If you're interested in getting a bunch of games each month, the Humble Monthly has at times been quite generous with the selection. Things are about to change, with it being renamed to Humble Choice with new options.
Currently, you pay a set fee of $12 a month (or less for more months) and get at least one game to play early. Then at the end of each month, they give you a bunch more games ranging between 7-11. That's changing sometime later this year with Humble Choice. As the name suggests, it does seem to actually give you a little more control. Games are revealed upfront instead of being a mystery and you pick the ones you want from a larger list.
Instead of a single monthly payment, they're splitting it into tiers (click to enlarge):
So it's going to be ~$8 per month more expensive for the main plan, with cheaper options for those who want it. Previously the standard Humble Store discount was 10%, with that now rising to 20% for people on the higher plan. In addition to it no longer being a mystery, they're also committing to giving you an exact amount of games too instead of it sometimes being 7, the next month 10 and then 8 the next and so on.
However, if you're a current subscriber of the Humble Monthly, they said you will get to keep the top tier of the Humble Choice subscription at your current cheaper price until you cancel (pausing is still fine). If you pick it up any time before Humble Choice launches, you will keep the cheaper price too. You can see their new page to talk about Humble Choice here.
You can see their announcement video about it below:
Direct Link
I'm in two minds about it. I've seen a lot of talk about Humble being "greedy" and all sorts of colourful language being used. To me, the reaction from comments across other sites has been a bit odd. Of course, no one likes a price increase and it is a lot more expensive there's no getting around that for new customers. Existing and new customers before the change get a good deal, new customers after get less. The tactic used is obviously to get a bunch of people to sign up now, to get it for less.
Thinking on it though for $20 a month with 9 games to keep (or $12 a month + 10 games if you're an existing sub), a 20% store discount and access to whatever DRM-free titles you want from the Humble Trove any time at least to me still sounds like a fair deal overall doesn't it? Heck, chucking them $4.99 even for a single month for the basic plan to grab the 60+ DRM-free titles from the Trove itself is a good deal. For Linux gamers especially, actually now knowing what games you get to pick from is a good bonus.
Obviously, the value of it for you all depends on what your usual purchasing habits are like. Once they have a date set and launch the change, I will let you know.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: wvstolzingWhen you're describing 'the new ways to subscribe to us', it's odd to enumerate the obsolete way as 'the best way' in your ad. Besides the second paragraph could suggest that new subscribes could, after all, later switch to the Classic plan -- though not 'automatically'.
Better to put a big disclaimer to the effect that if your subscribe before the swithch, you get to have certain privileges. '!!!!ALERT: ONLY FOR THE LOYAL PRE-SWITCH CUSTOMERS!!!!!!!', or something like that.
Yeah, I'm no marketing guy but it does seem like a strange way to position their tiers. It devalues the "premium" tier. IMO they'd have been better to shift existing subscribers over to the premium tier at the current price, and not even have a "classic" tier.
Quoting: scaineI'll be pausing this month, for example, because the main reveal is COD:WWII which is "borked" on ProtonDB, and I've no interest in the other two reveals. But I'll be gutted if the remaining games are games I'd buy.
I was able to swap COD:WW2 and Crash Bandicoot with someone on barter.vg for Mutant Year Zero, which runs great under Proton. Doesn't look like a great deal on paper but I'm happy with MYZ for AU$18, if anything else in the monthly is any good that will be a bonus.
Not much time left to get it done in 2019. I wonder if they'll transition in November or December.
It sounds like we'll still be able to pause with the new system at least: "Pausing your subscription is fine, and you will not cause you to lose access to Classic for doing so."
Quoting: g000hI'd like to understand what the game tiers are going to make available to subscribers. Is it a case where they will offer 15 games per month and then you choose 10 of them (if you are on the top "Classic" tier). Or is it the case that they offer 10 games per month, and you'd get all of them, even if there are titles in that 10 which are no use to you (e.g. Windows game / already own it / etc.)
Agreed, it's not at all clear whether this is changing. Presumably since they haven't said anything about this, it stays the same and the set of games changes every month?
Quoting: g000hAnother thing that strikes me: Surely this shift means that a lot of the Games Choices made available will not be fresh, new titles, but will be Repeats (from earlier bundles).If they continue with a set of only 10 or so every month, I don't see why this has to be the case. But as someone who has only recently (this year) subscribed, I'd be quite glad to get access to some of the stuff from past months (and non-monthly bundles) I missed out on. Still kicking myself that I didn't pick up Tyranny and PoE for AU$7 a few weeks back.
Quoting: toojaysQuoting: g000hAnother thing that strikes me: Surely this shift means that a lot of the Games Choices made available will not be fresh, new titles, but will be Repeats (from earlier bundles).If they continue with a set of only 10 or so every month, I don't see why this has to be the case. But as someone who has only recently (this year) subscribed, I'd be quite glad to get access to some of the stuff from past months (and non-monthly bundles) I missed out on. Still kicking myself that I didn't pick up Tyranny and PoE for AU$7 a few weeks back.
Just to clarify my point a bit. I've been subscribing to Humble's Subscription for more than 2 years. I already own PoE and Tyranny (as per your example) and if those 2 titles appeared again in a Monthly Sub, and Classic tier gives you 10 games with 0 alternative choices, then I'd get 2 things I wouldn't want (and potentially miss out on 2 new games, of the old scheme).
I'm all for choice, if it is actually there. If the top tier just gives you all 10 games, and you have no choice, then that sucks. Assuming I go ahead with another year's subscription, I could find myself with a load of duplicate games, where the "choices" are filled with older, pre-bundled titles.
Quoting: g000hI'm all for choice, if it is actually there. If the top tier just gives you all 10 games, and you have no choice, then that sucks.
I'm completely the other way.
The way I was assuming this would work is: there's 10 new games each month. Classic tier gets to keep all 10. Premium would keep 9, and so needs to select one game to not get.
And I would hate that. Knowing I'd have to decide to not get one of the offered games, month after after, would destroy me. Yes, might be that for some months, there would be a game I'm completely not interested in or already have or whatnot. But I'd be wagering on that, and that's just anxiety-inducing. I would just not subscribe to this at all.
Since I am a current subscriber, if Classic then gets me 10 games, I'd be okay with that. Though I'm fearing the day they'll drop that completely.
If it's now, as some have suggested, a roaster of games bigger than 10 each month... Yeah, I'm out.
Quoting: toojaysYeah, I'm no marketing guy but it does seem like a strange way to position their tiers. It devalues the "premium" tier. IMO they'd have been better to shift existing subscribers over to the premium tier at the current price, and not even have a "classic" tier.
The page itself looks really strange...
"Meet the Classic plan!"
"The Classic plan is the best way to subscribe"
"Don't miss out on the Classic plan"
"Lock in the classic plan"
"To learn more about the Classic plan, read our Frequently Asked Questions."
It doesn't look like they're serious about the other tiers.
Quoting: DrMcCoyQuoting: g000hI'm all for choice, if it is actually there. If the top tier just gives you all 10 games, and you have no choice, then that sucks.
I'm completely the other way.
The way I was assuming this would work is: there's 10 new games each month. Classic tier gets to keep all 10. Premium would keep 9, and so needs to select one game to not get.
And I would hate that. Knowing I'd have to decide to not get one of the offered games, month after after, would destroy me. Yes, might be that for some months, there would be a game I'm completely not interested in or already have or whatnot. But I'd be wagering on that, and that's just anxiety-inducing. I would just not subscribe to this at all.
Since I am a current subscriber, if Classic then gets me 10 games, I'd be okay with that. Though I'm fearing the day they'll drop that completely.
If it's now, as some have suggested, a roaster of games bigger than 10 each month... Yeah, I'm out.
I don't get you on this. If you received a duplicate of a game you already owned, you'd be happy with that (rather than getting something you didn't own)? Also, you'd not want the situation where you could choose 10 games out of 15 possibles? We're Linux gamers on this channel - Every monthly sub, there are a bunch of Windows-only titles, and some of them won't work with Proton (e.g. EAC-protected online multiplayer titles) - Couldn't you happily discard some titles?
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To further expand on my status: I do like the 'Reveal All' aspect of this change. This does mean that I'd have a clearer picture of what I'm getting, and could decide to 'Pause-A-Month' if there is very little of interest appearing. But, how I imagine it could work out: I see all the titles, see that 5 out of 10 are Windows only-titles. Then see that 2 of the 5 remaining Linux titles I already own. So, I'd have to decide whether I want to take the sub for just 3 titles (and 7 that wouldn't appeal).
voyager2102 Oct 21, 2019
And I think that is one of the main reasons why they want to do this: To take all the game keys out of the market that destroy the prices for a lot of the games that are in a humble bundle. I think that that is probably a significant factor for devs selling their games via humble bundle: The game keys will appear in significant numbers in the grey market and will put pressure on game prices. That will in turn make the price that humble has to pay for those games significantly higher since the devs will try to recoup some of that effect. So yet another point for them to maximize their profits: More devs will be less reluctant to sell to them at what will probably be a lower price. And since the new system will also give them a better estimate on what the bundle is actually being bought for (in most cases probably the AAA titles) the big developers will also be able to ask for a larger share of the income.
I'm pretty sure the classic option will only stay on for a little while longer to minimize the damage the price hike is going to do to the subscriber numbers until we all mentally accept that the higher price is ok... :(
HyperRealisticRock Oct 22, 2019
$5-10 dollars is the usual mid tier cost in a bundle and gets you 4-5 game to keep so this pricing seems unjustifiable.
I'll be sticking to bundles for now.
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