Mobile Money #8: Gamekit

Who doesn’t want to get paid for playing video games? This series follows mobile applications, some of which are borderline games at best, that claim to reward users with cold hard cash (or gift cards). In my pursuit of extra cash to blow on games, or Steam gift cards to add to my collection, I have tried a number of these applications. I hope my experiences can help others steer clear of the more dubious of these applications.

Today we’ll be taking a look at Gamekit, another service that rewards users for playing other company’s games. While this service has an app that is similar to MistPlay or Stormplay, what sets it apart from other similar services is that it also has a website, where you can earn rewards from playing PC games. This will be focused on their web-based service, because having used other, similar, mobile services in the past, I have invalidated most of their offers on my phone.

Each offer on their site lists both total points and experience rewards for completing it in full. Points, abbreviated as ‘pts’, are what you use on their service to cash out gift cards. If you gain enough experience, your account level will increase. Originally, some rewards were locked until you reached a certain level. Looking at the current reward listings, it seems they may have done away with this, and levels may now just be for show.

Once you select an offer from the website, it will open up a new window with a link to the game. Clicking that link will open a new window to download or play that game, and the GameKit page will now ask you to enter your account or character name from that game. Once you have entered that information, it will show you the first of several tasks you will need to complete to earn points for playing the selected game.

To complete a task, you typically need to take a screenshot of the completed goal that also shows your account name. These tasks are typically to reach a certain level in a game, collect a certain amount of points/power/in-game currency, or to make a purchase. I advise skipping any tasks that are the latter. A select few games also have automated tracking that will update Gamekit tasks for you.

Tasks are timed and will eventually expire, if you do not complete them. This lets you skip anything that requires you to spend money in a game, though you may have to wait a week or two. There is also no way to go back once a task expires; they do not let you restart an offer once it is in progress.

Gamekit also seems to be pushing taking surveys for points right now, but as those aren’t really games I won’t cover it in any more detail. Other than that, we’ve pretty much covered how this service works. Now let’s get into a bit more into the experience.

One thing of note about Gamekit is that they are fairly strict about meeting their task goals. If you mess up your account name, and can’t create one with what you entered, then you are probably out of luck for getting any points for playing that game. I will say that they do give a bit of leeway with some actual quests. I have turned in quests that were to get level 20, with a screen shot of level 21, and gotten credit.

The year 2019 was a great year to be using Gamekit as a player. Over the course of about 10 months, I made over $150 in gift cards or game codes. The games I was paid to play did have a lot of odd foreign titles, but also some pretty big mainstream ones like Magic The Gathering: Arena, Rift, and Guild Wars 2.

At some point in early 2020, they seem to have realized that they had messed up something in their payout math. The amount of points needed to get rewards increased by 3-4 times and a large number of rewards were removed from their platform. Previously, they had some physical products, like keyboards and headphones, but it is now all digital gift cards or game codes.

One common complaint, even back in 2019, is that the Steam key codes are often for very poor quality indie games. Also, in rewards like the 10 random Steam keys, you can get duplicate keys for the same game. Personally, I split the majority of my points between Steam and Amazon gift cards.

It can also be misleading how many points you can earn from an offer for free. Frequently a large portion of the points were tied up with making an in-game purchase. Gamekit also only allows one account per connection and computer, and has been known to aggressively ban if they feel there are multiple accounts under one user.

Part of that is their generous referral rewards, at least compared to most other services. They claim to give enough points to cash out a $5 gift card, if your referee earns enough points to cash out a reward. I have not personally verified this, but I will leave a link at the end, in case anyone wants to potentially toss me a fiver.

Overall, it’s a little hard to rate Gamekit, as I can’t really see how much they are offering new users in terms of games. In 2019, I would have given then an easy B+/A-. But, after their prize reduction this year, I would put them more at a C+/B-, or 6.5/10 stars.

If you want to check out their mobile application it is available on the Google Play store here. If you want to sign up on their website using my referral code, you can do so here.