peripherals. In March 2014, CEO Paul Sulyok was named as one of the 100 most influential people working in the British video game industry by trade publication, MCV. On 30 September 2014, Green Man Gaming launched its own publishing arm, Green Man Loaded, now known as Green Man Gaming Publishing. Gary Rowe, former SVP Publishing and Content at

SEGA is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

joined the label as EVP Green Man Loaded. In October 2016, the company reached an agreement with

Sony Interactive Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game industry, video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is ma ...

to sell digital titles for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

consoles through redemption keys. However, by March 2019, Sony had opted to stop retail and digital sales of redemption keys across all markets, including Green Man Gaming. In March 2017, Green Man Gaming launched its first local language eCommerce website in Germany. Following this expansion, Green Man Gaming rolled out sites in 10 different languages including Chinese and South Korean. In April 2017, Green Man Gaming appointed former Take-Two CEO, Paul Eibeler, to its Board as an Advisor. In 2019, Green Man Gaming became one of the founding members of the UN-facilitated initiative Playing for the Planet Alliance, committing to absorb 324,000 tonnes of by 2030. Green Man Gaming announced an extension of its current publishing program in January 2020 through its Digital Partners Program, allowing any developer to take advantage of a menu of publishing support options through the company, as well as metrics that the company has obtained through its storefront. One of the first titles published through the program was '' GTFO''. In February 2021, Green Man Gaming partnered with Payload Studios to support studio founders from underrepresented backgrounds through The Tentacle Zone Inclusivity Incubator.

Published games

Controversy

In 2015, Green Man Gaming responded to accusations of unauthorized keys being sold on the Store. The majority of keys come directly from publishers, with the occasional need to offer keys for games from publishers that are unable to provide them directly due to commercial restrictions. Following this, in November 2015, the company placed information on each game's store page on their site to identify the source of the redemption keys, either through Green Man Gaming, which comes directly from the publisher, or through an authorized third-party reseller for full transparency.

References

External links

* {{Software digital distribution platforms 2009 establishments in England British companies established in 2009 Software companies based in London Internet properties established in 2009 Internet properties established in 2010 Online-only retailers of video games Video game companies established in 2009 Video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game publishers