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Humble Bundle releases EA/Origin bundle
- freehunter 13y agoOne note on complaints that I hear about Humble Bundles that consist of titles from big publishers (such as the recent THQ bundle). There are multiple Humble Bundles. The Humble Indie Bundle is not the only Humble Bundle. There are ebooks, music, and big publisher bundles as well. Just because a Humble Bundle is not all indie titles does not mean it's not a Humble Bundle.
- mercurial 13y agoWell, it's a bundle all right, but there is nothing humble about EA :) I'll wait for the next Humble Bundle, so I can buy more games I don't have time to play.
- jimhart3000 13y ago> I'll wait for the next Humble Bundle, so I can buy more games I don't have time to play. So much this. Virtually my entire Steam library, Civilization is the only exception I think, is from Humble Bundles, and I can count the games I've played through on no fingers. (I love the soundtracks they often include, though. Those actually get some listening time.)
- warfangle 13y agoNo problem with it being from big publishers. Only on Origin though? Ayup, that's a dealbreaker.
- gilrain 13y ago"The Humble Bundle hasn't weakened its brand! It's just split itself into several brands, some of which are in philosophical opposition to the original brand! Totally different!"
- vacri 13y agoThey've changed focus - not all of their early bundles were labeled 'indie', but the ethos was there. I stopped caring about them when they started spamming weekly deals. Still, 'humble' and 'EA' do not go together semantically.
- Raphael 13y agoIt's humble in that they don't require you to pay the standard prices.
- rossy 13y agoThe Humble Bundles did start with indie games, and one big selling point was the lack of DRM. The ebook and music bundles also had no DRM. Not only do these "big publisher" bundles have DRM, this particular one is also specifically promoting a DRM encumbered platform. That seems like a step backwards to me. Having said that, I still bought this one. The donation to charity is another big aspect of the bundles that I like, and it's nice to see EA give their share.
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- nolok 13y agoNote that EA / Origin is not getting money from this, their share of the money is given to charities (see the text box right under the game list on the page).
- drdaeman 13y agoThey do, although indirectly. I mean, through mandatory advertisement and data collection using Origin.
- VikingCoder 13y agoThese are available on Steam, so you don't even run Origin: Crysis 2 Maximum Edition Dead Space 1 Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box Mirror's Edge Medal of Honor
- TsiCClawOfLight 13y agoAFAIK, the steam versions also run trough Origin. I no this for a fact with Uplay, I think it's the same here.
- drdaeman 13y agoJudging from Steam forums it seems that they are mostly Origin-free and do not chain DRM schemes like it was the case with U-play.
- yareally 13y agoSome may require "EA activation" which pops up at the first run of the game, but they don't require origin if they have a Steam key.
- drdaeman 13y agoAnyone knows which games do this, and which don't?
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- pekk 13y agoThe involvement of Origin means this is really a loss leader. Buy a small library of EA games on Origin for $25, and suddenly you have a starter library. They sell you the razor at a low cost, donate to charity (good PR footnote), and then they can hopefully sell you more blades. They need this because Steam has a head start of years, with many people who have huge libraries they won't want to leave, and the availability of titles from almost every publisher but EA. And customers are likely as not to look at purchasing things on Origin as not just being DRM (which Steam also is), but having to deal with running and operating yet another client instead of having almost everything in one place. This is to EA's strategic benefit whether or not they receive any money via Humble Bundle.
- cmsimike 13y ago> The involvement of Origin means this is really a loss leader. The involvement of Origin is the reason why I am not picking up this bundle. Such a shame not all the games are available via Steam.
- speeder 13y agoI NEVER install Origin games on my PC, and this won't change this... The same also applies to that Ubisoft weird thingy too.
- freehunter 13y agoI actually have Origin installed on my laptop that my SO uses. She loves The Sims 3 that I had bought a retail copy of. I later bought a Steam copy on a sale just for convenience sake of not needing the disc. The problem came in when I wanted to play a Steam game but she wanted to play The Sims 3 on the laptop. Since I had a retail copy, I just activated the key on Origin (something I could not do on Steam) and now she can play with all the convenience of digital delivery but not impact my gaming time by making me log out of Steam. That's a perfect use case for Origin, in my mind :)
- estel 13y agoWhy not pick up the bundle and only use the Steam keys? It's still a great deal...
- haroldp 13y agoOne mac and zero linux games. Am I counting that right?
- sliverstorm 13y agoAre you lacking confidence in your ability to count to one? :)
- haroldp 13y agoHaha! Well the page lacks the usual fanfare about cross platform support that I have come to expect from Humble. I noticed it said that the Sims was available for Mac, I had to deduce it was the only one, and Linux support was altogether missing.
- sliverstorm 13y agoWhen fanfare is conspicuously missing, it's generally safe to assume it wasn't an accident.
- aristidb 13y agoKind of interesting that these "corporate" bundles always remove the EFF from the list of charities.
- notthemessiah 13y agoNot that interesting. Origin uses DRM, and the EFF is quite vocal in opposing DRM, software patents, threats to P2P software, and overly-extensive copyright. They have a long history of standing in opposition to groups like the RIAA/MPAA.
- Jare 13y agoIn that case EFF would also avoid Steam
- notthemessiah 13y agoYou assume it's EFF that's doing the avoiding. Why would they turn down an opportunity to get donations? All other bundles were delivered DRM-free, Steam was never the focus of any promotion until customers asked if they could get Steam keys.
- jlgreco 13y agoThe EFF quite possibly asks to be removed themselves.
- Sprint 13y agoI remember when Humble Bundle meant DRM free and cross-platform. Man, did they ruin that brand.
- warfangle 13y agoThe last time I used Origin, I think it summoned a demon.
- dombili 13y agoThis deal sounds great, but I'll take a pass. There's no point in denying that EA is doing something good, but knowing their way of doing business leads me to believe that they're just doing this to make Origin more popular and get more possible future customers. That's certainly not a bad thing, after all they're a company that wants to make more money, but I choose to avoid participating in anything they do.
- jiggy2011 13y agoThis looks like a good deal, but I heard something about Origin being full of spyware. Is there any truth to this or is it just FUD?
- bentcorner 13y agoFUD. It installs, at worst will ask you if you want it to launch on login (you can turn that off). origin.exe pretty much does what it says on the tin: allows you to download games and play them.
- shmerl 13y agoWhy FUD? DRM always has a risk of spyware. It's in the definition of DRM.
- mh- 13y agoDRM always has a risk of spyware There is also a risk of centipedes. Let's not forget what FUD stands for: fear, uncertainty, doubt.
- shmerl 13y agoYou ignore the definition. DRM means - publisher doesn't trust the user and the user doesn't trust the publisher. So DRM by design dictates the risk of malware and privacy violation by the publisher (as a natural mirror towards DRM assuming that users are potential criminal infringers by default). It's a good reason to avoid using any DRMed services - i.e. lack of trust inherent in the DRM by definition. If you prefer to call it FUD, start with the DRM itself. It's FUD towards the users. Naturally users should have a symmetric FUD towards the publishers who shove DRM in their throats.
- Guillaume86 13y agoDoes anyone managed to activate a game on origin? It's loading forever here.
- AmVess 13y agoKey redeems are not functional at the moment, either on their Origin client or on their website. Doesn't help that every major website I've been to today has reported this deal. :)
- ihuman 13y agoReposting my comment from the other discussion: I don't understand why people are complaining about the Humble Bundles lack of indieness and humbleness now. They have been very popular for a good amount of time, voiding its ability to call itself humble. Even though they popularized themselves through indie games, the humble bundle chose not to restrict itself to just indie games. You also have the weekly sales, which also adds to their delivering of non-indie games. And from an average user standpoint, it seams odd that people are complaining about inexpensive games.
- u2328 13y agoHa, gross. Why would the Humble Bundle people associate with EA?
- wamatt 13y agoSeems like a smart move. It could help to dampen the perception of evil attached to EA's reputation, whilst making a sizable ($1m+) difference to a number of charities. That said, it would be nice to see a greater choice in the number of charities. My own preference would be to donate to smaller and more focused variety. Or, even combining it with charitable crowdfunded projects. eg[1][2] Although, it may also be logistically harder to pull that off. [1] http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kite-patch http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kite-patch [2] http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/let-s-build-a-goddamn-tesla-museum--5/ http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/let-s-build-a-goddamn-tesl...
- wnevets 13y agothe only games that require origin is battlefield and sims. Worth getting the rest if you ask me.
- thezilch 13y agoAs much as people detest Origin, they really forget how awful Steam was and sometimes continues to be. I just launched the Desktop application, and it literally took 30 seconds to become usable. About 30x slower than a browser takes. I can't speak for Origin, but the market could use some competition, and it will also hopefully drive the DRM schemes to become more open, at which point we can ultimately build a non-centralized platform.
- shmerl 13y agoVery disappointing. They should concentrate on DRM free, cross platform bundles. Recently they have too many "Steam only" stuff. Now Origin? No thanks.
- hdra 13y agoMore than anything, I am bewildered by the general attitude here. Steam is the good guy, and Origin is akin to a malware? Pepsi and Coke, in my opinion. (I have never used Origin, but I intend to install it for this bundle)
- matt_heimer 13y agoBought this and activated all the steam keys. Haven't heard anything good about Origin but since I've never tried it myself I decided to give it a go. Seems to be a steam knock-off and the first thing it told me was that key redemption was currently down. Its like they only want me to use steam.