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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The comments on this article are closed.
Pfft, natural progression. Humble has for a long time already swung towards the big players. And it's just an online store (although wrapped in a cute wrapping). The only thing we can be worried about after IGN acquiring them is continuing Linux support. But even that support has long been dwindling anyway.
Natural progression, plain and simple.
Natural progression, plain and simple.
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Quoting: GuestI'm sure you're right; anyone watching how popular Humble was on Linux and why, could do well by bringing in what worked, but learning from any mistakes. There didn't used to be GOG and Humble etc, or much, as you describe, so I'm sure you're correct that new organisations emerge, especially as so many people have come over from Windows or dual-boot with Linux ... there's a whole new wave of people who are very pro-Linux, so I'm sure the future's bright.
Well, yes and no. I guess Linux is growing and it seems a beautiful place for Indie and AA games. I'm sure we will see more and more smaller games on Linux in the future, so looks good. Regarding the big AAA titles I guess the next years will be similar to the last 2 years, something like 5 AAA titles a year from porting houses like Feral. I guess the market is still to small to justify more big titles and furthermore the big publishers want DRM/at least Steam for their titles which is rejected by part of the Linux gamers. Dunno how it will look in 5 years.
But indeed, you can't compare today with 5 years ago.
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Quoting: kibblesI have given HB a fair amount of sales and I gave it to them on principle. Now that IGN is in the mix I will stop buying from them altogether for the same reasons.
Why does it matter to you who sits in the board, if they still operate like before? (genuine question, not meant rhetorical)
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Quoting: BeamboomQuoting: kibblesI have given HB a fair amount of sales and I gave it to them on principle. Now that IGN is in the mix I will stop buying from them altogether for the same reasons.
Why does it matter to you who sits in the board, if they still operate like before? (genuine question, not meant rhetorical)
For me, I never liked the way IGN did business. I've already asked for HB to delete my account. No response from them, yet. I like to put my money where people do business the way I want them to.
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stretch611 Oct 16, 2017
Quoting: RafiLinuxQuoting: BeamboomQuoting: kibblesI have given HB a fair amount of sales and I gave it to them on principle. Now that IGN is in the mix I will stop buying from them altogether for the same reasons.
Why does it matter to you who sits in the board, if they still operate like before? (genuine question, not meant rhetorical)
For me, I never liked the way IGN did business. I've already asked for HB to delete my account. No response from them, yet. I like to put my money where people do business the way I want them to.
I agree, who controls a company makes a big difference. The problem is that no one expects them to operate as before. Even if humble doesn't change, what if IGN just starts adding links to purchase games... a thought that more than one person has asked since the news of the deal. IMHO, that is clearly crossing the line in matters of trust.
If the reviews lack integrity, you are supporting the company with every purchase you make, regardless of whether or not it was related to any content on IGN's site.
If it was any good, would you buy a Zune? (just an example, I don't think that they still make them) Regardless of whether or not the zune is a monopoly product (it surely isn't) buying one gives profits to microsoft... a company that sells windows 10 telemetry data on its users to 3rd parties and built and maintained a monopoly with shady business practices. Why would you want to support those people?
On the other hand, no longer supporting the humble store will make the long term profits of IGN that much less... possibly convincing themselves or other companies thinking about doing the same thing that it isn't worth it... hopefully showing others that integrity actually matters to consumers.
However, I do not plan on deleting my account either. I do plan on canceling my Humble Monthly when it comes up for renewal, I will be looking for sales on other sites more... but I have so much through HB... (I have bought a ton of games since learning about them with the HiB#2...) I plan to use my account to keep downloading... to use my steam keys. I don't plan on buying more from them...but I plan to use the resources they have to support the items that I have bought from them already. Heck, if they have a 2 day free game special... I plan to get it... I just don't plan on giving them any more money.
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Quoting: kibblesHowever, I do not plan on deleting my account either. I do plan on canceling my Humble Monthly when it comes up for renewal, I will be looking for sales on other sites more... but I have so much through HB... (I have bought a ton of games since learning about them with the HiB#2...) I plan to use my account to keep downloading... to use my steam keys. I don't plan on buying more from them...but I plan to use the resources they have to support the items that I have bought from them already. Heck, if they have a 2 day free game special... I plan to get it... I just don't plan on giving them any more money.
I hear you. I am saying GB to over 100+ games in addition to some great comics but I backed up the games and books and just don't want anything to do with IGN at all.
Also this is the modern age, you don't have to give them money to support something anymore.
Last edited by Mezron on 16 October 2017 at 3:46 pm UTC
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slaapliedje Oct 16, 2017
Canceled my monthly subscription with the reason being "IGN ownership"
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*Update*
If you remove your HB account, they still provide you permanent links to your games.
If you remove your HB account, they still provide you permanent links to your games.
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Well, it's too early to tell, maybe it will turn to be a real mess really soon, like lots of consoles bundles, crap games, much less Linux supported games etc. But maybe we will only have MORE bundles, only MORE choices.
I don't like the idea of HB being under IGN flag. It's against the "indie" mood that should prevail.
I don't like the idea of HB being under IGN flag. It's against the "indie" mood that should prevail.
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