Plenty of reasons, but the biggest one is that they get PR for “giving away” digital copies of games that have been out for several years and certainly aren’t making much money for them. And what’s this? Several of them have quite a few DLC packages that people have been spending money on? And what’s this? You have to have Origin in order to play several of the games?
I also wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some kind of huge tax loophole in here somewhere for EA. “Oh yes, we gave away 500,000 Humble Bundle packages in a charity drive. Didn’t get a dime. Of course, each of those packages retails at 215 bucks, so we’ll call that a $100 million donation, shall we?”
For the record, I was merely asking, since I am not sure I wanted every game in the bundle. I have a few games sitting in my Steam list from other bundles and so forth and I have thought about gifting them.
While some of the games come with both Steam and Origin codes, the exclusives for donating more than the average are both Origin-only, as is Dead Space 3. I wouldn’t be surprised to see further Origin-only games added later in the next week for those donating above the average.
Further, EA is generally considered to have a really bad reputation. They’ve beaten out companies such as Bank of America, Comcast, and Walmart for two straight years as The Consumerist Worst Company in America, for goodness sake. So the positive PR they get from doing this is probably worth the cost in lost sales.
Finally, I do think they’ll get something else out of this–a charitable tax write-off if nothing else. Whether for the actual amount (~$2.6 million ignoring Humble Bundle’s tip cut for the moment, and we’ve still got 13.5 days to go) or Johnny Bravo’s tax loophole amount or something in between, they’re getting some monetary value out of this deal.
I do find it funny, though, that Origin has a message upon logging in at the moment stating that code redemptions and store purchases are currently down. All of the Steam codes have worked without a hiccup, but we can’t activate the Origin-only games yet or even buy other games from their store. Way to make your biggest digital competitor look even better, EA! :smack:
Battlefield 4 and Mirror’s Edge 2 are due to come out pretty soon, not sure if there are others in the pack with sequels coming. Putting out the current versions for cheap will help to hook more players for the next version–particularly for games like Battlefield that are effectively online-multiplayer-only.
Since you mention this, I have a quick question. I’ve never used Oracle before. Is it like Steam in that you have to have some program running in order to launch the game? Or is it more like other DRM solutions that just make you perform a single online registration? And is it different for games that are “Origin enabled”?
It gets kinda annoying with Steam, especially since I have two computers, and thus can’t just leave Steam running in online mode. One of them has to either be logged out or in offline mode. It makes cloud saving not as useful as it could be.
Whenever I log into steam on a different computer, it logs out the other active computer. I have never had to remember to log out. Are you trying to have to accounts active at the same time, so you can play on one while downloading on another or for LAN gaming?
Base Tier
Europa Univeralis III Complete
War of the Roses: Kingmaker
Warlock: Master of the Arcane
Leviathan: Warships
Dungeonland
The Showdown Effect
Beat the Average (currently $5.80)
Crusader Kings II
Magicka
It’s worth noting that none of the games except EU3 include DLC and some of the titles have a LOT of DLC (lookin’ at you, CK2 and Magicka…)
There’s also a deal for 48 Paradox games for $125 which is kind of silly. Anyone who likes Paradox titles enough to want 48 of them probably owns many/most of them already and anyone who doesn’t own most of them probably has no inclination to drop $125 on a giant bundle.
Sure, it will log the other account out, but only if I enter my password, and the entire point of saving my password is so that that doesn’t have to happen. For accounts like Steam, which use money, I use very complicated passwords that are not easy to type and are easy to fumble. It’s actually easier to always put the account in Offline mode than to have to type that password every time I start my computer or want to play a game.
All I wish they’d do is let you still be logged into both. Don’t let me play the same game at the same time. Heck, don’t let me play any two games at once. But at least let me use my saved password in two different locations at once. They even have the same (external) IP address, for goodness sake.
And, yes, it is incredibly stupid that I can’t download something at the same time I play something. It’s not as if most games need you to actually be online, let alone involve significant enough bandwidth that it justifies stopping all downloads. And I don’t even mean on separate computers. You literally can’t play one Steam game while you are waiting for another to finish downloading. Great way to encourage impulse purchases, guys.
The whole thing is about enough to make me go ahead and illegally download the games I own just to avoid these pointless restrictions. The only reason I haven’t is that I’m pretty sure I’ll be sorely tempted to stop buying games again once I realize how much more convenient that method is. Thank goodness for GOG.com and Humble Games. And thank goodness that I mostly like indies, which often have DRM-free digital downloads.
Since these are all Steam-only downloads, any of them actually really good, for someone who doesn’t really like old school CRPGs? In other words, they need something novel to get my attention.
They pause downloading in case your internet connection sucks and you end up having a bad multiplayer experience while downloading something, but you can bypass it. Just alt tab after the game is launched and hit resume download.
Pay What You Want
Trine 2: The Complete Story
Mark of the Ninja
Eets Munchies Beta
Brutal Legend
Beat the Average
FTL: Faster Than Light
Fez
I’m not a big fan of beta in Humble Bundles but Trine 2, Mark of the Ninja and FTL are all great games. Fez has a lot of good reviews but the developer managed to piss a lot of people off as well. Please note that you can set contributions to developers on a game by game basis by clicking the little arrow next to “Developers” in the payment field. I’m not advocating stiffing anyone but a number of people swore not to give the guy a penny and if you’re one of those people, at least you won’t stiff ALL the developers.
I see they’ve changed the “bonus game” thing to require you to beat the average to get the “upcoming” games. You used to get them if you paid anything before they were revealed.
I would be excited for this bundle (for once. Most of them just don’t contain games I want at all.) except for the fact that I already own all the games I want from it. Oh well.
Thank you! That’s at least one headache down. I’m also working on a little helper program that will automatically enter in my password whenever the password screen pops up. Maybe I could also have it automatically resume downloads, too.
Humble Focus Bundle this week. This is a “weekly sale” and so has quasi-set pricing; you’re always allowed to give extra but the upper tier is a set price instead of a “beat the average”.
$1 Tier
Cities XL Platinum
Bowl Bowl: Legendary Edition
Divinity II: Director’s Cut
RAW: Realms of Ancient War
Game of Thrones: Role-Playing Game
Confrontation
$6 Tier
Wargame: European Escalation
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes
I haven’t played many of these but Divinity II makes it worth it all by itself. Fun 3rd person perspective Action-RPG.
I have a question. I have already purchased it and given my money mainly to charity, so I don’t care. However, did this include Apple apps for Ipad? I thought I was getting the Ipad app for Ticket to Ride HD, but it looks like…it’s for an Apple computer?
Can I get the app I just bought(plus the others if I want) for my Ipad? If so, how do I get it on there. I thought I’d get an Itunes gift code.