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Humble Bundle has been acquired by IGN

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This is rather unsettling to see, Humble Bundle has now officially joined with the massive media site IGN.

A small cut from their official announcement:

Announcing our biggest bundle ever: Humble Bundle is proudly joining the IGN family! We will continue to bring you all of our humble products, but with more resources and help from IGN.

I'm not entirely sure why Humble needed to join with anyone, considering the amount of money they were pulling in they must have been pretty secure. I'm sure they have their reasons, but something about this doesn't feel right to me. A media company controlling one of the biggest online stores and an occasional games publisher, it feels like a conflict there.

Gamasutra has reported that IGN executive VP Mitch Galbraith said that they don't plan to change anything, "If it's not broken, don't fix it", but then John Graham from Humble said "We want to stick to the fundamentals in the short term.", the key there is "short term". How long will it be until IGN start throwing a bit of weight around to change things up?

In the end though, it could end up being positive. There's no denying how big IGN is, so their extra resources could well help out Humble in a lot of ways.

Honestly, I would be really surprised now if we ever saw a proper Humble Indie Bundle again, I certainly doubt that Humble would ever be getting Linux games ported like they used to. We are more likely to see even more bundles from bigger publishers, likely more console bundles too.

See the full announcement from Humble here (Archive link). How do you feel about this?

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. You can also follow my personal adventures on Bluesky.
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59 comments
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z3ntu Oct 13, 2017
VERY unexpected
Kohrias Oct 13, 2017
Very sad news :( Shareholder value for the win!
Drakker Oct 13, 2017
Very sad yo hear this. Guess I'll have to start shopping elsewhere...
Mezron Oct 13, 2017
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Going to key my eye on them but I am ready to have my account deleted if they do something I'm not down with.
Jahimself Oct 13, 2017
I agree with every points mentioned by Liam.

It's been quite a long time that I dislike IGN way of testing game and spamming news. They sound pretty much like bad advertising against big cash and without any journalist skills... I really wonder what is the point of this. As IGN looks right now I kind of think that they completely scammed humble store...

It's important to stand against this and to be honest I was pleasantly surprised by your awareness towards this acquisition.


Last edited by Jahimself on 13 October 2017 at 8:28 pm UTC
walther von stolzing Oct 13, 2017
I agree with every point mentioned by Liam. It is nothing encouraging to hear such a "news". It's been quite a long time that I dislike IGN way of testing game and spamming news which sound pretty much like bad advertising against big cash and without any journalist skills... I really wonder what is the point of this. As IGN looks right now I kind of think that they completely scammed humble store...

That's pretty much how I think as well.
sn0rlax Oct 13, 2017
Hmm, I stopped visiting IGN when they stopped writing good game reviews and instead just made a video for everything.

I'm certain they'll ruin Humble.

Time to launch a Gaming on Linux Bundle site? I'll buy my games from you.
mishugashu Oct 13, 2017
RIP
Liam Dawe Oct 13, 2017
Time to launch a Gaming on Linux Bundle site? I'll buy my games from you.
One step at a time, one day we shall conquer the world and spread the good word of Linux :P
toor Oct 13, 2017
Humble bundle used to be a great thing.
Help indie devs, support charity, bring games to more platforms, and let users pay what they want and give them high quality games.
They lost their spirit along with success, little by little.
There are now nothing more than standard stores… they don't guarantee DRM-free anymore, or cross-platform, it's not even indie anymore, they deliver not so good games in average and they force the users to pay more than a certain amount to get every games.
This is HIGHLY disappointing, I used to respect them A LOT. Now they barely are a shadow of what they used to be.
nosklo Oct 13, 2017
+1 for LiamBundle. Future monthly subscriber.
stretch611 Oct 13, 2017
Why there is a chance that a larger company may be able to show the game publishers the value of linux, the cynic in me thinks this will end badly.

Like others, I foresee the store now catering to more big name publishers instead of indies. I hope that i am wrong. Its fine to have both, but I prefer dealing with the smaller titles... the ones that actually care about the product they sell.

Humble Indie Bundle helped indie devs, it helped linux as a gaming platform. It even helped smaller studios with fraud. I fear it will end up with everything humble does in the future only being about the profit margin.

Again, I hope that I am wrong.
GustyGhost Oct 13, 2017
Well now I'm glad to have only ever bought one game from them. Just more fat to trim from the bone now.
Avehicle7887 Oct 13, 2017
Humble Bundle for me died ever since they stopped caring about DRM-Free, even worse some devs don't update the said builds. Now I either buy a game on GOG these days or not buy it at all.


Last edited by Avehicle7887 on 13 October 2017 at 9:02 pm UTC
Samsai Oct 13, 2017
Well, the old joke about IGN being an advertisement agency for video game devs sure seems to be closer to truth now.
slaapliedje Oct 13, 2017
Damn, guess I will jave to cancel my monthly subscription and give away all my extra keys.

Humble bundle helped me achieve my collector status in Steam. Ha!
14 Oct 13, 2017
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Probably like ten years ago now, IGN used to be my favorite. I loved the IGN sites and was on it every day, checking news and very active in the forums. I had 10K+ forum posts before I left. That's the most I've posted anywhere. My good friend was a GameSpot guy but I always said IGN was better. But IGN did eventually start going directions I didn't like. Fewer words per review and more images and links and videos. That's when I discovered Giantbomb.com. Knowing the editors came from GameSpot and why they left, I knew it was the right game news source for me. I've been a follower of that site for several years and it's been my browser's home page, until recently. As of about a month or two ago, my browser's home page is actually GoL. :D I still like Giantbomb, but their scope is a bit larger than what I care about anymore. I primarily want Linux gaming news and I can seek out the occasional PS4 game info when it suits me.

After having Humble Bundle on pause two months in a row (due to lack of good Linux games I didn't already own), I canceled completely a day or two ago. Seeing this acquisition news, I'm pessimistic that Humble Bundle will offer an experience I want to pay time or money for.
kudlaty Oct 13, 2017
They couldn't have picked a more suitable day for the announcement, could they? :)
musojon74 Oct 13, 2017
Well that's the end of Humble. Shame.
Pangachat Oct 13, 2017
Humble Bundle has been acquired by IGN... on Friday 13...
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