It's a good sale on a good game, but I remain disappointed that they didn't stick to DRM-free versions of the games, including Natural Selection 2. I personally have no issues buying from and using Steam, but that certainly isn't true for everyone in the world, and it also makes me much happier supporting these bundles (vote against DRM with your wallet!).
I think it's a fail. With this I see them as trying to compete steam, even though there are Steam keys appears. 10% default goes to charity? Sorry, I like the Bundles more, with more going to Charity, that was the point. Also no Android in store that I see.
I don't get you people..."part of it going to charity was the point"... what? If that was the point, just go give to charity directly. For me the point was always the "pick your price", and choosing what goes to humble and what to the dev and knowing it really really goes to the dev and is not lost somewhere along the retail, publishing and distribution chain.
For those who do not understand the background here (including Anand): The Humble team has been offering a payment processing service to games for over a year now. Unlike most payment processors (such as Steam), they take a 5% cut, not the 10-30% cut of the payment that is normal.
But you had to host the 'store' page for your game yourself. There was no central Humble Store with all the games that they process payments for.
Now there is. These games are NOT going to be sold at insane discounts. They will be regular price. This is as close as you can get to buying 'direct from the dev'... in most of these cases, if you bought the game from the developers site, the Humble payment processing was being used. Now they are collecting this stuff onto a store page. The dev gets more exposure, at the 'cost' of a 10% donation of the payment to charity.
This isn't really meant to 'compete' with Steam. It is more a way for developers to have a Steam alternative, for the few buyers who don't want or can't get Steam, or if their game has not been Greenlit yet (there are a lot of good games that fail to make it through the Greenlighting process).
If it was 5% before, the cost is 20% - another 10% to Humble Bundle (15% total) plus 10% to charity. So it's still a tab better than in other stores (75% vs. 70%), but not hugely so.
I wish it was possible to manually divide the money, choose how much to give the devs, charity and Humble Bundle. It's possible to put bounds on it (for example 50% minimum to devs, 5% minimum to Humble). That would make it more appealing IMO. Also a "pay what you want" option should be there, for those who want to give a little more to the devs.
I think humble store is a bad idea. The whole point of humble bundle is to get something cool by either paying more because you just like the idea of support developers and charities , or paying less because you have a limited budget. Humble Store is living off the success of Humble Bundle, two very different things. If they wanted to do a store they should have called it something else so as to not taint the idea of humble bundle. IMHO there is too much incentive to get greedy and thats not what humble is about.
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Zefram0911 - Monday, November 11, 2013 - link
Natural Selection 2 is DEFINITELY A PICK UP!teiglin - Monday, November 11, 2013 - link
It's a good sale on a good game, but I remain disappointed that they didn't stick to DRM-free versions of the games, including Natural Selection 2. I personally have no issues buying from and using Steam, but that certainly isn't true for everyone in the world, and it also makes me much happier supporting these bundles (vote against DRM with your wallet!).ol1bit - Monday, November 11, 2013 - link
Hmmm,I think it's a fail. With this I see them as trying to compete steam, even though there are Steam keys appears. 10% default goes to charity? Sorry, I like the Bundles more, with more going to Charity, that was the point. Also no Android in store that I see.
Visual - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link
I don't get you people..."part of it going to charity was the point"... what? If that was the point, just go give to charity directly.For me the point was always the "pick your price", and choosing what goes to humble and what to the dev and knowing it really really goes to the dev and is not lost somewhere along the retail, publishing and distribution chain.
MyrddinE - Monday, November 11, 2013 - link
For those who do not understand the background here (including Anand): The Humble team has been offering a payment processing service to games for over a year now. Unlike most payment processors (such as Steam), they take a 5% cut, not the 10-30% cut of the payment that is normal.But you had to host the 'store' page for your game yourself. There was no central Humble Store with all the games that they process payments for.
Now there is. These games are NOT going to be sold at insane discounts. They will be regular price. This is as close as you can get to buying 'direct from the dev'... in most of these cases, if you bought the game from the developers site, the Humble payment processing was being used. Now they are collecting this stuff onto a store page. The dev gets more exposure, at the 'cost' of a 10% donation of the payment to charity.
This isn't really meant to 'compete' with Steam. It is more a way for developers to have a Steam alternative, for the few buyers who don't want or can't get Steam, or if their game has not been Greenlit yet (there are a lot of good games that fail to make it through the Greenlighting process).
I hope that helps explain it.
MyrddinE - Monday, November 11, 2013 - link
Sorry, I should have noticed this was written by Jarred, not Anand. My apologies.ET - Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - link
If it was 5% before, the cost is 20% - another 10% to Humble Bundle (15% total) plus 10% to charity. So it's still a tab better than in other stores (75% vs. 70%), but not hugely so.ET - Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - link
I wish it was possible to manually divide the money, choose how much to give the devs, charity and Humble Bundle. It's possible to put bounds on it (for example 50% minimum to devs, 5% minimum to Humble). That would make it more appealing IMO. Also a "pay what you want" option should be there, for those who want to give a little more to the devs.trinsic - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link
I think humble store is a bad idea. The whole point of humble bundle is to get something cool by either paying more because you just like the idea of support developers and charities , or paying less because you have a limited budget. Humble Store is living off the success of Humble Bundle, two very different things. If they wanted to do a store they should have called it something else so as to not taint the idea of humble bundle. IMHO there is too much incentive to get greedy and thats not what humble is about.