If you're interested in getting a bunch of games each month, the Humble Monthly has at times been quite generous with the selection. Things are about to change, with it being renamed to Humble Choice with new options.
Currently, you pay a set fee of $12 a month (or less for more months) and get at least one game to play early. Then at the end of each month, they give you a bunch more games ranging between 7-11. That's changing sometime later this year with Humble Choice. As the name suggests, it does seem to actually give you a little more control. Games are revealed upfront instead of being a mystery and you pick the ones you want from a larger list.
Instead of a single monthly payment, they're splitting it into tiers (click to enlarge):
So it's going to be ~$8 per month more expensive for the main plan, with cheaper options for those who want it. Previously the standard Humble Store discount was 10%, with that now rising to 20% for people on the higher plan. In addition to it no longer being a mystery, they're also committing to giving you an exact amount of games too instead of it sometimes being 7, the next month 10 and then 8 the next and so on.
However, if you're a current subscriber of the Humble Monthly, they said you will get to keep the top tier of the Humble Choice subscription at your current cheaper price until you cancel (pausing is still fine). If you pick it up any time before Humble Choice launches, you will keep the cheaper price too. You can see their new page to talk about Humble Choice here.
You can see their announcement video about it below:
Direct Link
I'm in two minds about it. I've seen a lot of talk about Humble being "greedy" and all sorts of colourful language being used. To me, the reaction from comments across other sites has been a bit odd. Of course, no one likes a price increase and it is a lot more expensive there's no getting around that for new customers. Existing and new customers before the change get a good deal, new customers after get less. The tactic used is obviously to get a bunch of people to sign up now, to get it for less.
Thinking on it though for $20 a month with 9 games to keep (or $12 a month + 10 games if you're an existing sub), a 20% store discount and access to whatever DRM-free titles you want from the Humble Trove any time at least to me still sounds like a fair deal overall doesn't it? Heck, chucking them $4.99 even for a single month for the basic plan to grab the 60+ DRM-free titles from the Trove itself is a good deal. For Linux gamers especially, actually now knowing what games you get to pick from is a good bonus.
Obviously, the value of it for you all depends on what your usual purchasing habits are like. Once they have a date set and launch the change, I will let you know.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
The price increase is tough to take, but I guess it won't affect me for a while anyway since I'm a current subscriber.
wvstolzing Oct 20, 2019
QuoteThe Classic plan is the best way to subscribe
Only existing subscribers who are active when we switch to Humble Choice will automatically be granted the Classic plan. Make sure you are subscribed to Humble Monthly before we launch Humble Choice to get it.
The wording here is a little misleading, though. They aren't offering 'the classic' as a plan under the new system, it will be like a legacy carry-over. When you're describing 'the new ways to subscribe to us', it's odd to enumerate the obsolete way as 'the best way' in your ad. Besides the second paragraph could suggest that new subscribes could, after all, later switch to the Classic plan -- though not 'automatically'.
Better to put a big disclaimer to the effect that if your subscribe before the swithch, you get to have certain privileges. '!!!!ALERT: ONLY FOR THE LOYAL PRE-SWITCH CUSTOMERS!!!!!!!', or something like that.
Kimyrielle Oct 20, 2019
The old program was a great deal, and I think it still will be a good deal. But one has to wonder if game subscriptions like this one will become the new Netflix. Which also used to be a great deal, before numerous price hikes combined with an ever shrinking library turned it into just another cable channel.
Unlike Netflix though, you keep what you get, so I think it's actually better value since there's so few things I actually like on Netflix...
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 20 October 2019 at 4:11 pm UTC
It's so damn sad to observe what has happened to the gaming industry, and its shops.
The bright light is independent studios popping up, and crowdfunding campaigns. Yes, risky, but so much good stuff has come out of it.
These are some of my concerns:
- The classic has 10 games while the high tier premium has 9? Does this mean the old subscribers get everything while the premium have at least one game excluded? Or even the classic won't have all games?
- Do DLC count has games too in this selection?
- If the trove is now the LITE tier, will new games appear more often and old games phase out more quickly to justify membership renewal?
- The basic 3 choice one is 3$ higher than the current bundle???? I know less tiers makes it simple, but it there were 5/8/12/16/20 for lite, 1,3,5,7,9 games with an additional mid tiers would give more options. Specially a lower just one game I choose per month for 8$ would seem a good option.
- Now there there will be more choice, does it mean we will get more repeats?
I've been a fairly regular humble monthly subscriber and the few months I skipped I ended up actually regretting. Typically the AAA games shown upfront never interest me very much (specially online games), but the indie gems like: A Short Hike, Slay the Spire, Distance, Road Redemption, Paratopic, Duskers, Wander Song, Finding Paradise, Minit, Cultist Simulator, Wizard of Legend, Hollow Knight, Hidden Folks, A Hat in Time, Cook Serve Delicious 2, The Pillars of Earth, Moon Hunters, AER Memories of Old, Owlboy, Tacoma actually do.
Looking into it, all I was looking in the service, was a monthly humble indie (not necessarily DRM free) curated bundle... and multi-platform too (Linux + Windows).
If the monthly continued with 1 game for $8, 2 for $10 or 3 for $12 would actually make sense in terms of what I was getting, and it would match my expectations.
The classic at least will work for me, as I will probably still get the 2-3 games I like, without price changes.
But for a new user... it looks indeed a very steep price increase.
EDIT: forgot to mention Linux, now it's there
Last edited by nullzero on 20 October 2019 at 5:50 pm UTC
I suppose not extending it when it runs out is also considered cancelling. Anyway, need to have a thought about it. On the other hand the choice seems rather good, but it depends on what I can choose from. Should have a few months left to test it.
If I was paying $15-$20 per month to choose 3 or 9 games that ran on Linux that I wanted, it would be worth it. How could you say otherwise? What do you do, only buy games that are $2 a pop?
I had hoped that Humble would have given a deal (e.g. $20 wallet credit) when I was due to renew, but that sweetener is increasingly unlikely.
I'd like to understand what the game tiers are going to make available to subscribers. Is it a case where they will offer 15 games per month and then you choose 10 of them (if you are on the top "Classic" tier). Or is it the case that they offer 10 games per month, and you'd get all of them, even if there are titles in that 10 which are no use to you (e.g. Windows game / already own it / etc.)
If I could be sure that I could pick and choose and avoid purchasing Windows titles or Already Owned, then I'd be a lot more willing to continue the subscription. Anyone know the answer to this?
Another thing that strikes me: Surely this shift means that a lot of the Games Choices made available will not be fresh, new titles, but will be Repeats (from earlier bundles).
Quoting: wvstolzingWhen you're describing 'the new ways to subscribe to us', it's odd to enumerate the obsolete way as 'the best way' in your ad. Besides the second paragraph could suggest that new subscribes could, after all, later switch to the Classic plan -- though not 'automatically'.
Better to put a big disclaimer to the effect that if your subscribe before the swithch, you get to have certain privileges. '!!!!ALERT: ONLY FOR THE LOYAL PRE-SWITCH CUSTOMERS!!!!!!!', or something like that.
Yeah, I'm no marketing guy but it does seem like a strange way to position their tiers. It devalues the "premium" tier. IMO they'd have been better to shift existing subscribers over to the premium tier at the current price, and not even have a "classic" tier.
Quoting: scaineI'll be pausing this month, for example, because the main reveal is COD:WWII which is "borked" on ProtonDB, and I've no interest in the other two reveals. But I'll be gutted if the remaining games are games I'd buy.
I was able to swap COD:WW2 and Crash Bandicoot with someone on barter.vg for Mutant Year Zero, which runs great under Proton. Doesn't look like a great deal on paper but I'm happy with MYZ for AU$18, if anything else in the monthly is any good that will be a bonus.
Not much time left to get it done in 2019. I wonder if they'll transition in November or December.
It sounds like we'll still be able to pause with the new system at least: "Pausing your subscription is fine, and you will not cause you to lose access to Classic for doing so."
Quoting: g000hI'd like to understand what the game tiers are going to make available to subscribers. Is it a case where they will offer 15 games per month and then you choose 10 of them (if you are on the top "Classic" tier). Or is it the case that they offer 10 games per month, and you'd get all of them, even if there are titles in that 10 which are no use to you (e.g. Windows game / already own it / etc.)
Agreed, it's not at all clear whether this is changing. Presumably since they haven't said anything about this, it stays the same and the set of games changes every month?
Quoting: g000hAnother thing that strikes me: Surely this shift means that a lot of the Games Choices made available will not be fresh, new titles, but will be Repeats (from earlier bundles).If they continue with a set of only 10 or so every month, I don't see why this has to be the case. But as someone who has only recently (this year) subscribed, I'd be quite glad to get access to some of the stuff from past months (and non-monthly bundles) I missed out on. Still kicking myself that I didn't pick up Tyranny and PoE for AU$7 a few weeks back.
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