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New Humble Bundle Is Windows Only, DRM Games
jbernardo writes "After all the indie, multi-platform (including 4 for android) and DRM free releases, the latest Humble Bundle release is a polarizing one. It features non-indie games, it is Windows only, and the games are saddled with DRM. There is already a very vocal discussion on the Humble Bundle Google+ thread, but it seems it is selling well."
I have a Windows computer, and value wise this may be the best bundle yet, but I feel it is against the spirit of the bundle and am not chipping in, if they don't do another one before xmas, my big donation one is going strait towards a charity.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Because the humble bundle finally has good games.
I'm +Eric Hopper over on Google+.
I'm angry for several reasons. But the biggest reason is that I gave the Humble Bundle brand name a lot of free advertising and word of mouth because I expected them to always be DRM-free and cross-platform. Them choosing not to be feels like a betrayal and a cheat because they're taking all that good will I helped them create to sell something that is at cross-purposes to the reason I helped them create this good will.
I'm also angry because I spent a bunch of money, always above the average, often significantly so. I spent it not just because I thought the games were worth it. I spent it because I believed in Humble Bundle and what I thought they were trying to accomplish. It was another way for me to invest in the brand.
If they had done something like this under a different name I wouldn't be angry at all. Create another brand "Pay What You Can" bundles or whatever and market your stuff under that brand if it doesn't fit the Humble Bundle image. Then I wouldn't feel like all the work and money I put into supporting the Humble Bundle brand was a waste.
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THQ has been struggling, so they're trying something new. That's a good thing. If you don't want to buy it, don't. I did, as did many of my friends, and I'm quite happy with it.
What the hell does this have to do with GOG?
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The illegitimate child of a mixed couple from Poland and Ireland?
I fail to see a problem here, if you have an issue with this just send everything to charity. Personally the way I view it is this way, the more money they raise for charity the better, it's to help the less fortunate after all. This time around it is for Child's Play and America Red Cross both respectable organizations which I would be proud to donate to.
So yes if you have a "Screw You" type of mentality towards DRM and refuse to give them money for it, go right ahead. You can still buy said games and just donate everything to charity and deny the company who produced said games money.
No, that would be Polemish.
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An argument or controversy./quote.
Yeah, that'll teach them to do exactly what pirates have been insisting major publishers should do! How dare they give us the option to pay what we want!? They must be punished!!
This company is near bankrupt. We can all hate because we're from a subculture that supports individualism and new startups for games. However, this company is offering us games for basically CHARITY. Also, they're a company that needs these funds to continue on after doing bad in the market. Games like Saints Row and Company of Heroes are great games, DRM or no DRM, If you're really idealistic, you would be opposed to other humble bundles which they use Steam WHICH IS DRM. Grow up guys and support THQ for their work.
Must have stopped the EFF donation.... No, that seems to be there too.
Whoops, spoke too soon, the greedy bastards changed it to the American Red Cross. Those bastards, donating to charity like that.
It's fine with me. Best DRM ever.
Your loss, lol. The real problem is if there's ever a UPlay-exclusive Humble Bundle
Where have I missed all the pirates clamoring for major publishers to find a prominent "indie" brand name to masquerade as, and attempt to sell their DRM wares via that channel?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Pirates have been clamoring for publishers to adopt a pay-what-you-want model. THQ is trying that out as a temporary offering. It is entirely logical for them to use an existing site that specializes in pay-what-you-want temporary offers. If it works well, they might create their own platform. Expecting them to create their own platform for an experiment is absurd.
So let me see, dropped the EFF donation and added DRM. What is the message?
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Well, the Windows group has always been the lowest average in Humble Bundles. The Linux group, and to a lesser extent, the Mac group, have always pushed the bundle average up. So, the results aren't much of a surprise.
I can't imagine the effort of porting all those games to other platforms. Give 'em a year, and it could probably be done. I'm sure THQ couldn't wait that long, though.
Ooops, sorry, this one is different because of the "* Note: This bundle is Windows-only and provides Steam keys only. You must pay $1 or more to receive the games."
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
The message is 1 > 0.
As in, some money still goes to charity, you still pay what you want. Even if the Red Cross isn't the best charity, Child's Play is, and $1 > $0.
Humble set up a system to let people get games cheap and help people in the process, what have you done to help the world this week?
(Hint, whining here about DRM counts as 0.)
Actually, no, they're not being punished; they're just not being rewarded. In fact, I rather like the idea suggested precisely because it shows a lot of "would-be pirates" actually would and do have money and would spend it to get games. The fact that THQ won't see a dime of it is THQ's own damn fault for the DRM. I mean, as a Linux user, the DRM really makes it near a full stop to even consider it; without the DRM, I'd probably plop down the money and be content enough even if none of it worked under wine. But, to have to go out of my way and defeat something that even further is trying to stop me from playing? Yea, no thanks.
Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for Vessel. :/
Eurohacker European paranoia, gun rights, and h
Listen up guys! This is not a bad thing, this is the time to send the other publishers a message that giving gamers options and good deals is beneficial to business. While I understand the disagreement some of you have with these games being DRM, I for one will not get angry unless HumbleBundle stops offering DRM free and Indie titles in favor of these. I am happy with them offering both and if we can encourage more, it will help generate some solid numbers that can help break the illusion of whether or not DRM is providing the businesses an advantage when they see DRM free indie games generating respectable or hopefully more income than DRM'd games.
We should applaud a company for taking a step in the right direction not lambasting them, even though it seems suspect. Companies follow the money and if they can make more money by dressing their CEO's in clown suits instead of a suit and tie then that is what is going to happen. We have the chance to show the other companies how much of a success using services like GOG.com, KickStarter.com, and HumbleBundle.com can be to their revenue stream and they will be paying attention to that more than anything! They only include DRM because they think it actually protects them, but in cases like this, it might be in our best interests to offer a little breathing room!
Well, it's a bit absurd for them to hope to take advantage of an existing platform while not respecting its appeal. The "Humble Bundle" brand traded on three things: 1) supporting indie game developers; 2) being DRM-free; and 3) being cross-platform Win/Mac/Linux. Afaict, this THQ bundle goes 0/3.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I can understand how some of the idealists are upset.. But frankly I could care less.. I've bought a few humble bundles now and the main reason is because a portion of the proceeds (or all if you wish) goes to charity. I also like this pay what you can type model. Quite honestly I haven't played many of the games but if they look semi interesting i'll by them on the off chance I will.
This deal seems to be the best value yet, so I paid more than I normally would.
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
Amusingly enough I got my Steam Beta forum invite today. While Humble is going Windows, Steam is going Linux.
How exactly does this fit with "Humble Bundle?". DRM, non-indie, and single platform? There is plenty of that main-stream. This is not a good sign.
Publishers generally make far more money than developers and I don't begrudge Wolfire one bit for making money. I don't think that making money from the Humble Bundle means that they've sold out either - they took a stab at doing something new, and something that originally had some principles, and they struck it big in the process. Good for them.
Selling out is when you give up the principles for the sake of money. That's new for Wolfire.
Now, to be fair, I don't know how Wolfire actually feels about DRM. When the first Humble Bundle came out the fact that it was DRM free was more or less treated as a marketing tool - "No excuse not to buy," they said. But regardless how they feel about it, by positioning themselves as one of the few and most prominent DRM free publishers, and advertising that fact, they've set themselves up for this.
I'm just completely bemused by the seeming response.
THQ did a good thing. Somebody within the company went to bat for this, made it happen, and people respond like this?
FFS.
I've bought all the Android bundles and the first two PC bundles, because I generally like indie games (and these bundles have included quite a few gems). This bundle, however, is filled with games I feel no desire to play.
But they ARE games many other people, including most of my friends, would like to play. So I forwarded the newsletter to those friends. Chances are some will buy it (even if the ~$6 to include the extra game is too steep, $1 for the rest is damn cheap) and some will subscribe to the newsletter. Next time these hard core gamers get an offer to buy a bunch of indie games for cheap (especially for mobile), I'm sure some of them will buy it too.
This THQ deal basically gives HB lots of "free" marketing, which will likely end up benefitting future Indie bundles.
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From ArsTechnica:
UPDATE
In a response to Ars, Humble Bundle co-founder John Graham assured users the company will "never stop creating Humble Indie Bundles... and the other bundle types we've successfully launched this year. But we’re also eager to see if our pay-what-you-want plus charity model meshes with critically acclaimed AAA content as well."
Graham said the new THQ bundle did not represent a permanent departure from the company's indie roots, and that the company may even release a third indie bundle this year. "This year has also been a year of many experiments for us that fall outside the traditional Humble Indie Bundle framework," Graham told us. "We’re very excited to be able to offer the gaming community a massive sale with blockbuster content and raise money for charity at the same time. We will of course continue to support indies content as a core of our business."
Regarding the lack of Mac and Linux ports this time around, Graham said plainly that, "in the case of this promotion, it would not have been possible for us to deliver this blockbuster content via other means." But Graham also promised the Humble Bundle "will not cease in our quest to bring awesome content to Mac and Linux and Android," and pointed out that the Humble eBook Bundle contained the first digital publication of Neil Gaiman's graphic novel Signal to Noise.
You're missing the major difference. These are old games, that simply do not have any sales any more. At the same time, THQ is trying to sell sequels to these games (such as darksiders 2).
To THQ, this is a zero risk strategy. The assets on sale are of minimal to nonexistent value. At the same time, they're selling sequels right now for decent prices, sequels that in spite of proper major marketing push didn't sell all that well.
When small indies peddle their stuff for "whatever you want to pay for it", it's usually a game that simply can't get any marketing or picked by a major publisher. This is a major publisher using the system that indies started to peddle its old stuff to squeeze the extra dime out of old, nearly worthless investment while getting free advertisement for sequels that are currently selling at decent prices.
And this rubs in in a very wrong way in spite of the fact that I would really love to see darksiders 3, as I loved 1 and 2, and neither sold very well making third installment of that franchise a big question mark. It's principles against seeing yet another small dev friendly started franchise become just another form of marketing for major publishers against game series I liked a lot getting another shot.
Because to many small guys, HIB was pretty much the only way to make waves. And with major publisher pushing into it, their chances of making waves with it again go down significantly. It's on the way to become yet another case of "you can't fight a marketing budget of big publisher when you're just a small company". And that sucks.