6 ms·

The humble bundle concept sold out a long time ago. The first incarnation was "The Humble Indie Bundle" - which raised an unexpectedly large amount of money for

The humble bundle concept sold out a long time ago. The first incarnation was "The Humble Indie Bundle" - which raised an unexpectedly large amount of money for independent game developers (in a time long before 'indie games' was a valid genre). After seeing that this was a successful formula, they went on to raise funding in 2011 and pushed for larger publishers / developers to target with their acquired audience of heavily engaged gaming fans (mostly indie people). There was quite a strong note of sourness at the commercial interests being spun out of what was originally a charity + grassroots initiative. Now, as many other people have mentioned in this thread, they've largely fallen into another same again steam sale outlet. My attitude is more of indifference - they sold out long before being acquired by some big old company. I feel they put too much emphasis on aggressively acquiring new sales at the expense of their old customers.

pvg 9y ago
in a time long before 'indie games' was a valid genre Humble Bundle would not have made any sense nor would have had much to sell if indie games weren't a 'valid genre' in 2010.
- dfox 9y ago
  In my opinion it had pretty significant role in making it "valid" genre by proving that people will actually pay for such games.
  - pvg 9y ago
    That's quite different than the idea that 2010, when Humble Bundle launched, was 'long before indie games were a valid genre'. Braid was a giant hit on XBLA in 2008, the very existence of a platform like XBLA from a major publisher suggests Humble Bundle didn't have much to do with creating or validating this market. It's certainly become a substantial player in it.
    - rkachowski 9y ago
      Braid was never marketed as an "indie game". Outside of tigsource and the IGF, "indie games" as a category didn't really take until a few years later (with things like Super Meat Boy and it's inclusion in 'Indie Game : The Movie'). The term was largely unknown until 2010 or so https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=indie%20games https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=indie%20...
      - pvg 9y ago
        That graph doesn't show what you think it shows. Google has a topic for this (which would be odd, if it was unknown in 2010) and if the trend graph measured how well something is known (which it doesn't) then 'Indy Game' as a topic was about as 'unknown' in the US this July as it was in February 2008. Which is obviously silly. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F065krz https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=%...
        rkachowski 9y ago
        You seem to be confusing the label with the market
        pvg 9y ago
        I think you might be confusing typing things with a rebuttal.
      - davvolun 9y ago
        Braid was one of the three games included in "Indie Game: The Movie." What exactly would Jonathan Blow have needed to do to "market it as an indie", giant glowing arrows on the title screen saying "this is an indie"?
fsloth 9y ago
Uh, they sell games. They continue selling games. That's the value proposition. I fail to see how they are not serving their old customers.
- city41 9y ago
  Most gamers distinguish games made by a small indie team and those made by Ubisoft, THQ, etc. Had the Ubisoft bundle been Humble Bundle's first ever bundle, they would have came across as a very different organization.
  - djur 9y ago
    The Humble Indie Bundle also once only included cross-platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux) and DRM-free games. It was a huge impetus for a lot of Linux ports of indie games.
    - boomboomsubban 9y ago
      Every game in the latest Indie bundle had Linux support. http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/05/humble-indie-bundle-18 http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/05/humble-indie-bundle-18
      - cannonedhamster 9y ago
        The Indie Bundles sure, but most of their bundles now are strictly not cross-platform.
        icc97 9y ago
        So they still do indie bundles, they still do pay what you want pricing, they still do DRM free, they still have support for charities. But on top of that they've added a lot of sales that breaks any of those principles. I think they did well to keep the core of the platform there but at the same time offering other things less noble that keeps them afloat.
  - 9y ago
kbenson 9y ago
> Now, as many other people have mentioned in this thread, they've largely fallen into another same again steam sale outlet. Except that a large chunk of the proceeds still go to charities. That's always been a selling point to me. Whether the games are indie games or older games, knowing that some of the funds are going to a charity is a large incentive for me.
- drngdds 9y ago
  Same. I like that I can buy more video games I don't need and not feel bad about it because I'm helping prevent malaria. (This is also why the Humble Monthly Bundle is disappointing. Only 5% going to charity is pretty weak. Compared to the 100% you can do with regular Humble Bundles, at least.)

pvg 9y ago

in a time long before 'indie games' was a valid genre Humble Bundle would not have made any sense nor would have had much to sell if indie games weren't a 'valid genre' in 2010.

dfox 9y ago
In my opinion it had pretty significant role in making it "valid" genre by proving that people will actually pay for such games.
- pvg 9y ago
  That's quite different than the idea that 2010, when Humble Bundle launched, was 'long before indie games were a valid genre'. Braid was a giant hit on XBLA in 2008, the very existence of a platform like XBLA from a major publisher suggests Humble Bundle didn't have much to do with creating or validating this market. It's certainly become a substantial player in it.
  - rkachowski 9y ago
    Braid was never marketed as an "indie game". Outside of tigsource and the IGF, "indie games" as a category didn't really take until a few years later (with things like Super Meat Boy and it's inclusion in 'Indie Game : The Movie'). The term was largely unknown until 2010 or so https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=indie%20games https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=indie%20...
    - pvg 9y ago
      That graph doesn't show what you think it shows. Google has a topic for this (which would be odd, if it was unknown in 2010) and if the trend graph measured how well something is known (which it doesn't) then 'Indy Game' as a topic was about as 'unknown' in the US this July as it was in February 2008. Which is obviously silly. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F065krz https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=%...
      - rkachowski 9y ago
        You seem to be confusing the label with the market
        pvg 9y ago
        I think you might be confusing typing things with a rebuttal.
    - davvolun 9y ago
      Braid was one of the three games included in "Indie Game: The Movie." What exactly would Jonathan Blow have needed to do to "market it as an indie", giant glowing arrows on the title screen saying "this is an indie"?

fsloth 9y ago

Uh, they sell games. They continue selling games. That's the value proposition. I fail to see how they are not serving their old customers.

city41 9y ago
Most gamers distinguish games made by a small indie team and those made by Ubisoft, THQ, etc. Had the Ubisoft bundle been Humble Bundle's first ever bundle, they would have came across as a very different organization.
- djur 9y ago
  The Humble Indie Bundle also once only included cross-platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux) and DRM-free games. It was a huge impetus for a lot of Linux ports of indie games.
  - boomboomsubban 9y ago
    Every game in the latest Indie bundle had Linux support. http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/05/humble-indie-bundle-18 http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/05/humble-indie-bundle-18
    - cannonedhamster 9y ago
      The Indie Bundles sure, but most of their bundles now are strictly not cross-platform.
      - icc97 9y ago
        So they still do indie bundles, they still do pay what you want pricing, they still do DRM free, they still have support for charities. But on top of that they've added a lot of sales that breaks any of those principles. I think they did well to keep the core of the platform there but at the same time offering other things less noble that keeps them afloat.
- 9y ago

kbenson 9y ago

> Now, as many other people have mentioned in this thread, they've largely fallen into another same again steam sale outlet. Except that a large chunk of the proceeds still go to charities. That's always been a selling point to me. Whether the games are indie games or older games, knowing that some of the funds are going to a charity is a large incentive for me.

drngdds 9y ago
Same. I like that I can buy more video games I don't need and not feel bad about it because I'm helping prevent malaria. (This is also why the Humble Monthly Bundle is disappointing. Only 5% going to charity is pretty weak. Compared to the 100% you can do with regular Humble Bundles, at least.)