Humble Indie Bundle Finally Sells Out

[Kristian Joensen]

"All HBI has to do is say they will not do you a bundle unless you let them port your games. Which will continue to work as long as they don't ever do another windows only bundle."

I don't see how they can say that after this. Imagine the conversation:

Humble Bundle: "We would love for you to be in our bundle, you just have to agree to provide use the games in a cross-platform(Windows, Mac, Linux) and DRM free state".
Devs: "We would love to be in your bundle, but we expect to be treated equally and fairly. So obviously you will allow us to provide you with Windows only Steam keys since that only fair."
Humble Bunlde: "Uhm....."

They will have nothing to say at that point in the conversation except to give up or loose out and with this move they have shown that they prefer the latter.

[KameZero]

" "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.""

In which case the developers will just point to the sales numbers of this bundle.

And? Despite what you seem to think, there will ALWAYS be indie devs who will be willing to let HBI port their games to get into a bundle. All HBI has to do is say they will not do you a bundle unless you let them port your games. Which will continue to work as long as they don't ever do another windows only bundle.

[Kristian Joensen]

" "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.""

In which case the developers will just point to the sales numbers of this bundle.

[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."

[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.

[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]

Ohh, how the mighty have fallen:

[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.

[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

[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?