Humble subscription service is dumping Mac, Linux access in 18 days
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
They switched from Monthly to Choice but quickly had issues because they had to provide a lot more games (reducing the quality of each individual games), the price for new subscribers (20 usd) was too high and existing users who were grandfathered could easily skip a month (I'm pretty sure they still made money on those who forgot to skip a month).
Now, they're returning to a similar model as the Monthly, but long time subscribers end up paying more than new subscribers (due to currency exchange fees). They should have fixed the amount to something like 14 usd so that long time subscribers would stay to keep their discounted price.
And, to prevent skipping a month, they now reset the 20% discount on the humble store to 10% every time a month has been skipped and only increase it back to 20% after 12 consecutive unskipped months. It could be a good strategy if not for the fact that the humble store is not cheap, the 20% discount barely made it competitive with other online game stores. So, instead of incentivising people from not pausing months, they're just incentivising people to not buy from their store.
And then finally, I have no idea for the reasoning behind locking the games behind a launcher. Why couldn't they keep the DRM free games for platforms not covered by the launcher?
Half the time when you download an Android app from their site, it doesn't even come down as an APK but a zip instead and you have to rename it to APK.
Android itself is mostly to blame for this pain.
Not that their offerings are that great or partly already not included to others...
This sort of thing smells of vicious downward spiral.
The Windows power-gamers can do the marketing as well, by pointing where to get cheap games when there is great deal around.
I really think that Linux crowd is more vocal on forums than in reality.
Let's say I am a power user, and I have 10 friends. I rave about a service because it serves me so well, my friends follow my lead, and now the service sees 9% users on Mac an 91% on Windows. A Linux power-user does the same, and now the service has 4.5% users on Linux, 4.5% on Mac, and 91% on Windows. Our friends then "recruit" their friends, and so on and so forth until the numbers are overwhelmingly pro-Windows - but the chains didn't start there.
Scenario 2: a Windows friend tells me a service is great, he's seen it on this video and blablabla. I check and it's just for Windows. Not only will I not sign up, I will probably badmouth it whenever the subject comes up. So chances are that at least some of our common friends will follow my lead and not sign up, even just because "what if I buy a Mac tomorrow? Their laptops are so nice, I just can't afford it right now but once I get a new job..."
You can't see these stories in a spreadsheet, because virality and clout are undocumented, so to speak, but they are often the difference between a healthy growing business and a dying MBA-driven shell of a company.
Some devs have even said that it's not worth it to release game on EGS and GOG due to overhead for keeping it up to date there...
Secondly that second point seems entirely vengeful and needless. If one of my linux using friends said as such to me I'd think they were being overly rude and spiteful, but worst of all I think such habits taints the view of developers and maintainers about the userbases. Why would developers want to support a userbase (if indeed the linux userbase all felt this way which I believe they do not) who would " badmouth it whenever the subject comes up" simply because they received a recommendation from their friend(?) that didn't support their preferred operating system? Also "maybe I'll buy a Mac tomorrow?" seems disconnected from reality by and large.
Finally virality and clout are absolutely documented. Is that not the premise of... every single social media platform these days? Every algorithmic recommendation engine is trying to represent virality and clout, since those terms directly tie in to user views, and thus profits!
It does, if you read what I wrote. 1 mac + 10 win + 1 linux + 10 win = 1 mac + 1 linux + 20 windows = 4.5% mac + 4.5% linux + 91% windows.
> this would almost seem to be in favour of windows users since they're relative userbase increases enough to outset surges
If you read it as numbers, yes. But the point is that certain things cannot be expressed in numbers. Because the mac/linux userbase is composed disproportionately more of power-users, who have disproportionately more clout among their network of acquaintances when it comes to IT and games, their overall influence is much higher than the numbers convey. They start the chains.
Your statement on not feeling this or that, btw, is directly negated by the very history of HumbleBundle.
> Why would developers want to support a userbase
We are not talking about developers here, but distributors.
> Every algorithmic recommendation engine is trying to represent virality and clout
That doesn't mean they succeed, and regardless, we are not talking about social media here.
You seem to have gone off on a series of rants without actually reading what I wrote.
IMHO, somebody should milk this market.
The warcry of uberfans of this or that IP the world over. I don't buy it anymore. That group can help, but they're not necessary for an IP/service to move forward. Worse, they have higher demands and expectations and feel personally offended when you do wrong by them.
Whether it's Humble dropping Linux or Marvel not lampshading a character detail, I'm moving closer to the perspective that a sold ticket is a sold ticket. But a sold ticket that doesn't result in a swarm of complaint emails is worth its weight in gold.
Now everybody and their mom knows what video games are + they're an accepted component of life and there's a huge gaming market, so uberfans aren't necessary for growth.
There were no games available on Linux in the '90s.*
* Except for those specifically written there.
Indeed. Before 1998 there wasn't even a proper full-blown desktop.
> But a sold ticket that doesn't result in a swarm of complaint emails is worth its weight in gold
What? Service sucks but we're not supposed to complain? We're supposed to just pay quietly and shut up?
It's comments like these that makes me glad piracy exists.
If you're trying to recruit hardcore gamers to proselytize, Windows is a great place to find them
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28978086
[2] https://old.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/qeqn3b/despite_hav...
If true, that just means that a small spreadsheet is dangerous. Not that going by numbers is bad by itself.
I wouldn't call moving from a single lump sum to a subscription model a simplification. What they are doing is replacing one-time payments with a slow trickle of multiple payments. With interests rates where they are, that slow trickle is worth more than the lump sums.
With 12$ grandfathered tier offering the most. Then having crappy lite tier, that is access to some DRM-Free games and 10% discount. A 15$ tier which allowed you to choose 3 games of 9-12 with 20% and 20$ tier which at the beginning offered single game less than grandfathered classic tier. Later they moved giving all the games to 12 and 20 dollar tiers.
I would say going from 4 prices to one is simplification.
I had Humble Choice for a year and loved it, then last Feb I skipped a month because there was nothing I wanted. I haven't paid since because the Choice options were getting less and less valuable to me. (As in interesting games, not price).
I almost purchased another year in their sale last month, but I'm glad I didn't I'd feel very ripped off now.
> In the new Humble app, you’ll also find more than 50 DRM-free indie games, experimental oddities, and other experiences inside the Vault, which you can download while you’re a member and keep playing even after your membership ends.
That's not DRM-free. DRM-free is that you buy it once, and then are able to use it forever.
That you can access downloading these games with a browser of your choice.
Its also odd to stop distributing binaries of previously released games. They still work perfectly fine, right? Very strange...
I currently got Classic, and it means I pay 12 USD (10 EUR) for about 10-12 games of which I play maybe one per month. Most games require Windows, might work in Steam/Proton though.
The 20% discount is nice, but I usually buy stuff when its discounted on Steam (my primary client anyway).
I can tell you this: altering the deal all the time doesn't give me confidence that I want to stay around. But perhaps they don't want me and want new people instead.
With regards to skipping: I never do this. I just give away keys to random people if I don't want them (already have for example).
It used to be opt in, not opt out to skip a month. IGN is basically trying to figure out how much they can extract from the good will they purchased.
$('.keyfield-value').toArray().forEach((x) => x.click())
var myKeys = $('.unredeemed-keys-table tr').toArray().slice(1).map((tr) => [tr.getElementsByTagName('h4')[0].innerHTML, tr.getElementsByClassName('keyfield-value')[0].innerHTML])
var stringMe = ''; myKeys.forEach((element) => { stringMe=stringMe+(element[1])+","}); console.log(stringMe)
[1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/01/humble-subscription-s...
[2] https://github.com/Lutymane/Steam-Scripts/raw/master/Batch-K...
myString=''; myKeys=document.getElementsByClassName('keyfield-value'); for(ix=0; ix<myKeys.length; ix++){ myString = myString+ myKeys[ix].innerHTML)+"\n"; } console.log(myString)"Humble Bundle believes that accessibility is an ongoing effort, and we continually improve our web sites, services, and products in order to provide an optimal experience for all of our users and subscribers."
Unless they own a Mac.
"Award-winning indies, Humble Originals & classics all at your fingertips. Download from our 70+ DRM-free game library. New titles added every month!"
DRM-free? But I have to run your launcher software? If I quacks like a duck it is DRM.
"Your exclusive and sole remedy with respect to any Product that is not downloadable or able to be activated within a reasonable period will be either replacement of such Product, store credit or refund, as determined by Humble Bundle in its sole discretion."
Ok. Per your terms of service statement. I will be wanting all my money back the moment I can no longer download my purchased software.
"Accordingly, in the event that Humble Bundle changes any part of the Service or discontinues the Service, which Humble Bundle may do at its election, you acknowledge that you may no longer be able to use Products to the same extent as prior to such change or discontinuation, and that Humble Bundle shall have no liability to you in such case."
Ok. Goodbye. You will no longer get any money from me. I'm very sure I can get the same games elsewhere.
https://www.humblebundle.com/ https://www.humblebundle.com/accessibility https://www.humblebundle.com/subscription https://www.humblebundle.com/terms
Basically with increased Proton compatibility and ease of use from SteamOS... installing Linux instead of Windows sounds like a viable option for gaming.
I don't even like Linux all that much myself, and am considering at least trying Steam OS on my PC once I get my SteamDeck.
It feels like this is a good way to market the device for potential future plans where Valve could build other niche hardware that would improve the viability of Linux for gaming devices on other hardware.
They're choosing to dump the 2 other major platforms that they would have next to 0 competition in, and focusing on the one major platform where they not only are competing on level ground with the likes of the EGS and Prime Gaming, they're going up against the biggest "games library as a service" offerings in the industry but , that also just happens to be the OS manufacturer as well, Xbox Game Pass. The service that's becoming pre-installed with newer windows builds, that's integrated tightly into the Microsoft ecosystem, and has a better library of both AAA and indie titles than humble bundle ever will.
First it was the Android madness (non-working pre-release versions were sold and never updated).
Then they changed slider defaults so very little money was sent to charities.
Then they started selling game assets instead of games.
Then they sued Steam.
And now this...
Then everything else, but lowest competence falls on wayside...
Is it really needed for something that is supposed to be a charity-ish?
The outcome we are seeing now was inevitable, it’s doubtful Humble would have ever seen success if it had started out this way. I have sympathy for the founders, this wasn’t their vision, but it was the likeliest outcome once they took on investment to diverge from what made them successful. Expect to see many more years of frantic and sometimes radical attempts to become a meaningful profit source for their new owners.
It's definitely an arms race, and the experience is getting worse and worse for customers (including software developers). I don't know if the average user notices these things or not. Valve is trying to not get caught in the crossfire here, and to have some recourse when inevitably MS wants 30% to allow steam to run natively in Windows. In the meantime they also have built a strong reputation among nerds like us, mostly as a byproduct.
But the parent did indeed mean the Deck.
Even assuming Steam Deck (which is what I think you really meant) is an absolutely roaring constant success then they still realistically have a couple of years before it'd really be a significant chunk anyways. That's ignoring the whole premise of their other development, Proton, which is about running the Windows games on such systems anyways.
While I have my windows computer primarily for gaming, I have long wished I could move away to a custom built linux or just a single Mac.
I don't want to support some place that once was good about alternative platforms and then dropped it. Especially when they themselves are not the ones making the games and are just the platform for getting them.
- I never really liked the Humble Choice mechanism. More quantity, usually less quality - I certainly don’t need another crappy game launcher - Despite moving all my gaming to a windows box after macOS Catalina, I’m disappointed at the loss of macOS/Linux options
I’ll stick with Steam, GOG, and itch. And resentfully Origin and Ubisoft when I want to play Mass Effect: LE or an Ubi sandbox.
[Edit: I guess it was always more efficient to donate to a charity directly, I meant now it is more efficient donate 95% to a charity and take the 5% or whatever to buy a DRM-free game and download it without a client at GOG, Itch, or other site.]
Is it because they don't want to maintain a cross-platform launcher app?
I know we are hating on Electron on this forum, but I'd expect them to have a cross-platform node app that's relatively cheap to maintain. Rebuilding it as a native Windows app (especially by a team experienced in web frontends) sounds more expensive on first thought.
What they never account for is that these things are like a Jenga tower; you can’t take out one piece without toppling the whole thing. This happens every time a good thing is sold to money-focused people. Immediately their question is “how do we make this even more profitable?” and the answer is usually “cut all the features that attracted people to it in the first place.” Then they are left scratching their heads when it comes crashing down.
If I want something truly DRM free I go to gog.com.
Do you not remember the videos they did for early bundles? "It's pay-what-you-want, DRM free, cross-platform and helps charity".
This really does not instil any type of loyalty... At least this change somewhat cleans up all that. But still it has been a mess.
I've kept the subscription mostly out of FOMO, since I'm still in the old price tier, but I don't really need another launcher for games I won't play.
Also, I have quite the game backlog now, so I guess I'll just let the subscription expire and look for alternatives.
Even with the decreased quality, $12 for 10 games is pretty good.
They stuck when they launched. If they had only kept their business model and improved they're service they would still be doing great.
Newsletter: https://blog.humblebundle.com/2022/01/11/humble-choice-is-le...
Link to their FAQ on the change:
https://support.humblebundle.com/hc/en-us/articles/441112762...
Which games do I get to keep forever?
https://support.humblebundle.com/hc/en-us/articles/441112762...
"All Humble Choice members receive a selection of hand-picked games redeemable via a key for select platforms, when available (Steam, Epic, Origin, GOG, etc.). You can find these games at the Humble Choice Hub after unlocking the current month of Choice. Games in the Humble app for Windows PC, including the Humble Games Collection, are only available to active Humble Choice members. New Humble Choice games are available on the first Tuesday of every month."
Which is good, because I have, ~20 pages of keys to redeem since I've been a long time humblebundler and usually only grabbed things as I was playing. I was worried I'd have to redeem them all before Feb, which doesn't sound like the case. So, business as usual for me? though it might be good to get most things I want redeemed over to steam fwiw.
It does sound (from reading this thread) that Linux/Mac users who want their DRM free d/ls will need to grab them before the switchover.
I'll have to see what happens though. The Humble Bundle goes out and finds some of the most unique experiences imo.
Assuming they still hand out Steam keys, I'll still be a customer. The day I can only download games via another launcher, I'm done.
I imagine many of the bigger games, only run on Windows. But they should just communicate this, don't force people use a new application.
Humble has given me some of my favorite game experiences so I'm going to give them a few months to sort themselves out
I somehow missed that, but they sent an email at the start of this year reminding users of it. Go to https://bookshelf.pottermore.com/ and enter your email. They will mail you a link to your bookshelf.
Follow that link and you'll find all your books with download links to download DRM-free ePubs.
I'm actually glad for new-subs that they get rid of horrible 20$ price point that no one sensible ended up using. Or should not have to with all the intro offers being shown all the time...
Nobody is forcing Humble to develop an nth game launcher. Nobody really needs another launcher. Launchers and their associated DRMs are the reason I prefer buying a game on GOG even when they are more expensive.
I am linux user but i will not miss humble bundle.
I'm pretty sure the alternative was nothing; their local download center doesn't need to exist, let alone be portable. Just have a web page with downloads.
I didn't claim anything from it, but if there started to be a diversity of accounts suddenly registering the keys it wouldn't surprise me if it raises flags somehow.
Could be lots of different IPs loading the page but I still don't see why they'd worry about that.
Not that it isn't apparent that Linux software distribution wasn't a mess back then...
the only way to go is to boycott
This part makes the above seem pretty reasonable. They are making a business decision on which platforms to support or not, however, because the games are DRM-free, current Max and Linux subscribers can just download the games and cancel their subscription.
The way this is being handled, for people who weren't buying for the Windows version, I find it hard to see as anything but unilateral confiscation of all purchases to date, with extremely questionable notice.
an entirely new launcher app, which must be used to access and download Humble Choice, Humble Trove, and Humble Games Collection games going forward
What is the Humble app? The Humble app is the access point for the Humble Games Collection, a perk for Choice members launching February 1st, 2022.
What can I find in the Humble app? The Humble Games Collection: A growing number of Humble Games published titles are available with an active Choice membership through the Humble app.
The Vault: The Vault will include over 50 Humble Original Games. Once downloaded, these games can be kept forever regardless of Choice Membership status.
Also: https://support.humblebundle.com/hc/en-us/articles/441112762...
Which games do I get to keep forever?
All Humble Choice members receive a selection of hand-picked games redeemable via a key for select platforms, when available (Steam, Epic, Origin, GOG, etc.). You can find these games at the Humble Choice Hub after unlocking the current month of Choice. Games in the Humble app for Windows PC, including the Humble Games Collection, are only available to active Humble Choice members. New Humble Choice games are available on the first Tuesday of every month.
The usage is very simple -- you login in a browser, find a cookie named _simpleauth_sess by the dev tools, copy it, and then paste it into single quotes (it includes double quotes!) in the below:
hbd -s '"long_cookie_value_of_random_alpha_hash"' --library-path local_target_dir --progress