After more than a decade of refusing to pay full price for games, I've grabbed most of my collection from CDKeys, and today I logged in to find that the name I’ve known for years is being retired and put out to pasture. Starting in September, CDKeys will officially become Loaded.
In a blogpost about the rebrand, the company says:
“After more than 10 years of selling digital game codes using a name that made sense when games were discs in a box, we’ve decided it’s finally time to move on – we are rebranding… CDs were the nineties. CDKeys was the naughties. We’re Loaded for the future.”
The name doesn't scream "games"
The logic around the rebrand does make some sense, if not making me feel ancient. CDs are history, physical media is dying, and the term CD key has less relevance in the year 2025. Publishers are pushing players toward direct redemption links instead of codes.
CDKeys also argues that their old name was too generic, making it hard to stand out in search results and often getting them mixed up with grey-market marketplaces like G2A (who I implore you to not use if you don't want your gaming account to get blocked).
So on paper, the change is meant to future-proof the brand and make it stand out against competitors. But in practice? Well the name Loaded has been received somewhat lukewarmly so far.
CDKeys wasn’t a perfect name, but it did exactly what it said on the tin. You knew you were buying game keys, instantly delivered. XXX33-INSERT-CHEAP-GAME-HERE.
Loaded, on the other hand, could mean just about anything. A dip for your tortilla chips, a topping for your fries, a streaming talent agency (in fact, there is a well-known gaming talent agency called Loaded.gg).
But for me, the first thing that came to mind was a staple of 90s Britain, the 'lads magazine'. It turns out my initial comparison isn't all that original, and there's a funny thread on Reddit discussing the rebrand now making similar comparisons.
CDkeys are rebranding to a new name 'Loaded' from r/Games
“Loaded, FHM, Nuts, Zoo, Max Power. Good times,” one user writes, rattling off the pantheon of top-shelf corner-shop magazines. Others reminisce about the image of Lucy Pinder being burned into their retinas.
For those of us old enough to reminisce, the rebrand is more like a throwback to a time when covers were plastered with bikini models and "10 hottest weather girls" lists.
As long as the games stay cheap, this is a minor grumble.
What does Loaded actually mean?
Even beyond British nostalgia for the over-30s, the word “loaded” doesn’t do the company many favors. The ad announcing the rebrand is set to the soundtrack of Primal Scream's Loaded. “We wanna be free to do what we wanna do, and we wanna get loaded, and we wanna have a good time."
In slang, Loaded really just means drunk or high. In the context of the Primal Scream song, it's more about being energized and ready to party rather than a literal drug reference, but the connotations are present nonetheless.
One could say it is gaming adjacent, being "locked and loaded" with full ammo ready for the fight, but they haven't leaned into that meaning at all, tying it back to Primal Scream's hedonistic track.
Another commenter summed it up nicely: “CDKeys may sound dated, but at least I know what it is. Loaded doesn’t mean anything in the context of games, unless you want me to think about getting wasted.”
Did we learn nothing from X? (The artist formerly known as Twitter)
CDKeys had become a recognizable name. It was one of the few sites in the grey market ecosystem that many players trusted, in part because it wasn’t a Wild West marketplace where anyone could upload a key. CDKeys sourced and sold directly, which gave them a reputation for being less risky than places like G2A or Kinguin.
Throwing away more than a decade of SEO dominance, word-of-mouth recognition, and even memes about “Seedy Keys” is a gamble. One user put it bluntly: “I strongly believe their traffic will dwindle with this change. There are a million of these sites out there, and they could get lost in the shuffle.”
It brings to mind one of the most ridiculous rebrands of the decade, Twitter changing its name to X. Elon Musk decided to rename the platform, change the logo, branding and the URL. Yet despite the stark change and marketing push, almost everyone still calls it Twitter. Even when it's referred to as X, this is normally followed by a bracketed explanation of 'formally known as Twitter'. You can't override years of ingrained brand recognition overnight.
In fairness, CDKeys has acknowledged the criticism. In a Reddit reply, the company has explained that the rebrand is partly about avoiding confusion with the generic term “CD keys” that clutters Google results. They also admitted that the old name sometimes hurt them: people mistook them for a marketplace or even for a keygen cracking group.
That makes sense. But even if “CDKeys” was flawed, it at least had a clear connection to games. Loaded risks being so generic that it loses meaning altogether.
CDKeys is dead. Long live Loaded.
Personally, I get why they wanted to move on. Yes, CDs are obsolete, and yes, younger gamers probably don’t even know what a CD key is. But the name they’ve chosen feels a bit... ugh. It drags me right back to the late 90s corner shop magazine rack. I don't think that was the intention.
The most important thing is that the company insists that nothing else is changing. Prices, stock, and instant delivery are all staying exactly the same, and if that's the case, there's no reason why I wouldn't still continue to use and recommend them.
If they keep delivering cheap games reliably, most players will still show up. Now give me a good celebratory 'rebrand' sale please?
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