What's going on with Humble Choice and Humble Bundle? - Success turns to trouble

[@Kinglink]

So.... I still believe in everything I said in this video, it still is true. However I also feel like I defended IGN and Humble pretty solidly. Unfortunately the new policy and the fact Humble is taking huge (30 percent) cuts of purchases, while DEFINITELY makes me reconsider my conclusion. Might post an update, but felt that I should at least post an "UPDATE" To this, in that the situation has changed in the last month at this point and should be evolving further.

[@chadmestdagh3641]

Having had the bundle subscription for 5 years now ( I think I joined in the second month it was offered), I have come to the conclusion that my first reaction to seeing the next months games is always going to be “Meh”. But then I play the games and there is typically 1-4 games that I actually enjoy. The bundle always has at least one game that I think is fantastic in some form. And I have also come to realize that one of the best things about the bundle is that there is going to be more than a few games that I have not heard of. And that is kind of the point of getting the bundle really. Finding these little untold gems that I probably would have glossed over and never purchased otherwise. I think that the problem for me is a little different than what other people seem to have with the bundle. Having had the bundle for so many years now, I have a huge backlog of games that I would really like to try and put some time into and every month, I get 1-4 more that would go into that pile. The logical thing to do would be just to stop the subscription and play those games as I probably have enough games in that pile to last me the rest of my life if I really wanted to play them the way that I think I would in my head.

[@aveatdj]

this happens to me too, its like a dream but also a nightmare, having so many games i would like to play, but dont have enough time, like you say , we have games for play all the rest of our lives, and i even be afraid of die before i even complete most of them, but again , every mont there come new games and this just grows, it beautiful and awful at same time, i miss when i was a kid i only had one or two games to play and i spend all my time searching every corner, sometimes i even dreamed i had al the nes or snes games and this become what is reality now, i just didnt have enough time to play and got so anxious because having many titles and only played like 5 min of each one, not really getting to enjoy one, this really is like an addiction maybe , just for the feeling of getting new games release some dopamine i guess. i just hope when i be old an dretired have enough eyes and hears and hands to can play all of the backlog i have lol.

[@missitheachievementhuntres560]

Good video, you gave me some new insight. A lot of the humble choices have very enjoyable titles in them, they just aren’t AAA titles.

[@zjmullan]

Great video dude, very well made ;) Regarding what you said in the video, yeah humble has really been declining. I've paused my subscription of the humble choice every month for around 6 months now because nothing really interests me anymore. I remember checking the humble monthly on the first Friday of the month exactly at noon several times over the years (even if I was in school haha) and I never do that anymore. I think it's for 2 reasons though, because yes I am uninterested in the humble choices but also I only really play a few games now like osu!, apex legends and valorant. I see the points you made in the video, defending ign's acquisition of humble bundle, but the correlation just feels very strong to me. Whether it's true or not, it just seems like there's significantly less bundles and the bundles are often of lower quality. Remember when they used to have weekly bundles? Those are long gone now and there's no replacement other than niche things like book and software bundles. It's all kinda sad but as you said, expectations are low so it's become the norm for humble's bundles to be a let down.

[@MrRiseT]

Man, I definitely wish you a lot more subscribers. Your gaming videos are outstanding - and I'm rather picky. And as the icing on the cake, the sound of your voice is really one one loves to listen to. ObsidianAnt comes to mind. Keep up the good work!

[@Kinglink]

This was amazing to hear. I've never really been comfortable with my voice, but if you enjoy it, then that brings me a enjoyable comfort that has brightens my day. Thank you.

[@iku7630]

I don't think IGN had anything to do with bundle quality. I just think at this point it becomes difficult to even make a bundle with enough interesting games that represent a certain value, that people want and that developers/publishers are willing to make a deal for. At some point the well runs dry. There are not that many AAA games releasing on a yearly basis, I think Humble Bundle is especially interesting for publishers who have games with DLCs/long life span. So they care more about attracting users than selling the base game for the highest price (SEGA, Paradox for instance). Also one thing to take into account: PReviously you got 10 games a month out of a 12 game selection and now you have 12 out of 12 games thus far.

[@Kinglink]

This last month really proved that I think. It has some great headliners (Control, X-COM, and Elex) But then it had two worthless games (Boreal Blade, and Pesterquest), having them shrink to 10 or even less might make each game more valuable.

[@nikstar22]

You have totally forgotten what it is humble bundle! all the idea is charity!

[@PatrickCatrick]

What I want humble monthly to be is few quality games that are vetted by the steam community or other method. I don't want 12 games that I will not play. MSRP can be total of $100 or less, I don't care about that. I will even take 4 games bundle that I will play and enjoy than 12 fillers like fantasy blacksmith.

[@zachb8012]

Cheers to that.

[@SNESmapper]

But the 4 games that you want to play will be the source of complaints for many others. I feel that by releasing more games there is a higher chance of pleasing more people. I am/have been subscribed to just about all types of gaming subscription services ranging from Game Pass to Stadia and people are never fully content with the services' games being offered.

[@Metahec]

You have that with Basic more or less? You choose 3 games from the 6 games in January's Choice that have 80% or more on Steam reviews. You aren't stuck with the excess games you won't play and others aren't stuck with just a limited selection.

[@PatrickCatrick]

@@Metahec I'll add another complication to that then. I do have classic subscription. If I wanted only three games of twelve, I have to redeem all the bundle or cancel my classic subscription because I am only getting worth of few dollar (basic bundle), but always paying more. I cannot cancel classic and come back to it. As in, if there were ever a humble monthly that I wanted all, then I cannot go back to classic. So my problem is the fillers. I get that my suggestion might look like I am limiting other's choices, but really, how many people enjoyed paths of giants, struggling, frog detectives 1&2, and tabletop playground from December humble monthly? That's $55 Canadian or something. I am just saying I want one game that can be of less MSRP but better than 80% steam review game. Heck, why are we getting any game that is less than 80% on humble choice to begin with? I thought the reason for humble bundle was for indie games that are good but do not have cash to advertise will get some sales numbers.

[@BigDoniel]

@@PatrickCatrick Have you not saw the Steam reviews for the games in the bundle? They're pretty much all 90%+, with an odd exemption being Indivisible but that may be due to publisher issues? The bundles haven't really changed from monthly-choice. It was always a few bigger games with some more obscure titles, like it is now. Overcooked and Children of Morta were arguably the biggest titles in December, with One Step of Eden not far behind (95% positive reviews on Steam). Beast Inside is at 90%, Indivisible is highly regarded, and the other games are 70%+ with most 90%+. Not sure how exactly they would vet the games any better? And that cost £10, the first game alone is easily worth that. Ultimately, the issue with the bundles is the same as it always was, you have no control over what you're offered. But what is offered is still ridiculously good value, in particular for the classic subscribers.

[@Ehzah8]

i'm not quite sure what people expect for 12 dollars - while some months might not be to my taste i still think the bundles great value generally i feel like most people who invariably complain about "current month" being a new low for humble aren't even looking at the games being offered before crying about it on reddit. games like pathologic 2, children of morta and indivisible are all high quality AA titles - and the price of the bundle is often the historical low of just one of these games anyway

[@billygilmusic5072]

I will never forget when they gave away CoD WWII + Crash N-Sane Trilogy + Spyro Re-ignited trilogy for $12. it was a little over a year ago I think

[@Squashpickle]

Great analysis :)

[@opcomment]

Hi pickle :)

[@johanteksaskiranger4383]

you're going to be very successful and blessed.

[@billmarion5796]

It's sad, but I agree. I don't see Humble achieving any satisfying deals in the foreseeable future.

[@drdramatik]

Do you think that single-key bundles could maybe solve some of the grey market issues? If so, why hasn't Humble implementer that already? And what do you think the future of Choice is? Also, small side note, spreadsheets aren't attractive to look at, so maybe try to fill your background with something else, or maybe keep those clips shorter.

[@Kinglink]

I think if Humble was smart (and had the ability) they would link your steam account to your humble account and then it unlocks all games on your steam account. But I also think that tech isn't there. They are doing that with Epic, and I think they did that with Battle.net (With Overwatch). I'll try to work on the spreadsheet thing. I really wanted to show the spreadsheets, because a lot of people think "Value is everything" But... Yeah, should have been shorter, or just random gameplay. Original plan was a lot of random gameplay of Jurassic World but I Think I used less than 3 minutes of it.

[@vlad34791]

@@Kinglink They also have done it with GOG games, when they were giving away GOG game. And Sega even managed to do it with Steam, when they were giving away CoH2 DLCs, but required link accounts and allow it to activate a steam key on your account directly without giving it to you.

[@tjm3378]

Nice video, keep them coming

[@smileandlaughs]

I got the Call of duty black ops bundle and the damn game crashed at start up so I couldn't play it at all.

[@oneuponedown9503]

Can you use these for consol games ?

[@Kinglink]

There have been console bundles a long time ago but I don't remember any in the last few years.

[@bluuowl3325]

any humble alternatives?

[@Kinglink]

I'd love to see some examples, but the two I mentioned are fanatical.com/ and indiegala.com (Though you might see the selection issues I mentioned.) I do think Xbox gamer pass is somewhat comparable if you just want raw entertainment.

[@bluuowl3325]

​@@Kinglink yeah but i dont like xbox pass because you don't keep the games

[@vallejomach6721]

@@bluuowl3325 Having been a subscriber to Humble Bundle and Choice for about three years or so now I have to say that I've thought recently about cancelling. I've noticed for some time now that there's steadily been a number of titles that have been included in bundles over the last year or so that have appeared free elsewhere as mentioned in the video...and, whilst subjective as it always will be, I do think that the overall selections have in some way diminished in quality, if not necessarily monetarily decreased in value. There are, at the end of the day, a number of options that now exist in the way that people can access games and I think that Xbox game pass for PC actually provides some pretty stiff competition for Humble going forward... Sure, a common complaint is that people can't keep their games with game pass...and that's true...BUT, I would say, is that really a problem? I have a lot of PC games going back 20 years or so and of those older games that I still own do I want to play many of them? Some maybe...but then there's plenty of them that simply won't work anymore even if I did without hoping there's some fan-made patches that make them compatible with more recent systems...and I'd have to actually care enough to faff around jumping through hoops trying to make that older title work. I've got an original version of Halo and to get it to work on Win10 it needs a patch...now obviously that was a monumental title...and it so happens, perhaps not surprisingly, that there's an official patch to enable that, but it's not perfect, sure you can get it to run but there's no guarantee that it won't be without issues. Lesser titles though fare less well...good luck getting Eidos Interactive's Braveheart to work on a modern PC...it didn't even work when it was new and notoriously had serious issues...but hey! I own it right!? Obviously those are extreme examples and more recent titles will have fewer problems, but eventually time will catch up with those also. Then there's games that simply no longer exist or can't be played anymore...I've got original discs for Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided MMO and it's expansions and there's plenty of other MMO examples that simply don't exist now...or more recently Cliffy B's Lawbreakers. It doesn't matter if you own a game if you can't play it. The other point, one which was raised in the video, is that games periodically do get removed from services like game pass. Again true, but playing devil's advocate again...is that also that much of an issue? First point in that regard is that they do give advanced notice of when something is leaving game pass. Now, obviously, in some cases that might mean that sometimes some people that want to play a particular title might not get around to playing or finishing a game...but the notification time is fairly generous and I would argue that in most cases IF it was absolutely something that you didn't want to miss out on most people would find a way to get through whatever it was they wanted to play in the time they give before it goes away. Not to mention that the turnover of games means that there's a pretty good chance that there'll be something else for people replacing whatever it was they missed out on...If A) You absolutely must have a game for all time...then you'll probably buy it outright, if not immediately, then at some point after playing it on some service like game pass B) If you play a game and like it...most likely you won't necessarily want to play it again immediately, so if it goes away and then some time later you want that game again...by the time that happens you'll probably be able to pick it up dirt cheap in some deep sale C) There'll be a ton of games, if anyone looks in their library, that people play once and never touch again even if they enjoyed them...so, again, do you really, really need to 'own' it for all time? I don't know that I do...

[@1995oskardukowski]

Interessing

[@FlyboyEz3]

Humble Bundle def went downhill since IGN bought em. It is a fact.