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New Humble Bundle Is Windows Only, DRM Games

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-the... dept.

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."

45 of 553 comments (clear)

  1. No Good by AvitarX · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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
    1. Re:No Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You could just buy it, change the slider to all charity, and you and the charity win and you show your dislike towards THQ and Humble Bundle.

      Games + Charity + Sticking it to the man = You can sleep at night.

      As for me, I think it's a great deal and I appreciate Humble Bundle and THQ setting this up for charity.

    2. Re:No Good by NemosomeN · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think the reasoning behind this is that THQ has been reduced to a level that they could be considered either a charity or an indie-level company, with their current financial situation. They are really in a tough spot, and desperately need cash.

      --
      I hate grammar Nazi's.
    3. Re:No Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      At least they don't call it "THQ Indie Bundle" like some other big publisher named their Steam bundle a while ago (I'm not going to name that publisher... OK, it was EA)

      THQ is one of the most fair and square publishers out there. They're not scared of new ideas and new IPs, and they don't seem to bind the developers with unfair contracts (not to my knowledge at least). They support their games for ages and a new DLC doesn't mean a 'tiny map-pack for $20'. Keeping them in the game means more competition to the likes of Activision-666-Blizzard and EA (Evil Antichrist) and this is a good enough reason for me to pay them a fair share for their games.

      And to answer the three major concerns everyone seems to have:
      Yes - it's DRM locked, just like practically every single AAA title in the world. I don't understand why would anyone expect anything different this time around.
      No - it's not multi-platform, because they'd probably spend more money porting those old titles to linux/mac, than they'd ever make from this sale.
      No - it's not indie, but does it have to be? You have the option to give all your money to the charity if you don't like the idea of supporting a big publisher, so what's the problem? The spirit of the bundle is to encourage gamers to support charities by offering them games in return - to me all the boxes are ticked here, and even more so considering the class of the games in question.

      So don't worry, be happy, buy games, support charities. Happy holidays!

    4. Re:No Good by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When did selling games for charity turn into a "Down with the man, FOSSies unite!" kind of thing anyway? The first ones didn't have DRM because News Flash, they were made by dirt poor indies who could afford to buy any DRM. I mean you'd think people would be happy, bigger names mean more sales which means more money to a fricking kid's charity but nope, god fucking forbid that it goes against our fricking religion.

      Now for those of us who don't care about GPL religious debates, i have a question...what if you already have one of the games on Steam? will it fuck with the ones you have, get put in the gift pile, just don't count, what? because me and my boys already have SR 3 with all the DLC (great game BTW, fun as hell) but I'd hate to give more than the average just to have it screw up all my DLC, so if anybody knows what actually happens if you already have one of the games I'd really like to know, as giving money to a charity for kids while giving the boys some good games does sound nice. if the game just don't count? Totally fine with that, just don't want to lose all my DLC.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    5. Re:No Good by Dwonis · · Score: 4, Informative

      The first Humble Bundle was advertised as DRM-free, and with a portion going to the EFF. So were several subsequent ones. It shouldn't be a surprise that people are pissed now.

    6. Re:No Good by moronoxyd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So... specific Humble Bundles where advertised as DRM-free, and that's why this one has to be DRM-free as well?

    7. Re:No Good by Jaysyn · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think I'm also going to allocate zero to the "Humble Tip" in at least the next few future bundles because of this.

      That is an awful thing for you to do. THQ is basically giving their games away for Child's Play & the Red Cross & you're going to punish the vehicle they happened to use? They didn't mislead you in any way & word of mouth from this bundle will help bring attention to future *indie* bundles which can only be a good thing for those developers.

      Don't be a shitty human being.

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
  2. Linux users are mad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Because the humble bundle finally has good games.

  3. Why is this bad? by artor3 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Why is this bad? by artor3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why?

      It's still pay what you want. It still lets you send a portion to charity. What exactly is the problem? Is it just that you are ideologically against big publishers and are upset that not everyone agrees with you?

    2. Re:Why is this bad? by wierd_w · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Humble bundle" is more or less in the same mental category as I would place "brand names".

      It is a specific brand of name your price software offering, estalished on a set of core ideals.

      It was those core ideals that made Humbe Bundle stand out from other name your price offerings.

      This is not an offering true to the humble bundle ideals. It should not be labeled as being a humble bundle offering, unless they strip off the DRM, and FOSS the game afterwards, like the previous closed source games in the past did.

      Unless they do BOTH of those things, this is an unacceptable offering, akin to opening a box of heineken and finding that it had been instead filled with old milwuakee.

      People support the humble bundle brand for a reason. Throwing away that foundation to placate AAA studio developers is a betrayal of the user base, and a slap in the face to prior bundle participant developers.

      No developer should get preferential treatment by the bundle. Ever.

    3. Re:Why is this bad? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think THQ being forced to bundle their games and sell them at a ridiculously low price is pretty humbling, FWIW.

    4. Re:Why is this bad? by Symbolis · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think people hear "Humble Bundle" and just assume it's really "Humble Indie Bundle"....which this is not.

    5. Re:Why is this bad? by artor3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It is a specific brand of name your price software offering, estalished on a set of core ideals.

      Maybe that was true for the first few bundles. But they've since branched out into releasing music and books. They sold Crayon Physics Deluxe without source code, and probably other games too.

      People support the humble bundle brand for a reason.

      But not always the same reason. I've supported the Humble Bundles from the beginning, always paying several times the average, and keeping all my keys neatly sorted in KeePass. I've never played half the games, but I support it anyway. Not because I care about DRM (so long as its inobtrusive, I don't) or open source, but because I support the pay-what-you-want-and-give-some-to-charity model.

      This happens. Little communities expand, and become more ideologically diverse. You shouldn't be so angry towards your fellow supporters. We give just as much as you do.

    6. Re:Why is this bad? by gman003 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The response from the Humble Bundle co-founder John Graham is this:
      They're experimenting. They're trying to see if they can make the HIB system work for bigger games. But this is in no way a guaranteed change in how it will work in the future - they fully plan to continue the DRM-free, cross-platform indie game bundles, possibly even another one this year.

      My own addendum:
      If the experiment is a success, they'll likely be able to push harder in the future to force their partners to remove the DRM and/or port to Mac/Linux. But since this was the first one, they had to compromise a bit. And even then they could only get a publisher that's nearly dead and is desperate for PR and sales. Given how much backlash that's brought them from some sectors*, they almost definitely won't do the next one just like this. At least, not under the Humble Bundle name.

      * I say "some sectors" because the gaming world is actually pretty excited about this one. They don't really care about the lack of Mac/Linux support or the DRM. It's rather clear that this bundle was aimed at them, not at anti-DRM crusaders or Mac/Linux fans.

    7. Re:Why is this bad? by mrchaotica · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because the other three explicitly stated purposes of these things were "indie," "drm-free" and "cross-platform," and they're all missing, that's the problem!

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    8. Re:Why is this bad? by radish · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Bullshit. There have been several Humble Bundles which didn't even include games (e.g. Music & eBooks), and most of the games in previous bundles haven't been FOSS. They've also done publisher/developer specific bundles in the past (e.g. Frozenbyte, Introversion).

      I honestly have no clue what your problem with this is, as none of the things you talk about have been true for previous bundles. The only real difference is that in the past many of the items were DRM free, but even that's not been 100%, and many of us (myself included) just used the steam keys anyway so that wasn't really significant.

      This is raising money for charity and/or THQ - I have no problem with that. If you don't like it, don't buy it. End of story.

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

    9. Re:Why is this bad? by alexgieg · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There have been several Humble Bundles which didn't even include games (e.g. Music & eBooks)

      And in addition, the eBooks one (which I purchased) had some pretty not-in-any-imaginable-way-humble-category-level authors. Neil Gaiman and John Scalzi, to name but two. The genres in which they publish aren't what passes for literary mainstream, but within those genres they both are most definitely major AAA-authors.

      I really don't see the reason for the hate on this THQ bundle. THQ is almost bankrupt. Helping a struggling company to maybe, with luck, not disappear (or, worse, become part of EA), isn't evil by any means.

      --
      Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
  4. What problem, donate to chairty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  5. Re:Polemic? by dmbasso · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, that would be Polemish.

    --
    `echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
  6. Re:give 100% to Charity by artor3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!!

  7. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by pregister · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For an alternative viewpoint, Hey! A bundle with more games I want to play than usual. Delivered on a platform I like with DRM I've decided I can live with. Bought this bundle...haven't bought them all.

  8. With the THQ hate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  9. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by Omnifarious · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, they weren't games but they were DRM free and available in formats easily dealt with by Open Source software, so it was in keeping with the spirit. I was fine with it.

    --
    Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
  10. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by v1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sure it's Steam on Windows only. But considering it has the biggest market share, it's quite ok to do so when you want to raise money for a charity.

    Every time I hear someone justify a business decision with "Since the majority of the money is here, it'll be a great idea to just completely ignore all other sources of revenue!" gives me a horrific twitch.

    What is it? Are they actually teaching this in business school nowadays?

    --
    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  11. Re:give 100% to Charity by artor3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  12. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Pay what you want, DRM-free, cross-platform and helps charity."
    That's been a tagline of all the bundles so far, IIRC. It's not just some implicit assumption on his part. You'll note how they had to contort it for the THQ bundle.

    It's no surprise that people are angry when the Humble Bundle guys diverge this much from the image they have built up for their product. This is brand dilution; people came in expecting the usual and were disappointed.

  13. Re:Time to change the name by Tough+Love · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So let me see, dropped the EFF donation and added DRM. What is the message?

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  14. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by guises · · Score: 4, Informative

    Okay, I know nothing of these people, but did they ever promise to always be free and cross-platform?

    Pretty much, yeah. From the Humble Bundle's blog:

    Welcome to the blog of the Humble Bundle. We sell bundles of cross-platform, DRM-free video games by independent developers. You get to set your own price while supporting the Electronic Frontier...

    Cross platform, DRM free, indie, and "pay what you want" are the four things that the Humble Bundle has built their brand on. Ars has a pretty good write up on the problems here:

    http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/11/humble-thq-bundle-threatens-to-ruin-the-brands-reputation/

  15. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by HarrySquatter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Considering in only 8.5 hours that it has outsold 14 of the last 19 bundles and still has nearly 13 days to go shows that their decision really isn't hurting them.

  16. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by flimflammer · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sure, let's all completely ignore that this bundle is dwarfing the previous bundles in the first day in terms of money collected.

  17. Re:Low average payment so far by deek · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  18. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by Rennt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The support of Free, non-DRM software and indie developers is the charity, chief. The other guys are just icing on the cake. Not only have they dropped the indies and dropped the no-drm requirements, but they've they've dropped support of the EFF too!

    If a new group had come along with a "support struggling AAA studios" charity then we might laugh, but they wouldn't be denounced for compromising their ideals.

  19. Stop being greedy by Joe+U · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.)

  20. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by Omnifarious · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes. I made a post a couple of dozen people saw. I talked personally to 5 or 10 people.

    And there are thousands of people like me. We each made our little contributions. Each of us helped make the Humble Bundle brand what it was. It wasn't just me, but I helped. And so did they. Many of us our upset.

    Thousands of negligible effects add up to a real effect. I think my anger is justified. So is theirs.

    --
    Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
  21. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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....I helped them create this good will.

    Are you suggesting that your celebrity endorsement of them counts as "a lot of free advertising" and "helping them create this good will?" I think you overestimate your celebrity status. You have 525 people following you on google plus. Not that you would have a right to feel betrayed even if you had 11k people following you, but... well... check your ego. They don't owe you for saying nice things about them to a handful of people.

  22. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    There have been four android-only bundles. That's not any more cross-platform than PC only.

    You are very mistaken. The games in the Android bundles were available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Android.

    This bundle is useless for a large portion of regular Humble Bundle buyers. Apparently they're raking in cash, good for them. Maybe this is a good direction for them, but they're risking the loyality of their Mac and Linux supporters.

  23. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by ifiwereasculptor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well said. That's how I feel, too. The only inexcusable action, here, IMHO, was removing the EFF as a charity option. If I'm supporting DRM, even if it's a light version, I want the EFF to take part of my money and fight for my right to circumvent it as I see fit.

  24. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They owe me something, and they owe the thousands of other people who did the same as I did something.

    Dude, seriously, fuck you and the (not-so-humble) horse you rode in on.

    Maybe it isn't so, but you come off as one of those people who joins organisations for your own glory. The current bundle is proving you wrong by being the most successful Humble Bundle ever.

    Not everyone ascribes to your strict (semi-religious?) ideals. Get over it.

  25. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by X.25 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sure, let's all completely ignore that this bundle is dwarfing the previous bundles in the first day in terms of money collected.

    Because the only thing that matters in life is money, right?

  26. Yep by goldcd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Yep by Barefoot+Monkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't think anyone's calling out THQ - they made an amazing offer. The complaints are specifically toward Humble specifically for going back on the very things for which fans were most impressed with them. I'm not too happy about that myself, but I'm sure that they didn't take the decision to do this lightly. THQ - an excellent developer and publisher - is having problems right now, and Humble chose to burn a bit of their ample supply of good karma to help them. It means we can get some THQ games cheaply now and hopefully boost THQ enough that they can continue making games in the future.

    2. Re:Yep by asylumx · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Agreed. Here's a quote from a Humble Bundle rep from an article on Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

      When THQ expressed interest in our pay what you want plus charity model and willingness to let us bundle so many top tier titles, we couldn’t believe it at first,” the rep explained to RPS. “But trying to turn up our noses at this epic chance to make gamers happy and help worthy causes like Child’s Play and the American Red Cross could only have been defined as arrogance. We had to try and we were extremely curious to see what would happen.

      I agree with the "arrogance" observation. Childs Play & the American Red Cross are real, tangible causes, and as others mentioned, you can cause your entire donation to go to them and none of it to THQ or even HumbeBundle, if you like. The nerd rage against this bundle is completely inappropriate.

      From my point of view, as long as they also keep doing the humble indie bundles, I have no problem with them throwing in partnered bundles like this. In fact, I quite enjoy them.

      Source of quote: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/11/30/wait-what-the-humble-thq-bundle/

  27. Re:I'm one of the people who's pretty angry... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 4, Funny

    All of you seem to be part of an extremely small minority since this outsold 14 of 19 of the past bundles in less than 8 hours.

    Oh, well why didn't you *say* so before! There was all this argument about principles and screwing over previous supporters and ethics and whatnot.

    But they did it for *money* so that's OK!!!

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.