Humble Bundle Has Been Acquired by Media Giant IGN

Megalith

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Media giant IGN announced that it has acquired Humble Bundle, the company best known for selling packs of indie games at pay-what-you-want prices: this is potentially a big deal for game developers, since Humble has expanded beyond its bundling business to publish games, pay devs to make games for its subscription-based monthly game club, maintain a subscription-based online game trove, and operate an online game storefront.

A press release confirming the deal noted that Humble will continue to operate independently in the wake of the acquisition, with no significant business or staffing changes. It will have some degree of support from IGN (which is itself owned by digital media giant J2 Global), specifically in terms of accelerating growth and raising more money for charity. In a conversation today with Gamasutra, Humble cofounder John Graham and IGN executive VP Mitch Galbraith reiterated that IGN does not intend to change the way Humble does business.
 
Welp, that's that then.

Let's face it, IGN won't have bought it because they love the logo - they've got an idea to make money, which means it'll become gradually worse for all of us.

Well, Humble is a publisher as well as a retailer. So I'd imagine IGN wants to expand on that side of things.
 
I stopped caring about humble a long time ago, now it's really going to be shit. I guess the makers of humble didn't get enough money out of it.

Really though, IGN is pretty much buying their mailing list and website here.
 
IGN is partly a reviews site. They should not be buying a company that publishes and or sells games.
 
IGN is partly a reviews site. They should not be buying a company that publishes and or sells games.

Agreed. Its like a Food Critic buying a chain of restaurants. They may like food but have no idea what its like to run a restaurant.
 
IGN is a terrible review site (imho) with a toxic community. This will not be a positive move for anyone.
 
I though IGN was barely hanging on and at risk of going out of business soon. They are just going to take Humble down with them.
 
Is there any up sides to this? The purchase needs justified, so prices will be going up, which could also mean limiting the donations area. This month's monthly bundle already showed an area to abuse the system. They show Quake Champions as an unlock, which is a bit misleading as all you can buy on steam is the Quake Champions - Champions Pack. Do you get the pack? No. You get a gimped version. They do list in the text what you actually get, but you could imagine that they would love to sell special editions of games with only part of the contents from the full games. Five dollar teaser editions... like those nice free demos we used to get.
 
Congrats on the pay day to the humble creators and RIP HumbleBundle. As pointed out elsewhere, how many sites/companies has IGN bought out and crashed over the years? Download any DRM free/non key releated items you might have through humble while you still can.
 
Is there any up sides to this? The purchase needs justified, so prices will be going up, which could also mean limiting the donations area. This month's monthly bundle already showed an area to abuse the system. They show Quake Champions as an unlock, which is a bit misleading as all you can buy on steam is the Quake Champions - Champions Pack. Do you get the pack? No. You get a gimped version. They do list in the text what you actually get, but you could imagine that they would love to sell special editions of games with only part of the contents from the full games. Five dollar teaser editions... like those nice free demos we used to get.

There probably won't be many changes to the store side of Humble Bundle. However, IGN's connections as well as the money that can come from IGN's owners (Ziff Davis and j2 Global) can provide Humble with the resources to expand their publishing efforts. I figure that is the reason they purchased Humble. Humble just published A Hat in Time which is getting a ton of positive press.
 
Just re-upped my yearly sub wonder if I can go back on it if they mess the place up. Here's wishing it gets even better!
 
Humble Bundle has been dead to me for a while anyways... I bought everything already.
 
Humble Bundle has been dead to me for a while anyways... I bought everything already.

I found the book bundles pretty nice, especially the just recently ended Pathfinder bundle. Almost $400 worth of Pathfinder RPG books for dirt cheap.
 
I wonder if it's just a coincidence that this coming month's Humble Monthly features a bunch of F2P games.....
 
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