Humble Indie Bundle Finally Sells Out

[Hamish Wilson]

It has finally happened. The latest Humble Indie Bundle is not indie, it is not cross-platform, it is not DRM free, and it is certainly not humble.

http://blog.humblebundle.com/post/36817861850/the-humble-thq-bundle-has-arrived

Was the millions of dollars that they had generated by sticking to their ideals just not good enough for them? Was all of the passionate support they received so meaningless to them that they felt they could just cast it aside like this? I am not even really angry yet, just completely numb...

[curaga]

Oh god. Well, couldn't say didn't see this coming.

*Please note that the games are Windows-only and require Steam to activate and play.

[Hamish Wilson]

I have been worried about this for some time now. The question now is, what should we do?

[Khudsa]

It's quite sad but also the quality of humble bundles has lowered with still unreleased games and non-resolved bugs...

[Kristian Joensen]

Well boycotthumblebundle.com seems to be available. I don't know if that is a correct response but I am seriously considering a boycott now that the Humble Bundle name is completely, totally and utterly meaningless. On the other hand I am considering getting this for the games, in which I case I will give $0 to THQ and $0 to Humble Bundle, Inc.

This is the email I sent to the "Humble" Bundle guys:

Hi I am writing this to let you know that I am very very disappointed that the Humble Bundle brand is no longer any kind of guarantee that games will be DRM free and multiplatform and that by agreeing to THQ's terms you have lost all the leverage in your negotiations with development studios with regard to getting them release their games in a DRM free, cross-platform state.

They will just tell you that since THQ was allowed to release their games in a Windows only, Steam only fashion they too should be allowed to do that. I am seriously worried that this means the Humble Bundle will have produced its last DRM free debut and its last Linux/cross-platform debut.

[entropy]

Well boycotthumblebundle.com seems to be available. I don't know if that is a correct response but I am seriously considering a boycott now that the Humble Bundle name is completely, totally and utterly meaningless. On the other hand I am considering getting this for the games, in which I case I will give $0 to THQ and $0 to Humble Bundle, Inc.

This is the email I sent to the "Humble" Bundle guys:

Well, I'd say "calm down".

While I agree, it's sad having no Linux/Mac ports - be fair - at least it does not contain the "Indie" part in the title.
So this is a different type of bundle and at least the games seem to be quite good.

OTOH, I'd be really disappointed if we see a lot more of these bundles instead of the cross-platform, drm-less ones.
But, unless this happens, I'd say it's "ok" to save THQs a** for some days/weeks at least.

[Hamish Wilson]

As I do not see the point in rewriting my arguments for multiple different forums, I will just repost what I already posted on Gaming on Linux:

Well, if the defence is that the HIB is just operating as a business, then we need to apply the same lens to THQ. If they really hope that the Humble Bundle is going to save them they should have put the effort in to make themselves work with the Bundle. As it stands, they did nothing to make it compatible, not even detaching their product from Steam. Their money troubles is not really a reasonable excuse. They are using them and they are using us.

This weakens the movement the Bundles contributed so much too, and places them on weaker grounds when negotiating with other developers. One thing that stings me about this is that it is also very unfair to past developers who have put so much effort into making their games fit the Humble Bundle rules. It is like I said back during the LIMBO/CrossOver controversy, it just seems so fundamentally unfair to the other game developers that put the effort into releasing fully native ports of their games for some developers to be able to cheat/dodge their way into the benefits that the Bundles offer. This is even worse, as they did not even decouple the games from Steam, let alone port to Mac or Linux. It is not just us who have been hurt and betrayed by this, they have been to, only they have a much better case to complain. I wonder if any of them realize it.

http://www.gamingonlinux.com/index.php?threads/humble-thq-bundle-confirmed-and-then-not-confirmed.1454/

[Hamish Wilson]

A good article from ars technica on the subject:

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

[Kristian Joensen]

Well, I'd say "calm down".

While I agree, it's sad having no Linux/Mac ports - be fair - at least it does not contain the "Indie" part in the title.
So this is a different type of bundle and at least the games seem to be quite good.

OTOH, I'd be really disappointed if we see a lot more of these bundles instead of the cross-platform, drm-less ones.
But, unless this happens, I'd say it's "ok" to save THQs a** for some days/weeks at least.

We got a DRM free Linux version of Psychonauts as a result of the Humble Bundle's and that is just one example. That will NEVER EVER happen again. No company will give in to demands like that to be in a Humble Bundle since they want to be treated equally with THQ. So their may still be Linux games in future bundles, even DRM free ones but we will NEVER get a Linux and/or DRM free debut with the Humble Bundle's again. All the Linux games that will be in future bundle's will already have Linux versions.

[entropy]

We got a DRM free Linux version of Psychonauts as a result of the Humble Bundle's and that is just one example. That will NEVER EVER happen again. No company will give in to demands like that to be in a Humble Bundle since they want to be treated equally with THQ. So their may still be Linux games in future bundles, even DRM free ones but we will NEVER get a Linux and/or DRM free debut with the Humble Bundle's again. All the Linux games that will be in future bundle's will already have Linux versions.

And that's why they hired a guy solely reliable for porting games?