They added a workaround:
http://support.humblebundle.com/customer/portal/articles/1356336-gifting-steam-keys
Awesome, I rescind my dead-to-me state. In for a gift copy of the WB bundle for my nephews and it looks like a really cool charity to support this time.
Is this the first bundle without a Beat The Average bonus? Is that collateral damage from this change?
Never mind, I misread.
I wish Humble would “go back to its roots” and only offer DRM free games. These Steam only bundles are an automatic skip for me. I guess that’s the price you pay for entering the public consciousness.
I would also like all the games to be totally free. And for them to deliver boxed sets and lunches. Why is Humble making my life so hard?
#deadtome
Belittle him all you like, but it doesn’t change the fact that the “mission statement” of the humble bundle has changed dramatically since its first sale. The original bundles were indie/multi-plat/no-drm and that was one of the ‘selling points’. Some bundles even gave out source code.
Yep, humble bundles started as a very cheap bundle with “drm free games” as main device, and now the main device is “steam keys included”.
I don’t know about you, but I very much prefer steam keys to drm free option, if I have to choose between the two. I suppose most people have the same opinion, hence their change.
I very much prefer Steam keys plus the fact that we’re getting A-list titles. No matter what happens, there’s always going to be someone complaining.
There’s so many steam addicts now it’s an ecosystem of it’s own, so I’m not surprised they went into this direction.
What surprised me more is the tendency of these bundles to actually contain REAL games, ones that once sold for full price, sometimes not even THAT long ago.
Since PWYW for most folks means “pay the minimum amount” - just look at the averages - I’m inclined to think the net profit would actually be HIGHER if folks just torrented pirated versions of those games - at least no company has to pay for the infrastructure/bandwidth/support/stuff that way.
rezaf
humble bundles do offer torrent download options to help mitigate bandwidth costs. I hope most people use that method…
Yes, because though you (and many others) may think Steam is God’s gift, it is not for everyone. There are valid pros and cons on both sides, which can be found in those zillion other threads.
I’m sure I would if I weren’t just putting keys into Steam and installing them that way.
The average when I bought the WB bundle was $4.22. For that WB has to distribute a Steam Key. I have no idea what they pay for the key, but I presume it’s a few cents to cover bandwidth. There’s still potential profit to be made. (Though I suspect the reason that someone does a bundle like this is more that you have the charity option, you point to the total net MSRP of the pack as being worth $XXXX, you figure out how much revenue you actually made, and the difference times some fudge factor becomes a “loss” that can buy down your taxes.)
It’d just be nice if there were like, options in the PC gaming realm instead of Steam keys from Humble, Steam keys from Gamersgate, Steam keys from Green Man, Steam keys from Amazon, Steam keys from IndieGala, and Steam keys from Steam.
Humble Bundle used to be (and occasionally still is) one of the few Steam DRM alternatives.
But why would that be preferable? Having six different download services means having six different clients installed with six different purchase histories to keep track of and six more places to keep my credit card on file to be stolen.
I’d much rather have just the one. If someone wants to come along and do it better, I’ll switch.
So you can use Steam, and people who don’t want to use Steam for whatever reason (such as preferring a DRM-free alternative or not wishing to have one company lording over the hobby like it’s a video game console, for example) can use something else.
edit - missed earlier post like the genius that I am :)
Besides the “what happens if steam goes down forever” thing, which is HIGHLY unlikely to happen anytime soon, there’s very little downsides to using steam right now.
However, if you look more closely, you can already see that there are some things in the system that aren’t all so nice - for example, with their monopoly, steam has maneuvered into a position where they can effectively “dictate” which games a considerable chunk of gamers will play. I write dictate in quotes because I’m willing to believe that’s not really their current intention just now, but there’s nothing stopping this from happening.
Disregarding the intentions, it actually IS happening though - Greenlight is intransparent and a bad joke, and due to all the “I’ll buy when it’s on steam” drones (i.e. market dominance) NOT getting on steam these days is like selling your shoes or whatever in a single store in a remote part of a single city vs. selling your shoes over the internet.
Comparisons always show the share of remaining competitors, if you want to even call them that, is miniscule now - like a low single digit percentage AT BEST.
Such ecosystem, beyond pure lazyness on the part of “clients”, is never ever a good thing.
TLDR: Who needs a democracy when the king is benevolent?
rezaf
+1 Insightful
What is worrying to me is the advent of Steam workshop where developers tie game features directly to the Steam service. Magicka, Dungeon Defenders, Orcs Must Die are examples of this. They are ONLY available for purchase on Steam and many of their features will not work without it. Tying any kind of application to an ONLINE, unknown service is really short sighted. What if later down the line the API changes or the service is terminated? In a few years time we may reach a point whereby these games cease to function. Check out the Games for Windows Live deathwatch for a good example but imagine it with thousands and thousands of games.
If you don’t believe Steam will ever fail then take a look at the current situation at Blackberry who were top dog just a few years ago and are now in their death throws. Enterprise admins whose entire company IT infrastructure is based on Blackberry technology are now having to ask themselves “What do we do if Blackberry switches off their data centers?” I believe it’s prudent for games developers to be asking themselves similar questions of Steam.
There are many smaller problems too. There are licensing issues. Dungeon Siege for example is only available on Steam without any of its expansion packs. Many other games remain incomplete. There are issues with patches. Some games are missing the latest patches, again due to licensing or patches are slow to reach customers. Baldurs Gate Enhanced Edition is a good example of this.
Instead of a patch pipeline like this:
Game Developers -> Customer
They now have a patch pipeline that is:
Game Developers -> Atari -> Steam -> Customers
There is nothing good at all about this scenario, it just leads to greater delays and confusion.
There are issues with modding games too, Steam uses some kind of hashing/verification of file integrity. In some games if you modify the file contents then Steam will detect it and automatically ‘restore’ the original files.
Steam seems to have a cult-like worship these days and has reached corporation level saturation, for me that can only be “a bad thing”.