Humble Bundle acquired by IGN

humblebundle128.jpg

Humble Bundle, the PC game and software retailer that's well-known for giving some of it's proceeds to charity, will now be joining IGN's parent company, according to a press release today. Humble Bundle claims that the acquisition won't be affecting what Humble Bundle currently does, and will only assist them by providing more funding for the company. Humble will now be a part of Ziff Davis, a larger corporation that currently owns other properties like PC Magazine, IGN, Speedtest, and more.

John and I started Humble Bundle from our childhood homes. When our parents found out that our “big idea” was basically the honor system of pay-what-you-want plus charity, they braced themselves for the possibility that we might never move out. Seven years later, thanks to the generosity of over 10 million customers, we’ve now raised $106 million for charity. We are incredibly proud of this figure, of our team, and the Humble community which got us here.

But as far as we’ve come, we know we are just getting started. Even bigger things lie ahead, and we think IGN is the perfect partner to help us get there.

:arrow: Source
 

nIxx

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2007
Messages
1,544
Trophies
0
Location
Germany
Website
Visit site
XP
337
Country
Gambia, The
Even thought i'm a bit worried too i think people (like almost always ;) ) are overreacting now.
Don't be so pessimistic and let's just wait and see what happens.

You do realize there is a slider right? You can even pick what charity you want.

Yep some people seem not to know what they are talking about but can still complain.
You can even give everything to charity.
 
Last edited by nIxx,

codezer0

Gaming keeps me sane
Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2009
Messages
3,573
Trophies
2
Location
The Magic School Bus
XP
4,498
Country
United States
... Oh, great.

It is precisely the kind of lunacy that is permitted at IGN that I've made a conscious effort to ban them off my social media accounts and block them accordingly, despite whatever stupid algorithm continually shoving their presence upon me.

To say they are the poster child of the corruption that has destroyed credibility in games journalism is not far off at all. And now it seems they want to destroy a perfectly functioning business along with them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DarthDub and Kioku

The Real Jdbye

*is birb*
Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
23,207
Trophies
4
Location
Space
XP
13,732
Country
Norway
They are the cheapest retailer if they're selling a game you want. They sell older, high-quality games that people might want to actually play. Every now and then for a single dollar, too.
But what are some others retailers with the same business model?

I find their "Humble Store" prices to be rather high. It's their bundle prices that are low.
There are a few others like Indie Gala and Indie Royale (if they are still doing bundles) and there's also Bundle Stars but that seems more focused on quantity rather than quality.
 

shadow1w2

Still here.
Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2004
Messages
1,712
Trophies
2
XP
1,786
Country
United States
I'm not too worried.
While IGN might have a bad record with reviews I think they run themselves as a company rather well.
Humble claims they'll be hands off and just helping with funding. Likely taking in some profits for themselves so its kind of a fair trade.
They might have some influence but I think they'll be okay, if anything it might bring the prices of the shop down more.
Worst comes to worse there's always bundle stars, indie gala and groupees still about,
Plus heck if you already have a lot of purchases from humble this may help them stay around longer and protect those purchases.
We've seen Desura, ShinyLoot, Indiegamestand and many others go under over the years so whatever keeps them a float shouldn't be too bad as long as it doesn't change them.
Plus with eyes on them so much I'm sure it'll keep things in check, however we need to be vigilant and let them know ASAP if they do something too far from their original vision.
Overall I think it won't change much, lets worry more after the IGN bundle, if there is one heh.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Xabring

chaoskagami

G̷̘̫̍̈́̊̓̈l̴̙͔̞͠i̵̳͊ţ̸̙͇͒̓c̵̬̪̯̥̳͒͌̚h̵̹̭͛̒̊̽̚
Developer
Joined
Mar 26, 2016
Messages
1,365
Trophies
1
Location
↑↑↓↓←→←→BA
Website
github.com
XP
2,262
Country
United States
RIP. Humble died around when they introduced the monthly garbage gimmick.

If you want to do charity, you're now better off just donating directly. The profits are now skewed.

If you want DRM-free games, you should just use GOG. Humble is now pushing super hard on Steam - and you get DRM-free OR Steam now, not both. They don't even have many of the modern DRM-free releases (example: Trails of Cold Steel)

Nowadays, Humble is but a shell of it's former self. I find it rather sad.
 

chaoskagami

G̷̘̫̍̈́̊̓̈l̴̙͔̞͠i̵̳͊ţ̸̙͇͒̓c̵̬̪̯̥̳͒͌̚h̵̹̭͛̒̊̽̚
Developer
Joined
Mar 26, 2016
Messages
1,365
Trophies
1
Location
↑↑↓↓←→←→BA
Website
github.com
XP
2,262
Country
United States
It doesn't seem like a good idea for the same company that reviews games to also be publishing them. That sounds like a bit of a conflict of interest to me.

Yeah, agreed. Then again, IGN isn't exactly known to be reputable/reliable for gaming news.
 

The Catboy

GBAtemp Official Catboy™: Boywife
Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
27,799
Trophies
4
Location
Making a non-binary fuss
XP
38,746
Country
Antarctica
Yeah, agreed. Then again, IGN isn't exactly known to be reputable/reliable for gaming news.
That's actually what worries me the most. IGN has always been a rather questionable company in the gaming world. Although they've never had scandals as bad as Gamespot, they still show some rather questionable interests in the gaming scene.
It worries me that they will bring the same kind of marketing to Humble Bundle. At the same time I am unsure what kind of horrible things they could do, I just hope they don't IGN Humble Bundle.
 
Last edited by The Catboy,
  • Like
Reactions: hobbledehoy899

chaoskagami

G̷̘̫̍̈́̊̓̈l̴̙͔̞͠i̵̳͊ţ̸̙͇͒̓c̵̬̪̯̥̳͒͌̚h̵̹̭͛̒̊̽̚
Developer
Joined
Mar 26, 2016
Messages
1,365
Trophies
1
Location
↑↑↓↓←→←→BA
Website
github.com
XP
2,262
Country
United States
That's actually what worries me the most. IGN has always been a rather questionable company in the gaming world. Although they've never had scandals as bad as Gamespot, they still show some rather questionable interests in the gaming scene.
It worries me that they will bring the same kind of marketing to Humble Bundle. At the same time I am unsure what kind of horrible things they could do, I just hope they don't IGN Humble Bundle.

From what I've seen, Humble Bundle has already become very detached from its original purpose.

Originally, it was to do one-time deals in the interest of charity and with the support of developers and publishers. Not to be a publisher themselves. Not to make money.

But instead of being established as a nonprofit and continuing to organize charity, they chose to do the wrong thing. It started with them increasing the default allocation for "Humble Tip Jar." They then introduced more "features" designed to make them instead of game publishers and charities receive money: Humble Store - and Humble Monthly, which is completely uncharitable and a gigantic cash grab.

Humble Store at the beginning had a mandatory 5% to charity, and then a few months after Humble Monthly, they added a 5% "Credit" option that essentially puts 5% as credit towards future purchases, removing ANY charity whatsoever from the store - and they made this the default.

And more recently, you don't get both DRM-free and Steam/DRM if a game is available in both. They force you to choose one and only one upon purchase on the store.

Essentially, they seem to be increasingly focusing on turning a profit for themselves, not for charitable causes. I expect this to continue to worsen as they change hands.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: Humble Bundle no longer stands for what they once did, and I don't see how IGN can make this any worse. If anything, I'd say the current management is hitting the panic button since the platform has already been significantly screwed up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Catboy

nIxx

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2007
Messages
1,544
Trophies
0
Location
Germany
Website
Visit site
XP
337
Country
Gambia, The
If you want DRM-free games, you should just use GOG. Humble is now pushing super hard on Steam - and you get DRM-free OR Steam now, not both. They don't even have many of the modern DRM-free releases (example: Trails of Cold Steel)

Dunno what you talking about you seem to be pretty misinformed.
There are very few games where that is the case and you can choose between GOG or Steam then and IF there is a DRM Free Version it's always available.
For example from my Humble Gem Bundle 2 that came out recently
ioASSVC.png

7 out of 8 games as DRM Free version ;)
vKIov

If you get the HumbleMonthly you even get access to the Humble Trove and all these games are only DRM Free so you can even keep them if you dont want the Monthly Bundle anymore https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly/trove

And in the Store you can still give money to charity too
o6HgLrk.png

o6HgLrk
 
Last edited by nIxx,
  • Like
Reactions: Xabring

RattletraPM

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2017
Messages
897
Trophies
1
XP
8,341
Country
Italy
From what I've seen, Humble Bundle has already become very detached from its original purpose.

Originally, it was to do one-time deals in the interest of charity and with the support of developers and publishers. Not to be a publisher themselves. Not to make money.

But instead of being established as a nonprofit and continuing to organize charity, they chose to do the wrong thing. It started with them increasing the default allocation for "Humble Tip Jar." They then introduced more "features" designed to make them instead of game publishers and charities receive money: Humble Store - and Humble Monthly, which is completely uncharitable and a gigantic cash grab.

Humble Store at the beginning had a mandatory 5% to charity, and then a few months after Humble Monthly, they added a 5% "Credit" option that essentially puts 5% as credit towards future purchases, removing ANY charity whatsoever from the store - and they made this the default.

And more recently, you don't get both DRM-free and Steam/DRM if a game is available in both. They force you to choose one and only one upon purchase on the store.

Essentially, they seem to be increasingly focusing on turning a profit for themselves, not for charitable causes. I expect this to continue to worsen as they change hands.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: Humble Bundle no longer stands for what they once did, and I don't see how IGN can make this any worse. If anything, I'd say the current management is hitting the panic button since the platform has already been significantly screwed up.

I didn't purchase Humble Bundles for a while so I didn't know most of this - and it sucks. IGN or not, I don't know if I'll buy stuff from them anymore.
 

nIxx

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2007
Messages
1,544
Trophies
0
Location
Germany
Website
Visit site
XP
337
Country
Gambia, The
vKIov

I didn't purchase Humble Bundles for a while so I didn't know most of this - and it sucks. IGN or not, I don't know if I'll buy stuff from them anymore.
Because he/she is exaggerate the situation ;) See Above

If people want to complain maybe they should get there facts right before posting stuff like that :)
 
Last edited by nIxx,

chaoskagami

G̷̘̫̍̈́̊̓̈l̴̙͔̞͠i̵̳͊ţ̸̙͇͒̓c̵̬̪̯̥̳͒͌̚h̵̹̭͛̒̊̽̚
Developer
Joined
Mar 26, 2016
Messages
1,365
Trophies
1
Location
↑↑↓↓←→←→BA
Website
github.com
XP
2,262
Country
United States
Dunno what you talking about you seem to be pretty misinformed.
There are very few games where that is the case and you can choose between GOG or Steam then and IF there is a DRM Free Version it's always available.

Okay, statistics. What percentage of games have this restriction on them? I've never run into it with bundles, but the bundles have dropped in quality or are repeats which I already own. You can't claim "very few" unless you have hard numbers.

For example from my Humble Gem Bundle 2 that came out recently
https://imgur.com/a/vKIov
7 out of 8 games as DRM Free version ;)

Is 12.5% supposed to be statistically insignificant? It's not. Also, you can't use one recent bundle as a sample size.

Where are all of the recent XSEED releases in DRM-free form? Bethesda games in DRM-free format? Hint: Not Humble. GOG only. Or at very least, Humble is behind GOG. Very behind. You can't measure based on a sample size of eight games.

vKIov

If you get the HumbleMonthly you even get access to the Humble Trove and all these games are only DRM Free so you can even keep them if you dont want the Monthly Bundle anymore https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly/trove

Irrelevant. There are 32 games listed there, and many are QUITE old, and have long since been purchased by people. In other words, they are low-risk high-return to give for free to subscribers.

And in the Store you can still give money to charity too
https://imgur.com/o6HgLrk
o6HgLrk

Yes, you can still donate to charity. My point is: why bother advertising you're charitable as a selling point if it's optional? Amazon does the same damn thing (see: smile.amazon.com) but they don't push it in your face as a selling point because it's not. Humble was about charity. They say they are about charity. Their actions and changes to the site don't.

vKIov


Because he/she is exaggerate the situation ;) See Above

If people want to complain maybe they should get there facts right before posting stuff like that :)

If people want to resort to ad hominem (cute, really) before citing sources and statistics for their claims, as well as moving goalposts and using statistics limited to the point of irrelevancy, perhaps they should stop posting stuff like that and claiming it fact.

Never once did I present my opinion/observations as fact in that post.
 

nIxx

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2007
Messages
1,544
Trophies
0
Location
Germany
Website
Visit site
XP
337
Country
Gambia, The
Where are all of the recent XSEED releases in DRM-free form? Bethesda games in DRM-free format? Hint: Not Humble. GOG only. Or at very least, Humble is behind GOG. Very behind. You can't measure based on a sample size of eight games.

You obviously dont want to listen anyway and made up your mind already. You make a much bigger deal out of it as it actually is.
I have many more bundles games and so on where you get both of course i dont post everything here because it would be way to long.
And did it ever come to your mind that the maybe the Publisher don't always want to offer both version (for whatever reasons) same goes for GOG that doesn't have all new games because Publisher XY doesnt want to release a DRM Free Version.

You throw just stuff in the room and dont back them up yourself and then play the "it was only my opinion/observation" Card ^^
As you can see RattletraPM already did take your "observation" as fact (good job).

By the way all your Xseed games (in Store) where you get DRM Free AND the Steam Version
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/search?sort=bestselling&search=xseed
and funny thing all the new Bethesda titles are not even available on GOG
So again what are you talking about
 
Last edited by nIxx,
  • Like
Reactions: Xabring

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    @Sicklyboy, $150 isn't that bad for a jtag slim on ebay
  • Veho @ Veho:
    I only wish it was actually playable.
  • Veho @ Veho:
    There's a guy on the Tube of You that makes playable mechanical arcade games out of Lego. This could work on the same principle.
  • Veho @ Veho:
    Just a couple of guys taking their manatee out for some fresh air, why you have to molest them?
  • Veho @ Veho:
    Stupid Chinese shop switched their shipping company and this one is slooooooow.
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    STOP BUYING CHINESE CRAP THEN
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    SUPPORT LOCAL PRODUCTS, MAKE REVOLUTION
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    THEY KEEP REMOVING LOCAL SHIt AND REPLACING WItH INFERIOR CHINESE CRAP
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    THATS WHY MY PARTNER CANT GET A GOOTWEAR HIS SIZE ANYMORE
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    HE HAS BIG FOOT AND BIG DUCK
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    d*ck i mean*
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    lol
  • Veho @ Veho:
    Mkay.
  • Veho @ Veho:
    I just ordered another package from China just to spite you.
  • SylverReZ @ SylverReZ:
    Communism lol
  • SylverReZ @ SylverReZ:
    OUR products
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    @LeoTCK actually good quality products are dying out because they can't compete with dropshipped chinese crap
    +2
  • BakerMan @ BakerMan:
    @LeoTCK is your partner the sascrotch or smth?
  • Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty:
    Good morning
  • Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty:
    Out of nowhere I got several scars on my forearm and part of my arm and it really itches.
  • AdRoz78 @ AdRoz78:
    Hey, I bought a modchip today and it says "New 2040plus" in the top left corner. Is this a legit chip or was I scammed?
    AdRoz78 @ AdRoz78: Hey, I bought a modchip today and it says "New 2040plus" in the top left corner. Is this a legit...