Since I follow Humble Bundle on Tumblr, I noticed this post. Media giant IGN just announced the acquisition of Humble Bundle. The company we all know for selling packs of indie games at pay-what-you-want prices. While terms of the deal are not disclosed.
What about Linux and Ubuntu support?
What about indie games?
This is potentially a big deal for game developers. Since Humble has also seen expansion into publishing gaming. Paying devs to make games for its subscription-based monthly game club. Maintaining the subscription-based online game trove. Plus operating an online game storefront.
The Humble Bundle post:
Announcing our biggest bundle ever: Humble Bundle is proudly joining the IGN family! We will continue to bring you all of our humble products, but with more resources and help from IGN.
We chose IGN because they really understand our vision, share our passion for games, and believe in our mission to promote awesome digital content while helping charity. I can’t think of a better partner than IGN to help Humble Bundle continue our quest.
We will be working harder than ever to bring you the best gaming bundles, book bundles, and store sales. While nurturing the Humble Monthly and our new publishing initiative. We will keep our own office, culture, and amazing team with IGN helping us further our plans. We will raise even more money for charity.
John and I started Humble Bundle from our childhood homes. When our parents found out that our “big idea” was basically the honor system of pay-what-you-want plus charity, they braced themselves for the possibility that we might never move out. Seven years later, thanks to the generosity of over 10 million customers, we’ve now raised $106 million for charity. We are incredibly proud of this figure, of our team, and the Humble community which got us here.
But as far as we’ve come, we know we are just getting started. Even bigger things lie ahead, and we think IGN is the perfect partner to help us get there.
If you like Humble Bundle now, stay tuned, because we’ll have more exciting things to share in the near future.
-Jeffrey Rosen
Co-Founder, CEO
Humble Bundle
Gamasutra, Humble co-founder John Graham and IGN executive VP Mitch Galbraith explain. Sighting that IGN does not intend to change the way Humble does business.
However, a press release confirming the deal. Also notes 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.
“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” said Galbraith. Who also explained that IGN started looking to make a deal like this nearly a year ago. “The idea is just to feed them with the resources they need to keep doing what they’re doing.”
“We want to stick to the fundamentals in the short term. We don’t want to disrupt anything we’re doing right already,” added Graham. “Because of the shared vision and overlap of our customer bases, there’s going to be a lot of opportunities.”
This is all well and good. I mean IGN could be the leg-up for Humble Bundle. More notice, more hype, more games.
But what about Linux and indie games?
Up to now, I’ve always had a thing for the Humble Team. Their pay-what-you-want deals and various bundles have always caught my attention. Even some without native Linux or Ubuntu support. Yet always keeping hope, like many, that the next bundle would offer better native releases.
Yet this acquisition has me a bit concerned. Since the indie’ish label of Humble Bundle has always worked via their own means. Giving gamers a range of choice:
- Providing that certain indie flare we are used too.
- Organically gaining popularity by media sources, social media and good ol’ word of mouth.
- Still having Linux and Ubuntu backing in the midst of it all.
On the other hand, this could be a big boost for Humble Bundle. Giving indie games, Linux and Ubuntu a big push in the industry. That is, if the initiatives are honest and insightful.