I guess this is just me, but I feel humble bundle lost their way a long time ago, when they started selling games with DRM and that we're not multiplatform. I stopped buying from them after that, and this store seems a continuation of that trend. Even the name humble bundle seems self-righteous to me, considering they are just a store.
GOG.com has the DRM-free angle fairly well covered, so there wasn't a lot of room left there unless they wanted to compete. I think the pivot towards a charitable focus was a reasonable move, even if not exactly in line with their initial goals.
I wish GOG.com would set up some US-based banking.
I've stopped buying things from them, even though I want to, because my bank freaks out every time, due to "the high levels of credit card fraud originating from Cyprus".
The last time I bought from GOG my bank started declining every purchase on my card thereafter until I called them. Apparently they called me, but had an old number.
In any case, I'm sure GOG is set up this way to avoid taxes so it's probably worth it for them, even if it's a hassle for some subset of their users.
Not that long ago I think? The last one I paid attention to was still all about indie games and linux support. Just checked again and now they're selling FEAR and Batman for Windows only...
I think it's not necessary because "one is smart and other is not."
Here are some of my thoughts on this:
1) It's probably not a decision of people who understands deep understanding of technology and implication in bigger publisher. It could be some "suit" type of people who don't even know how DRM works, or their legal department.
2) Publishers can actually afford DRM -- I will be honest that I don't know how much DRM solutions actually cost, but activation servers won't run for free. Simply, a lot of independent studios don't have enough resources to maintain DRMs. DRMs would probably increase support case as well (there will be more support inquiries coming in; people will be running out of activation count, or their computer can't talk to activation server) which a lot of smaller studios just don't want to deal with.
But this is not about risks. It's about not being dumb punishing their own paying users with DRM which has zero effect on piracy. May be most DRM is driven by side ulterior motives which have nothing to do with piracy.
I'm with you, for different reasons. I thought the first couple bundles were fun, novel, and fresh, but when they started pumping out bundles like clockwork I was really turned off.
See, I think they transitioned (or I just didn't realize the truth at first). Initially it was a charity/publicity play, there wasn't even any talk of having a "Humble Bundle 2". But then someone somewhere decided to try to turn the model into a business.
The problem is that there's a limited amount of good, novel, fun games to choose from. I can't say there are always good indie games to play every single month. You are bound to hit the "less interesting games" sooner or later.
Not a single game didn't work on Linux? Check out the current bundle. As far as I know none of the games work on Linux? They used to mention platform prominently. Now there's absolutely no mention on the front page of Linux, nor do they have the platform money split...
Huh, weird, I definitely didn't notice that. The last one I bought was two or three bundles ago, and I only use Linux, so pretty much all of them ran? I may just be mistaken.
Of the current bundle nothing runs on Linux and only one runs on Mac. Of the Origin bundle only Sims runs on Mac (and nothing on Linux)... Guess it's only the ones where they sell the 'big' games.
Did you see all the recent Steam only / Origin only bundles? Nothing DRM free about them, and they become more and more common, while the DRM free ones become a rarity.
We are comparing new, non DRMed, Indie games to DRMed, publisher backed games who have a massive back catalog. I buy the indie games when I can but I also recognize they simply aren't as deep. HB relies on a good amount of churn every month and I suspect they simply exhausted the supply of Indie games that can be bundled.
May be, but GOG managed to stay successful and profitable without resorting to selling DRM junk. Why HB can't then? GOG actually puts an effort to convince publishers to release their games DRM free. Even legacy ones like EA (at least for their older titles). And that's not easy, but it helps to overcome publishers' stupidity and inertia when they see that DRM free sales are not "dangerous". HB can do something similar, but it requires work.
I think the name works; cause they give to charity in every sale I've seen them do. Humble came from working with mostly indie game developers and they still do a lot with them. I personally like their model.
Except it's now turned into "pay what you want as long as it's more than average"; to which I automatically responded by paying $0.01 more than average instead of my usual round $20...
Nope, the first ones were "pay what you want, get everything" (with the first bundle retroactively adding source code releases for everyone no matter how much they paid, and the next adding extra games half way through the week, again for everyone).
"Pay what you want, the more you pay the more you get" is still technically "pay what you want", but it's a slightly different meaning than the original.
ED> Also, with regards to the $1 minimum for Steam which seems to have become a permanent thing:
"The Humble Indie Bundle 4 overlapped with a large holiday sale on the Steam software service, which offered numerous prizes by completing some achievements associated with the offered games in Steam, including entries into a raffle to win every game on the Steam service. During this overlap, Humble Bundle found that some users were abusing the system, paying the minimum amount ($0.01) for the Bundle, registering new Steam accounts, and using the newly purchased games to improve their chances for the Steam raffle. Humble Bundle considered this "unfair to legitimate entrants" in the Steam contest, and to stop it, the company altered the sale so that only those who paid more than $1.00 would receive Steam keys for the games"
