'In the old days it was open to abuse - it still is if there's no technology managing that process,' he says. I don't know how far in the future but it's not very far away'

'Keyless distribution will become the standard. Murphy says this method is 'really tightening up on security' and could be a significant step towards closing off the grey market. Any other retailers in Genba's network that wish to sell Ubisoft games will need to be SKA approved first. As part of this partnership, Genba now handles this for 10 retailers - including Fanatical and GamersGate - while others like Green Man Gaming do it directly with similar technology. The drive towards silent key activation is very much driven by Ubisoft, who will no longer sell PC games through a digital marketplace that doesn't use this process. Murphy notes that this also prevents the retailers themselves from redistributing the keys, helping them to 'build up their reputation as legitimate sales only.' I suppose you could sell your account, but they'd pick up on that and that's a very messy way of reselling games.' 'It's preventing keys being bandied around the market, so they can't be resold. They just log into UPlay and the game is there, as if they bought it from the UPlay Store. Fanatical doesn't get a key, and neither does the player. The game is then automatically activated in UPlay. 'If someone goes on a website like Fanatical and buys a Ubisoft product, it will take them through the checkout process, then ask you to enter your UPlay account - if you don't have one, it asks you to set one up. We take a number of keys off Ubisoft for a game like Assassin's Creed Odyssey and we'll set on that keybank. 'Silent key activation doesn't pass on the key to the e-tailer or, as a consequence, the end user. 'That gives the publishers control of how their products are distributed, rather than the old fashioned way: throwing a big Excel spreadsheet of keycodes to e-tailers and asking them to declare their sales,' CEO Matt Murphy tells. But this is handled on a one-to-one basis only after retailers have recorded a sale do they get another key for that particular game. It takes bunches of game keys from publishers and distributes them via its own technology to stores. Genba specialises in third-party digital games distribution, sourcing games for digital retailers to sell. The two companies have worked on a new process called silent key activation (SKA), that not only aims to make it easier for customers to purchase games, but also prevents those games from being sold illegally through other channels. Ubisoft has partnered with UK tech firm Genba Digital to change the way it sells PC download titles through third-party stores.

Ubisoft activation key