THQ Humble Bundle - AKA Everything Must Go Sale

[MrHat]

$6 for Saints Row 3rd, Darksiders, Metro2033 and the Company of Heroes stuff.

Madness.  Hope their stock improves.

https://www.humblebundle.com/

Edit: Everything is Steam-Keys.

[rattran]

In for 1. Seems a good deal, and THQ is desperate for cash.

[Paelos]

Crap, I already own all of them.

[schild]

I own like one of these, but I don't give a shit about the fate of any big name publisher at the moment. They're all awful and treat their workers like slaves.

[Ingmar]

You can just set 0% to go to THQ then.

[DraconianOne]

Awesome

[rattran]

Being an extra big jerk, I set charity to 100%.

[Rasix]

Being an extra big jerk, I set charity to 100%.

Hey, me too.  The jerk store called, they're running out of us.

Maybe I'll be nice and install/play none of it.

[Vaiti]

Did the same, knowing that any amount of my money would end up in THQ HQ's pockets and literally a percentage of a penny of it would end up in the hands of the devs owedn by THQ.

In for 1$  all to Charity for all but Saint's Row 3. Did that 10 times. Now I have some Christmas gifts as well.

[Amaron]

I've been waiting to get Saints Row 3 super cheap so I jumped in on this.  Company of Heroes is a nice bonus.

[eldaec]

Hang on, how is setting charity to 100% the dark side choice now?

[Fabricated]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/11/humble-thq-bundle-threatens-to-ruin-the-brands-reputation/

I like how having a bundle of AAA games instead of the usual "here's like 2-3 good indie games and like 5-6 that are shit" bundle is somehow a controversy.

[Typhon]

New ars tech game dude is a douche.  Fucking hate him.

[Vaiti]

Do yourself a favor and don't look at this Twitter then. 

[Paelos]

Steam is DRM now? 

[tazelbain]

It always was.

[Paelos]

I never thought of it in that regard. I guess it is. Which makes DRM in Steam even more silly. 

[schild]

HAH. The new Ars Technica guy is Kyle Orland. Let me tell you a story about Kyle Orland. A year into starting f13 (so end of 2004ish), I ran into a young, way too hyper sycophant in a Gamestop named Kyle Orland. I was in there picking up some games and they asked me if I needed to preorder something or rather and I told them I was getting a press copy. This obnoxious white kid stopped me on the way out and asked what I did. I didn't really talk about f13 publicly - and I still don't - but he was pretty persistent and wanted to tell me all about his blog or site or whatever Gaming Ombudsman (archives here - http://kyleorland.com/thegamebeat/?cat=423). All I know is he came off as creepy enough as I wrote him off as being a low/mid-level gaming writer for the rest of his life.

tl;dr: I predicted his future and he's still too obnoxious to achieve actual success. Calling him a douche is completely within reason.

[Amaron]

It always was.

Steam does not and has never required DRM.  That is only included at the request of third parties.

[tazelbain]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_%28software%29

Steam is a form of DRM but certainly not the worst.

[Paelos]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_%28software%29

Steam is a form of DRM but certainly not the worst.

I almost think of it as DRM light if that's the case. It has no online requirements other than the actual downloads, which is tied to the digital delivery.

[koro]

I guess Ars folks stick together:

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/the-humble-thq-bundle-loses-indie-games-adds-drm-and-is-a-step-backward-for

The money quote:

I’m going to be a hypocrite and buy a bundle, just because these are incredible games at a staggeringly low price...

 

[Hoax]

How are you guys paying for this? Does everyone but me actually still maintain a paypal account with money in it? 

[Fabricated]

Hi, don't read Penny Arcade report.

Or any of PA's spinoff stuff really. It's all bad.

e: especially extra credits, which is done by a "game design consultant" who was too douchey to remain employed at THE ESCAPIST of all places.

[Rasix]

How are you guys paying for this? Does everyone but me actually still maintain a paypal account with money in it? 

Amazon payments.  Just uses my credit card.

[Threash]

How are you guys paying for this? Does everyone but me actually still maintain a paypal account with money in it? 

Amazon payments.  Just uses my credit card.

Ditto.  Very convenient.

[HaemishM]

For a $1 with the chance to "stick it to the MAN!!11!!" sure, why not?

[koro]

Hi, don't read Penny Arcade report.

Or any of PA's spinoff stuff really. It's all bad.

e: especially extra credits, which is done by a "game design consultant" who was too douchey to remain employed at THE ESCAPIST of all places.

Well yeah, PAR is terrible; it's Ben Kuchera with no editor.

As for the rest of PA, I stopped reading it years ago, though I still patronize their forums.

[Ghambit]

Is anyone paying attn. to the amount of money they've generated with this thing?  I mean, it's nothing to scoff at.  They went past 2.3m this morning and have sold .5m bundles.  In a day.  Anyone here think those 5 games would've generated 2m in revenue in 24hrs on their own?

Granted, they've got to pay for the bandwidth but I'd like to see some numbers on this model after the write-downs for the charities.

[Gets]

I just want everyone to be friends... and Dawn of War 3 with as many voice actors as possible.

Good bundle, imo, since from now on people who don't find indie games attractive will still take a glance whenever they hear a new bundle is up on sale.

[Vaiti]

NO GETS THQ BAD, STOP LOOKING ON THE GOOD SIDE, DRM

Kotaku was quick to join in with quality headlines.

http://i.imgur.com/7zCtS.png

I don't see how this bundle is bad. At all. Charity, good games. Throw all at charity, buy.

I now know that THQ is broke and something about Steam DRM or...I dunno. It's bad man. Like real bad.

[HaemishM]

As DRM goes, Steam is fantastic. It's fairly noninvasive, unless your name is sinji, and doesn't by itself prevent me from installing the game on as many computers as I can login with. AND SALES.

It DOES seem a trifle... not indie seeing as how the ACTUAL DEVELOPERS of the games aren't being given a slice unless THQ decides to give it to them. So in that sense I can see where some panties might twitch if not positively bunch. Since you don't have to give THQ a red cent, you give money to charity AND you give money to the Humble Bundle people, which means there could be more good bundles in the future. It's not like EA or Blacktivision got in on the deal. THQ may actually have less money than Notch at the moment. 

Games journalists should go searching out some real stories to get outraged about.

[Amaron]

Steam is a form of DRM but certainly not the worst.

Steam provides a form of DRM.  It is not drm in and of itself.  There are games on Steam which can be run without even opening Steam.

[tgr]

I never thought of it in that regard. I guess it is. Which makes DRM in Steam even more silly. 

Yeah, I always just thought of it as a content delivery service, even though it does do DRM-y stuff if the developer/publisher wants it to.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say it does DRM just right. I've yet to actually be hindered in playing a game due to steam's DRM, even when my internet connection suddenly fell off the face of the earth for a week, whereas other forms of DRM just didn't want to let me play at all.

[Margalis]

The Penny Arcade empire is as a whole total garbage.