Humble Bundle Abandons Plans To Remove Charity Donation Sliders

That's counterintuitive...

Stumble Bundle.

Saw this the other day. Looks like humble is turning more into a generic storefront everyday. Like honestly who buys games with them? I only came for the bundles and to donate and that’s all I care about, but they keep going in the opposite direction every year.

They don’t even notify me of bundles anymore, just game deals....like bro I don’t care.

We're for charity but not too much.

So, is this better for charities? I thought that was the whole point of humble bundle.

Ever since they got bought by IGN, the quality of their bundles dropped a lot. Because of that, they probably sell fewer of them and now they are pretty much forcing buyers to give money to them instead of charity. I get the reasoning, but that's still a bad move.

Not so humble I guess.

Sorry but this is the opposite of what they were meant to be.

@Yrreiht At least Humble Choice have been great for awhile again.

Wouldn't it be easier (and better) to just give to charity?

They used to have some good deals but now they're pretty average, which is a shame

I don't know how to feel about this...

I get the point of making sure both them and the publishers gets a bit out of it, help the system run and makes more likely publishers will be willing to offer the good games.

That said... 15% being the 'extra' max charity option feels like an incredibly small amount for a deal all based on donating to charities....

@Ocaz well other store gives almost nothing in charity... Better than nothing?

What the percentage before? I always thought it was all or at least almost all to charity.

This is not really Humble Bundle anymore, is it...

@Kimyonaakuma you can donate ti charities if you want, but let me tell you one thing, I would never donate to those charities listed in Humble Bundle!

@AmplifyMJ there are still bundles, they are still humble...

Humble Bundle no longer exists. Say hello to Stingy Bundle!

@Strictlystyles strange, I've received a notification of a game bundle just some days ago...have you checked your spam folder?

Feels like nintendo need more money to speed up release of metroid prime 4 and zelda: botw2 with charity games, everything got a price

@KillerBOB
I'd rather they donated to the universal problem of homelessness and hunger.

I always gave as much share to publishers/developers as possible anyway. If I want to donate to charity, there are plenty of other ways to do so.

Ehm, sorry, but those charities listed there are corrupt.
Do you research. Don’t make the rich richer with your hard earned money. Sad images and scary stories might make you feel guilty, but don’t fall for it. It’s not what it seems...
No matter how bad I wish to help those in need

Wow. Well and truly the nail in the coffin for "humble" bundle then.

I have refused to buy a few bundles in the past as they seemed to force you to support "charities" that were political/activist organisations, including one tied to several current bundles, which is a pity, as I would have bought the Vegas and Graphics bundles otherwise, but I cannot buy them with a clear conscience, however great value they may otherwise provide.

They have recently removed the slider which allows you to split the nominated amount between the publisher/s, charities, and admin costs. I have emailed them about it, and they claimed it to be a mistake, but they haven't reinstated it.

Once, I was able to select a charity of my choosing and I was grateful to oblige as they have a 100% donation policy (admin costs are covered by sponsors). Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do that with "humble" bundle since.

Obviously it'd be nice if they could keep it completely open to the buyer to split the payment across all three but let's be honest, the people who should be getting paid are the developers/publishers, then charities and then Humble Bundle. I wouldn't be surprised if they're doing this because of feedback they've recieved from developers.

@Whitestrider shhhh well considering they don't have to do it on the account that they have many forms of revenue plus it's entirely up to the user to go higher than 15% it's just a loss. But with charities I suppose u don't know how your money is being used anyway.

@Whitestrider hmmm, not really the Humble Bundle we know and love, IMO

@Silly_G Charities and political lobbying go hand in hand.

Trying to solve problems at their root cause is a major priority for those having to solve the immediate issues people face.

@Richnj : Throwing money at political organisations is not the key to resolving societal problems. All I ever see is money being thrown at this cause or that and yet problems only ever seem to persist if not worsen.

They are just another store now. I prefer just buy little indoe games in dale and help they survive doing games than donate to a org that I no have ideavif money will be really used to help someone.

(sets it to 16%)
"woah woah wow, don't you think that's a bit too much for charity? Don't wanna give them the wrong impression!"

Today on ‘NLife comment sections hit a new low’, charities are bad.

@Silly_G Which is why they lobby governments to enact policy changes that will affect positive change. Don't ignore that the activist organisation you are against here (if I have my suspicions correct) is fighting against stuff that was exacerbated by the previous US government and other polictical activist groups.

When money and political power were used in making the problem, you kind of expect money and power to be used to solve it.

It also doesn't help when the causes have more money and political lobbying power than the people trying to solve the issues.

@Richnj The bundle in question is donating to Stop AAPI Hate. Apparently some people just don’t want to stop violence against Asian Americans.

Ya'll think a company donating to charity is about supporting the charity?

@nessisonett Yeah, that's the assumption I was working under.

And I don't understand the resistance to these as a group either. I'm getting a "I don't want politics in my games and movies" vibe.

This is really disappointing. I've always slammed that charity slider to the max when getting a bundle. I never liked how low the actual charity portion defaulted to, but I accepted it since I could change it. This change ensures that hardly anything goes to the charity and that doesn't feel right to me. At least make the bigger portion go to the charity, not the smallest. I always thought that this was supposed to be a easy way for publishers to donate game keys to help raise money for charity. Seems like Humble Bundle has lost its way.

They got tired of people like me donating 100% to charity for years.

Looks like I'm done buying from Humble Bundle. The whole point of humble bundle is to support charity. 15% is small change.

Oh well, no more purchases from humble bundle from me.

This sounds like Locast now.😝

FYI - Locast is an app that offers "free" streaming of your local tv channels, but you have to "donate" wink wink $5 per month or $60 per year to cover their costs.

You see, they can't just charge you, b/c then they are a "distributor" and would have to be regulated. So instead they "claim" to be doing a free service as a charity so no regulation, but you have to donate. And if you don't donate, they turn you off and make you log back in. And since it's ONLY live tv, well you miss part of what you were watching.

For the record, I'm all for the gray areas and getting one over on the man, but Locast shouldn't be advertising "Free" if you have to "donate" $5 each month, and Humble Bundle should just drop the whole "charity' charade if it's set at 5% w/ a max of 15%. Just announce you're a store now, which you are.

@Yrreiht Thanks for that IGN comment. Even though it was 4 years ago I didn't know. Pretty much explains everything, don't it?

Hoping one day they’ll do things for the switch one day

Ahhh I see IGN got greedy.... as always.

Surprised no one has mentioned that IGN bought Humble Bundle a few years ago.

@cammers1995 well 15% Is better than nothing, you know,...

I bought a lot from the them... I bought the first One!!! Yeahh 15% cap is a no, no for me.

Humble Bundle has been getting more and more greedy for years now. It was only a matter of time before it got worse again. I won't be purchasing from them again unless they start changing their ways. This just isn't what they were supposed to be.

@fafonio Yeah, this is the first I'm hearing about it, and suddenly, what I've seen over the past few years make a lot more sense now.

Definitely feels like there's been a shift from doing sweet deals for charity, and now it's more, doing sweet deals [charity optional].

this is garbage.

Unless they do another humble console deal im not supporting them anymore... even then I only ever bought both nintendo bundles.

I should be allowed to give 50% if not 75% to chairty if i want..

At least they have donated nearly $200,000,000 to good causes over the last decade. I’ve supported them for years and have had more than good value out of my return. F1 2020 and Shenmue III are included this month.

As for 15% not being adequate, overheads must have become problematic for them. If everyone slides the charity slider as far over as they can how could they survive?

Check out the small print for some of the charities who send clothing bags to your home and see how much of the proceeds make it back. It’s often as little as 2.5%.

@BakaKnight Pretty much what I think.

I haven't gotten a bundle from them in a time, but when I did it was for something I didn't really want much but figured the money was going to charity anyway.

That said, if the publishers start getting a guaranteed 80% cut instead of 0%, the quality of the bundles may go back up again. If it increases their bundle sales enough by offering quality products instead of obscure games and comics, random manga, and software totally outdone by its competition, the total amount going to charities could actually go up!

Less humble than ever, I see.

It was a fine website, but, then when they turned it into primarily a book store and started giving out 1 title at the $1 price in their bundles (used to be 5 or 6), I think they lost focus. I guess ebooks are cheap, but, I thought most people used that site for video games, so it's kind of annoying to see 5 or 6 book bundles and 1 or 2 game bundles, like the games are some kind of side project now.

Wait, Humble Bundle still is a thing??!? I thought that died in the '00s.

It used to be basically publishers giving away games for charity and extending a huge value by bundling games for it to customers with the pay what you want model.

Now it's just buying games and the digital equivalent of the "would you like to make a donation to the xxx fund? (So we can declare charity and claim deductions off our corporate taxes at your expense while projecting a positive PR image with marketing paid for by you?)" question asked at the register of most major retailers, to which the only viable response is really a middle finger.

Well thanks Humble Bundle for realizing your mistake

Good on them for keeping things the way it was meant to be.

Hey look Ma! More 'Door in the face' marketing from a once reputable game company! Sure is great to see the Oldies Greatest Hits still going strong.

Damn, Humble has really gone to s-t. SMH.

Good. Imagine thinking giving less money to charity would be met with anything other than a backlash.

@EVIL-C that’s unfortunately happened after the IGN buyout

@nessisonett I know, what were they thinking and what were they expecting?

IGN is the worst.

I just spent 20 minutes trying to Find out what charities money goes to and whether can choose a charity of your own. It isn't very transparent. Just saying money "goes to charity" is not enough these days.

No second chances. The fact that they tried to do this in the first place tells me this is no longer an organization I can trust to do the right thing.

They trying to get around people like me buy the bundles and set 100% to charity. I probably haven't even opened 70% of the games anyways. I've even tried to give them away on twitch.

At the very least, they reversed their original bad decision. That counts for something in my book.

Good on them reversing the decision!

I’m finding increasingly hard to applaud U-turns. It was a terrible decision that even the most incompetent middle/senior manager should have foreseen, the cynic in me thinks that sometimes companies make these “bad decisions” to get publicity after the heroic u-turn. That or they are completely incompetent and greedy. Either is not a good look.

Before making big decisions they should do research, engage with customers and do what they need to survive. I’m fed up with this “let’s test the water and see what we can get away with” approach that these over paid Politicians, middle and senior managers now think is acceptable.

Glad they reversed it.
Still baffled it even came to this in the first place.

What diplomatic phrasing in that tweet. :V

@fafonio IGN, I should've known... 🤮

You know what, I'm starting my own charity, Mexican lives matters
Feel free to give me your money so I can provide shelter and help Mexicans across the world to better their living conditions

@fafonio IGN didn't buy them, the people who owns IGN did. It's like saying Lucasarts bought Fox because, when it was Disney who bought both

@Fiskern yes and no. Straight from Wikipedia: In October 2017, the company was acquired by Ziff Davis through its IGN Entertainment subsidiary, though operates as a separate subsidiary.

I remember IGN straight up announced the buyout and that HB would be operating under them... yeah it was Ziff Davis but they did it strictly through IGN.

@Strictlystyles I mostly bought games from them when they had a lot of Android games in their bundles and the occasional console bundle. I haven't bought anything from them in 5 years.

Haven't purchased anything from Humble since the IGN parent company took them over. Monthly bundle hasn't been worth it and sale prices are better elsewhere. Also unlike Fanatical, GmG or just buying directly from Steam, Humble charges sales tax where I live.