Humble Indie Bundle Finally Sells Out

[Kristian Joensen]

They were expecting that guy to have something to do because companies would be willing to sign up for that. They won't EVER do that now.

[Hamish Wilson]

I do not quite agree that we will never see a proper Bundle again, but I do think this makes getting developers to agree with doing one that much harder.

[Kristian Joensen]

What I am saying is we won't ever see a Linux and/or DRM free DEBUT from an otherwise reluctant developer again.

[yogi_berra]

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.

And it's already made more money in one day than most Humble Bundles. I don't know, maybe instead of being an idiotic drama queen you can help the Red Cross help disaster victims and pick up Christmas presents for someone, or is thinking about someone other than yourself impossible for you?

[Hamish Wilson]

Yes, while the charity can not be discounted, it does not justify the bundle loosing what else it once had. If you feel so strongly about it you could have donated to them yourself. What I am complaining about is not the charity, it is the loss of what else made the Humble Bundles so important. With your argument you are simply dodging that fact.

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

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/the-humble-thq-bundle-loses-indie-games-adds-drm-and-is-a-step-backward-for

[ElderSnake]

This indeed makes me very sad. As it always seems to happen when an entity becomes more of a big "business", it seems the HB has just completely let themselves be bent over by THQ and now it sets a precedent.

Yes the charity as usual is great. But I think I'll rather go donate to Red Cross directly. I almost did pledge something this morning to the Bundle but I couldn't do it, it goes against everything I've been holding so dear recently, i.e DRM-free, cross-platform and of course on a personal level, the push for Linux gaming.

Yes I am an avid Steam user. But what I loved about the Indie bundles was that you could get the DRM-free versions AND redeem a key on Steam. That is seriously sweet and a great freedom; pretty much how it should be IMO.

Heck even if THQ promised to provide ports of these games later on with some of the funds they get would be better than this. Their complete bulldozing of the DRM-free thing would still be a worry though.

[Kristian Joensen]

Ohh, how the mighty have fallen:

[Kamikaze]

My view:

It sucks that HIB have done this, and it has probably weakened their position in making other companies conform to their release rules (cross platform, DRM free).
I'm glad people are up in arms and telling HIB how worried they are that they won't be sticking to their ideals for future releases.

However, that said and looking at it optimistically, this may yet create some kind of good will between a large (albeit failing) publisher and the HIB. Or, perhaps if it's wildly successful, it might give HIB some leverage over other publishers, and they could point at the sales and say "See how well that did? Well, if you port X,Y,Z, and A,B,C to Linux and Mac, DRM free, you could have even more success". Obviously this would require HIB to NOT do another one of these deals though.

So basically, if HIB come out with another one of these types of bundles then, yes, I agree they have completely sold out and definitely won't be considering future purchases. Hopefully this is a once off

[Kristian Joensen]

Or, perhaps if it's wildly successful, it might give HIB some leverage over other publishers, and they could point at the sales and say "See how well that did? Well, if you port X,Y,Z, and A,B,C to Linux and Mac, DRM free, you could have even more success". Obviously this would require HIB to NOT do another one of these deals though.

By doing this even once they have already completely, totally and utterly destroyed their ability to make any such demand of other publishers. In fact they have likely destroyed the possibility of others to make similar demands. Which is why GOG has probably signed its last major publisher. Their wishes of signing Microsoft, Lucasarts and Take Two probably went down the drain by this.

[KameZero]

However, that said and looking at it optimistically, this may yet create some kind of good will between a large (albeit failing) publisher and the HIB. Or, perhaps if it's wildly successful, it might give HIB some leverage over other publishers, and they could point at the sales and say "See how well that did? Well, if you port X,Y,Z, and A,B,C to Linux and Mac, DRM free, you could have even more success". Obviously this would require HIB to NOT do another one of these deals though.

Indeed, I was considering this. If done properly (and assuming the bundle rakes in a lot of cash), HBI could use this as a good leveraging tool to get AAA games to port (or let HBI port them) for the bundle. But that would require this to only be a one off thing. So, I suppose I'll wait and see what happens. If they start doing DRM'd windows only games I'll probably still buy the Cross platform bundles. For 1 cent above average and give it all to devs/charity.

By doing this even once they have already completely, totally and utterly destroyed their ability to make any such demand of other publishers. In fact they have likely destroyed the possibility of others to make similar demands. Which is why GOG has probably signed its last major publisher. Their wishes of signing Microsoft, Lucasarts and Take Two probably went down the drain by this.

Not really, they just have to say "Sorry, our last windows only bundle created a lot of community backlash, but if you'd be willing to let us port the game over for you we'd be more than happy to make you five million dollars."