Bundles become a lot less Humble

[Output]

I had noticed that the drop-down to choose who gets what split (Devs/Publishers, Charity, and a tip to Humble Bundle themselves) goes where was missing recently, but I assumed it was probably a bug that they'd introduced in their coding that perhaps didn't like certain browsers.

Today I had a bundle with the drop-down, however instead of 'Choose' it now says 'See', with no ability to choose how much goes where.

Once again, I thought perhaps it was buggy coding on their part, but as a check in another browser showed exactly the same issue, I did a quick search.

A result quickly came up from a couple of days ago, from HEXUS' sister site bit-tech.

It seems IGN's purchase of them has finally taken effect, as it's severely reduced the main reason I liked purchasing via Humble Bundle, by limiting Charity splits to 15% at most - and that's if you specifically select the 'Extra to Charity' option, otherwise it will default to 5%!

Understandable on a Humble Store purchase perhaps, but a huge change to the behaviour on the Bundles themselves.

[Jonj1611]

Yes I noticed the Humble Store Tip is a lot higher now as well. Take for instance their latest Lego Bundle and you choose the £20 option, its split like this :

WB Games - £13.00
Stop AAPI Hate - £1.00
Humble Tip - £6.00

Wow. A whole £1 to charity, better than nothing but still it used to be better than that!

Or the Vegas bundle :

MAGIX - £9.50
Stop AAPI Hate - £0.951
Humble Tip - £8.55 <<<<-------!!!!!!

[Output]

Exactly.

I appreciate Humble Bundle have costs of their own, but it makes a mockery out of their charitable history to have the Charity split at such a small number, especially in comparison to what they are assigning to themselves.

It just makes them look like any other successful business that gets everything good about them reduced to very little when purchased by a much bigger one that focuses on ways to make a profit on their purchase as quickly as they can.

[cheesemp]

Ouch that sucks. I've always boosted my charity high and humble tip low. I just purchased the Lego bundle less than 2 weeks ago and was able to do it. Looks like profits rule once more...

[virtuo]

I was always the same, lion's share to charity, bit to humble as it made me think it helps them keep going, and nothing to the publisher who has probably already made their money out of the titles and shouldn't really be expecting anything back at this point.

Shame someone has seen huge amounts of cash going to worthy causes, looked out the window at their 2019 Porsche and thought "I could have some of that money"

Should rename it Crumble Bundle for the tiny crumbs the charities will get now.

[Scryder]

I found out about this a few days ago, and I'm pissed. I even recommended a bundle here the other day, thinking nothing's changed. Well, I won't be buying anymore bundles unless the deal is really really good. I mean at this point they're no different to the other third-party storefronts like Fanatical, GMG, Indie Gala, Gamergate etc...

Except... what they're doing is insidious... they should just stop with the Custom Amount and stick with the base prices.... as all they are now is a another storefront. And I'm not convinced everyone buying bundles has caught on that this change has happened... they kept the announcement on the down-low. Take this for example:


If the top 9 contributed this much for a £21.80 bundle, and number 9 is £35.83 ($50), how many more people have "contributed" more than the asking price thinking that they were giving to charity? Also all their bundles I've looked at the top 9 are above the asking price.

Oh and their official announcement is hidden in their blog (wouldn't know it unless you went there! Like I did): https://blog.humblebundle.com/2021/0...-bundle-pages/

Greed is greed I guess. The Not So Humble Bundle.


One last point, they used to do charity bundles... I have a hard time believing they'll give 100% to charity. I have no faith in Ziff Davis Group or their parent company J2 Global, Inc.

[Drago MkII]

Ah man, this is properly disappointing. Being able to take out the publisher split was a great way to get games from those publishers who don't deserve the cash through their bad behaviour (getting close to being all the major publishers these days) and give that money to charity instead.

As Scryder has pointed out it makes the custom amounts pretty pointless if you cant be putting most of that extra you're paying into charity, no reason to pay extra just to line someones pockets.

[Scryder]

Lol, so they're rolling back on their greed it seems. The sliders appear to be back.: https://blog.humblebundle.com/2021/0...undle-sliders/

Wonder why that is?
Not that I trust them anymore... they burned any good will I had with this dumb move. Sure they'll come up with some other insidious scheme. Fool me once...

[Output]

Lol, so they're rolling back on their greed it seems. The sliders appear to be back.: https://blog.humblebundle.com/2021/0...undle-sliders/


Wonder why that is?

Good to hear, although it should have been recognised as a terrible decision before they even implemented it.

Not that I trust them anymore... they burned any good will I had with this dumb move. Sure they'll come up with some other insidious scheme. Fool me once...

It is certainly a reason to keep a close eye on them from now on, their post even comes across to me as "we'll keep listening and try to see how close we can get to what we wanted, without people getting upset at us again".

[Jonj1611]

Good news

[Scryder]

It is certainly a reason to keep a close eye on them from now on, their post even comes across to me as "we'll keep listening and try to see how close we can get to what we wanted, without people getting upset at us again".

Yep, there's a bit in that statement that makes me think this isn't the end of this, and they'll still try and get more of the pie:

Part of that future development will include exploring different approaches to the sliders and how splits work, along with new ways to incorporate charity into other parts of the user experience.

I don't think this is over yet. I mean seriously, just get rid of the Custom Amount, and no one will complain. I'll accept that as a compromise... I won't get any more bundles without thinking twice either way now.

When I used the sliders I did make sure Humble and the Publisher got a decent split of the money... what I thought was more than fair.


I can actually imagine how this idea was pushed in their board room:
"Wow, [some] people are willing to give $100-$1000 to bundles. I think it's only fair that as this is our site, the charities only deserve 5% of that! (minus admin fee to paypal of processing it). I'm sure we can do this and no one will notice.".
Well, we noticed!
"So what are we going to do tonight Brain?"
"Same thing we do every night Pinky, try and..."

[Jonj1611]

I think the idea to give more to the company itself came from the message at the bottom of the page. $175,000,000 given to charity. Someone wants a piece of that!

[Output]

I think the idea to give more to the company itself came from the message at the bottom of the page. $195,000,000 given to charity. Someone wants a piece of that!

Fixed.

It amounts to the same situation of course, but an extra $20m to charity is nothing to sneeze at.

[Jonj1611]

Thanks, was going off what I remembered Indeed its a LOT of money, just think if someone was getting 50% of that! As with some of their fixed sliders, they were getting 50% and the charity 5%

[Output]

I had remembered the correct amount, but I double checked the link further up to make sure, in case I was somehow mistaken.

Indeed, it's why it wasn't entirely a surprise given I was expecting IGN to do something eventually.

Also, be sure to check out the Settings page of your account, particularly the section to calculate your own contribution to charity if you're interested in knowing that. I was pleasantly surprised by how much mine had mounted up to over the years.

[virtuo]

Lol, so they're rolling back on their greed it seems. The sliders appear to be back.: https://blog.humblebundle.com/2021/0...undle-sliders/

Wonder why that is?
Not that I trust them anymore... they burned any good will I had with this dumb move. Sure they'll come up with some other insidious scheme. Fool me once...

I think they said they were "testing" it, so you are probably in the control group for that A/B test on that bundle - how they determine a success or not I don't know, but I'd guess it'll be switched on for all users before long.