Humble Bundle Launches the Humble Store
by Jarred Walton on November 11, 2013 3:26 PM EST- Posted in
- Gaming
- Sale
- Humble Bundle
I’ve been a big fan of the Humble Bundle since it first showed up several years ago. I haven’t purchased every single bundle (often simply because I missed hearing about one of them!), but it’s a great way to get games at a discount without dumpster diving, and you can choose to support charity as an added bonus. Today, in addition to the regular Humble Weekly and the periodic Humble Bundles that they offer, the Humble Bundle is now offering the Humble Store.
It’s not clear exactly how long games will be available at the Humble Store, but the basic premise has changed a bit. For the Store, 10% off all purchases will go to charity, and there’s no longer a “name your price” option but instead everyday low prices. Right now (and for the next 24 hours), the nine games currently listed at the store have discounts ranging from 50% to 75% off, so for example Orcs Must Die! 2 and Natural Selection II can be snagged for $6.25 each (compared to a “normal” price of $24.99). I’d guess that all of the games in the store will always have some sort of discount, and the page currently mentions that the nine games on sale right now will be replaced tomorrow.
In alphabetical order, the nine games currently on the Humble Store are Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (10/2012, 79%, $6.25), Don’t Starve (04/2013, 79%, $7.49), Euro Truck Simulator 2 (01/2013, 79%, $6.25), Gunpoint (06/2013, 83%, $4.99), Natural Selection II (10/2012, 80%, $6.25), Orcs Must Die! 2 (07/2013, 83%, $6.25), Prison Architect (09/2012, N/A, $15.00), Rogue Legacy (06/2013, 85%, $7.49), and The Swapper (05/2013, 87%, $5.10). If you want you want more information on the games (and maybe comparison pricing – I’ll link the Steam Store pages), I can provide a short summary of that as well.
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare ($24.99) is a multiplayer FPS where you can besiege castles and raid villages with up to 32 players per map. Don’t Starve ($14.99) has you trying to survive in randomly generated environments, where you have to craft your own tools and other equipment and try not to die. Euro Truck Simulator 2 ($24.99) is exactly what the name says: you drive large trucks around Europe; it sounds pretty dull, but apparently it has a pretty healthy following. (Hey, don’t ask me – I don’t like Flight Simulator games either!) Gunpoint ($4.99 on sale) is a stealth puzzle/platformer game, with you playing the role of a spy infiltrating various buildings. Natural Selection II ($24.99) is a multiplayer shooter with some RTS/strategy thrown in for good measure, pitting space marines against aliens (think of the movie Aliens, basically).
Continuing the list, Orcs Must Die! 2 ($14.99) is a blend of tower defense and third person action, with the goal being to kill lots of orcs. Prison Architect ($29.99) is actually currently in alpha, and you get early access plus the chance to influence development of the game; it’s from Introversion, the same people that created Uplink, Darwinia, and DEFCON, so it’s probably a safe bet that it will be unique and fun. Rogue Legacy ($14.99) is a platformer with procedurally generated levels, and each time you die you continue as a “descendent”, with amusing “personality quirks” (vertigo, color blindness, dyslexia, etc.) The Swapper ($14.99) is a puzzle/platformer game, with the key mechanic being the ability to clone your character and swap between controlling the two characters.
Interestingly, unlike the regular Humble Bundle titles, all of these games have fairly high Metacritic scores. They’re also each about as expensive as a normal Humble Bundle, and they are all less than two years old. If you’ve been eying any of them, the current sale is certainly worth a look. As for the Humble Store, I likely won’t do regular separate updates on it (unless there are particularly awesome deals), but I’ll keep an eye on the games list and potentially note any worthwhile titles in the other Humble Bundle updates I post.
Source: Humble Store Debut
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Zefram0911 - Monday, November 11, 2013 - link
Natural Selection 2 is DEFINITELY A PICK UP!teiglin - Monday, November 11, 2013 - link
It's a good sale on a good game, but I remain disappointed that they didn't stick to DRM-free versions of the games, including Natural Selection 2. I personally have no issues buying from and using Steam, but that certainly isn't true for everyone in the world, and it also makes me much happier supporting these bundles (vote against DRM with your wallet!).ol1bit - Monday, November 11, 2013 - link
Hmmm,I think it's a fail. With this I see them as trying to compete steam, even though there are Steam keys appears. 10% default goes to charity? Sorry, I like the Bundles more, with more going to Charity, that was the point. Also no Android in store that I see.
Visual - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link
I don't get you people..."part of it going to charity was the point"... what? If that was the point, just go give to charity directly.For me the point was always the "pick your price", and choosing what goes to humble and what to the dev and knowing it really really goes to the dev and is not lost somewhere along the retail, publishing and distribution chain.
MyrddinE - Monday, November 11, 2013 - link
For those who do not understand the background here (including Anand): The Humble team has been offering a payment processing service to games for over a year now. Unlike most payment processors (such as Steam), they take a 5% cut, not the 10-30% cut of the payment that is normal.But you had to host the 'store' page for your game yourself. There was no central Humble Store with all the games that they process payments for.
Now there is. These games are NOT going to be sold at insane discounts. They will be regular price. This is as close as you can get to buying 'direct from the dev'... in most of these cases, if you bought the game from the developers site, the Humble payment processing was being used. Now they are collecting this stuff onto a store page. The dev gets more exposure, at the 'cost' of a 10% donation of the payment to charity.
This isn't really meant to 'compete' with Steam. It is more a way for developers to have a Steam alternative, for the few buyers who don't want or can't get Steam, or if their game has not been Greenlit yet (there are a lot of good games that fail to make it through the Greenlighting process).
I hope that helps explain it.
MyrddinE - Monday, November 11, 2013 - link
Sorry, I should have noticed this was written by Jarred, not Anand. My apologies.ET - Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - link
If it was 5% before, the cost is 20% - another 10% to Humble Bundle (15% total) plus 10% to charity. So it's still a tab better than in other stores (75% vs. 70%), but not hugely so.ET - Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - link
I wish it was possible to manually divide the money, choose how much to give the devs, charity and Humble Bundle. It's possible to put bounds on it (for example 50% minimum to devs, 5% minimum to Humble). That would make it more appealing IMO. Also a "pay what you want" option should be there, for those who want to give a little more to the devs.trinsic - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link
I think humble store is a bad idea. The whole point of humble bundle is to get something cool by either paying more because you just like the idea of support developers and charities , or paying less because you have a limited budget. Humble Store is living off the success of Humble Bundle, two very different things. If they wanted to do a store they should have called it something else so as to not taint the idea of humble bundle. IMHO there is too much incentive to get greedy and thats not what humble is about.