humblebundle
Latest
Humble Comedy Bundle lets you pay what you want for laughs, big spenders get Louis CK
The Humble business model can apply to anything. Now, you can pay what you want for stand-up comedy in addition to e-books, music and video games. For the next two weeks, you can get comedy specials from Maria Bamford, Tig Notaro, Hannibal Buress and Jim Norton for as little or as much as you care to spend. If you exceed the average donation though (currently $8.60), you'll take home Louis C.K.'s killer Live at the Beacon Theater set and three releases from his very good friend, the late Patrice O'Neal. As is the case with other Humble Bundles, anything you download is DRM-free and your donation supports great causes -- all for less than a comedy club's typical two-drink minimum.
Humble Bundle's Origin package offers up some of its biggest games yet
Humble Bundle has had a pretty good run with its game offerings so far, but its newest grouping of Origin titles provides some of its biggest names yet. Included in the bundle are Mirror's Edge, Medal of Honor, Dead Space, Dead Space 3, Crysis 2 Maximum Edition, and Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (most of which are available on Steam). The games can all be purchased for $1, but paying over the average (currently $4.54) will also net you Battlefield 3 and The Sims 3 Starter Pack. Buying the bundle won't just score you some sweet games; you'll also be contributing to a few good causes, as Electronic Arts is donating its share of the proceeds to charities like the Human Rights Campaign, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the American Red Cross and the American Cancer Society. For more info, check out the video after the break or follow the Humble Bundle link below.
Latest Humble e-book Bundle lets you pick your own price for unicorns, Wheaton
For the next two weeks, you can snag four e-books for whatever price you want with the second Humble e-book Bundle. As always, each contribution benefits whoever you prefer, be it the authors, charity, Humble itself or a combination of the three. If you want access to all six books, as per the Humble pricing model you need to kick in a sum greater than the average $9.40 donation. For less than a few gallons of gas you'll net Wil Wheaton's Just a Geek and Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn in addition to the other four tomes shown below. The sun hasn't set on the first day of this six-pack promo and over $150K's been donated so far. Reading-on-the-beach season's half over, so get crackin'! The Last Unicorn - Peter Beagle Just a Geek - Wil Wheaton Little Brother - Cory Doctorow Boneshaker - Cherie Priest Spin - Robert Charles Wilson Shards of Honor - Lois McMaster Bujold
Double Fine classics hit Humble Bundle, $35 nets Broken Age pre-order
Heads up, folks, just go ahead and grab your wallet right now. That's because the latest Humble Bundle has arrived, and it includes a number of stellar titles from Double Fine. Here, you can name your own price for Costume Quest, Psychonauts and Stacking, and if you beat the average, you'll also score a copy of Brutal Legend. All payments of $1 or more will net you a Steam key for the games, which are available -- some for the first time -- on Windows, Mac and Linux. As a unique twist to the promotion, payments of $35 or more include early backer access to Broken Age, the crowd-funded game that was previously known as Double Fine Adventure. As always, you can allocate some (or all) of your payment to charity, which benefits the EFF and Child's Play. Click on through to the Humble Bundle and you'll find bonus incentives for doling out some cash.
Humble Bundle game sales now coming weekly, starting with Bastion
Who would've thought that letting consumers pay what they think is fair for quality games would prove popular? That's the concept behind Humble Bundle, and so far, it's been rather good to developers and charities alike. Now, deals from the company are set to get a whole lot more frequent, as it's just announced weekly game sales that'll supplement the monthly bundle offers. You'll find a new game from Humble Bundle go up for sale each Tuesday, and to kick things off, the company is starting with Bastion, an RPG from Supergiant Games. Just $1 nets you a Steam key to the game, but if common decency isn't enough of a reason to pay more, you'll find bonus content and merchandise up for grabs, too. This week's charities include the EFF and Child's Play, but you've only got seven days to act before another game takes its place. Best start checking it out, and you can start with a demo of Bastion after the break.
Anomaly Korea creators tease secret game, which you can preorder now
The last time we spoke with the guys from 11 Bit Studios (right before Anomaly Warzone Korea landed), they had plenty of plans for a huge desktop game they were working on (to be available for PC, Mac and Linux). And now, it appears they've announced the title ... sort of. They haven't actually said what the game is, but they have released this secret game page, that features a very short teaser trailer hinting at what they're working on. "Hinting" is about right -- there's really nothing to see, except for some troops rolling up on a weird object that seems to be alien and dangerous in some way. That's it. But if that has somehow convinced you, then we have even more news: You can preorder this secret game, sight unseen, right now. That's right -- for just US$7.49 (half off from $14.99 at the moment), you can preorder a game you know practically nothing about, and you'll get access to the game's multiplayer beta, a full copy of the game when it arrives and even an "extra gaming gift" from 11 Bit Studios. So a secret gift in a preorder for a secret game? Apparently. The game itself will be announced in full on February 28, but the sale will be over then, and the price will go back up to $14.99. So basically, they're asking you to bet $7 on whether the game will be good or not. 11 Bit is the studio behind the great (award-winning) Anomaly Korea titles, and the excellent Funky Smugglers, so hey, tossing in the $7 for whatever else you get is probably not a bad deal at all. We'll keep an eye out for just what the secret announcement is on the 28th, and let you know then.
Dungeon Defenders: the first Unreal Engine 3 game to get an honest-to-goodness Linux port
Who gives the official all-clear after the End of the World? We have no idea, but soon as the happy signal comes we're going to reconfigure our Linux-powered bunker for a spot of gaming. It's an eerily fortuitous time for that, in fact, what with the Steam for Linux beta now open to all and the Unity and Unreal engines also having been adapted for the open source OS. In terms of actual playable titles, Dungeon Defenders in the latest Humble Bundle is being put forward as the first native, commercial Linux game to use Unreal Engine 3, and if it proves successful then it'll hopefully inspire others to come out with more ports in lucky 2013.
Humble Bundle goes indie once more in seventh iteration, includes Indie Game: The Movie
In recent months, the notorious Humble Bundle has gone from indie, to literary, to mainstream, and back again, with today's announcement of the newest Indie bundle and its smattering of games. If the six indie titles included aren't adding enough indie cred, the bundle also includes a digital copy of Indie Game: The Movie -- surely you remember the documentary from its appearance on The Engadget Show, no? As per usual, two of the bundle's games are tied to a pay tier (currently just under $6), and all titles are PC / OS X compatible -- you'll even snag soundtracks for everything, DRM-free. And should you pony up over $1, the games all transfer to Steam. To be clear, you should be paying more than $1 for all this stuff anyway.
Humble Bundle teams with THQ for Darksiders, Metro 2033, Saints Row: The Third on the cheap
THQ may not be an "indie" or tied to Android, but the ailing game publisher is teaming with the much beloved Humble Bundle folks to offer a flexibly priced batch of great THQ games. Zelda-alike Darksiders, spooky shooter Metro 2033, destruction sandbox Red Faction: Armageddon, and the entire Company of Heroes pack highlight the bundle's standards, while 2011's greatest Kanye simulator, Saints Row: The Third, comes with the rest should you choose to spend over the average payment price (currently around $5). You'll have to drop at least $1 for Steam keys to the main titles, but that'll also net you soundtracks to those main titles as well -- sadly, the offer is only available on PC. You've got two weeks to make your decision, though we'd call this a no brainer.
Humble Bundle introduces Sword & Sworcery to Android, packed with five other games
Are you tired of your antagonistic friend Kevin berating you for not having played Capybara and Jim Guthrie collaboration Sword & Sworcery? "You've never played Sword & Sworcery? Dude, you should probably play Sword & Sworcery," he says, in his mocking tone. Well enough of that -- today is your first chance to snag Sword & Sworcery on your Android device for a potentially very low price. That price, of course, is up to you, as Sword & Sworcery is just one of six excellent games included in the fourth Humble Android Bundle, which launches today. Paying any amount nets you not just Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery EP, but also Waking Mars, Eufloria, Crayon Physics Deluxe, and Splice. Paying over the (variable) average amount will also get you a copy of (gorgeous) adventurer Machinarium. Beyond just Android, you'll also get copies on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (pay $1 or more and you'll even get Steam keys for each game) -- it's a pretty great deal. Even better? That money goes to charity! Just think how good that'll feel to rub in that jerk Kevin's face.
Humble Bundle goes literary, offers octuplet of books at a humble price
The Humble Bundle tends to be associated with not just low prices, but also indie video games (and occasionally music). Today's bundle, however, centers on the literary-minded among us, offering a set of eight e-Books for just under $10. Of course, a main staple of the bundle is its pay what you want price model, which applies here as well -- should you only want six of the books, you can pay any price (one penny for six books! hot dog!). If you want access to John Scalzi's Old Man's War and Signal to Noise by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, you've gotta shell out over the average payment price (currently sitting at $9.84). If you want that sub-$10 price, we'd suggest heading over sooner than later. Another good reason? You've only got two weeks before this humble e-Book bundle disappears forever.
Humble Bundle is back with pay-what-you-want on more great games
The fine folks at the Humble Bundle have posted another big deal for this weekend, and it contains quite a few solid games that we've covered here on TUAW before. By paying whatever you want over the next twelve days, you can get the original Fieldrunners, Bit.Trip Beat, SpaceChem, Uplink, and Spirits for Mac (or Windows or Linux if you happen to spin that way). Unfortunately, this is an Android bundle, so you won't get these on iOS. But Mac versions are nice too. Those are some excellent titles -- a few of them are a little old by now, but they're all great games, and the ability to pay whatever you want for them shouldn't be passed up if you've missed out on a few of them in the past. Plus, you get to represent the Mac community -- right now we're being beat by Linux in the average price range paid, and we're being beat by Windows in the total payments. You can step up and show these devs that we value quality video games. The Bundle is going on for 12 more days, and the Humble organizers usually come up with a surprise or two before these things end, so stay tuned for that. [via Engadget]
Humble Bundle returns with five pay-what-you-want games for Android, Mac, Windows and Linux
So let us get this right. You can pay what you want, and get another stack of games for your Android -- or, indeed Mac, Windows or Linux machine? And help charity? And this is actually proving very popular? Yes, Fieldrunners, Bit.Trip Beat, Uplink and SpaceChem, are the latest games to get the Humble Bundle treatment on the aforementioned platforms (the latter two are tablet-only when buying for Android). Oh, and if you're generous enough to pay above the average, you'll unlock the Spirits platform-puzzler, too. We're finding it pretty hard to argue with, especially as you get to decide the distribution of cash (between charity, the hardworking devs, or the platform-providing Humble). Judging by the real-time stats on the site, people aren't holding back on the cash, either. Still not convinced? Hop on the free-for-life video after the break to see the games in action.
Humble Music Bundle shows charity disparity among Mac, Linux and Windows users
I bet that behavioral economists get rather excited when they see pay-what-you-want offers going viral. Assuming the seller is collecting some basic demographic detail, the resulting statistics might deliver some interesting insights into the relative altruism (or discretionary cash reserves) of different sorts of folks. The Humble Bundle team (responsible for the Humble Indie gaming bundles that we've covered before) is running a Humble Music bundle, accessible to all sorts of music fans. Featured artists include Jonathan Coulton, They Might Be Giants and MC Frontalot; a flexible portion of the purchase price goes toward not-for-profit cause groups like Child's Play Charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The bundle price is entirely up to the buyer, although suggested pricing goes from $100 down to $15. If you pay more than the rolling average price (currently around $8.28) you get a bonus album of remixes from viral-video darlings OK Go. You can also define the split between the artists and the charities, and contribute a "Humble Tip" for the bundle organizers. Given that buyers can pay what they want, what sort of variance do the Humble Bundlers see among their contributors/customers? It's not scientific, and there could be a whole horde of confounding factors, but take a look at the stats in the image above. Mac users (representing about 1/5 of the 45K total customer count) are paying an average of $9.84 for the bundle, more than $1.50 above the average price and $2.40 above the average Windows user. That might be skewed by a few "whales" who are contributing $100 or more from the Mac side, but even so the population is large enough that the differences would seem to be significant. Before you start forwarding this post to your penny-pinching Windows-using wealthy relatives, note that the Mac users aren't the most likely to empty their wallets for tunes. Linux users, with a slightly smaller share of the overall purchases, are coughing up a stunning $11.94 per transaction -- more than $3.50 higher than the average cost. This might be an artifact of the Humble Bundle's past service to Linux gamers, who may be feeling especially supportive of HB's efforts here, or maybe Linux users feel more strongly about the charities/artists involved. Or they just really are more generous by nature. With the recently finished Humble Indie Bundle 5, Linux users donated an average of $12.51 per transaction. It would be really interesting to do a deeper dive into the HB sales data, especially from the perspective of Dan Ariely or the Freakonomics guys. Most sellers aren't this transparent about their customers, and what they do with the behavioral data they collect -- and there's good PR reasons why they don't share more. In June, travel site Orbitz caught some flak for acknowledging that it showed different search results to Mac users (skewed towards the higher-end properties that they apparently prefer to book) than to PC users. While both sets of searchers would pay the same price for the same room, Mac users responded better to upscale hotels and slightly more expensive stays. The Humble Music Bundle is available until Thursday, August 9.
The Humble Bundle tries something different, lets you name your price for albums from They Might Be Giants, Jonathan Coulton, and more
The Humble Bundle may have gone mobile on Android earlier this year, but that's proven to be a relatively small jump compared to the organization's latest expansion. It's now rolled out its first Humble Music Bundle, a collection of six albums that, as always, you can name your price for. Those include an album of rarities from They Might Be Giants, Jonathan Coulton's Greatest Hit (Plus 13 Other Songs), an exclusive MC Frontalot collection, Christopher Tin's Calling All Dawns, and game composer Hitoshi Sakimoto's Best of the Valkyria Chronicles -- plus OK Go's Twelve Remixes of Four Songs if you pay above the current average price. Naturally, all of the albums are DRM-free and available in both MP3 and FLAC formats, and you're able to choose what percentage of your payment goes to the artists, charities (Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation) and the Humble Bundle organization itself. You can get a taste of what's in store in the video after the break, or get previews of each album before you buy at the link below.
Humble Bundle brings Canabalt and more to Android
January saw the release of the first ever Humble Bundle for Android, and now the organization is back with a first of another sort for the platform -- five of them, in fact. The second mobile-focused Humble Bundle sees five games making their Android debut, including iPhone favorite Canabalt (now with a two-player mode and Android-exclusive 3D option), plus Zen Bound 2, Cogs, Swords and Soldiers and Avadon: The Black Fortress HD (the latter specific to Android tablets). Along with those comes a beta version of Humble Bundle's own app (up from an alpha release before), which makes it a bit easier to download the games and check for updates since all of this is handled outside of Google Play. As with all Humble Bundles, you can set your own price for the bundle, with an amount of your choosing going to the Child's Play charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and you'll also get desktop versions of all five games for Windows, Mac and Linux. A Steam key is included with all purchases over $1 as well (although it doesn't yet include Canabalt), and they've even thrown in soundtracks for three of the games for good measure.
Humble Bundle Mojam happens this weekend: vote on a game, see it made in 60 hours for charity
The Humble Bundle organization has done a fairly impressive job of raising money for charities with its name-your-price game bundles (also benefiting game developers, of course), but it's doing something a little different this weekend. It's enlisted the help of Minecraft creator Mojang for the Humble Bundle Mojam, a 60-hour coding jam (streamed live) that will see a game made from scratch and eventually sold, with all of the proceeds going to charity. They're also opening up the type of game to a vote, with folks able to choose from a number of different themes and genres, but the real kicker is that they're going to take the highest and lowest votes -- meaning you could see Real Time Strategy Beat 'em Up with a Steampunk / Ancient Egypt theme if the current voting holds up. Hit the source link below if you'd like to try to sway that in a different direction.Update: The voting is now closed and the stream is live at humblebundle.com (or after the break, if you prefer). The game they're tackling is a real-time strategy shoot 'em up with a steampunk ancient Egypt theme, and the donations are pouring in (totaling around $90,000 after eight hours).
Humble Bundle expands to Android with World of Goo, Anomaly and more
The choose-your-own-price Humble Bundle has proven to be a runaway success on desktop platforms -- helping fund indie developers and causes like Child's Play and the EFF alike -- and it's now finally taken the plunge onto mobile devices. That move was kicked off today with the Humble Bundle for Android, which includes the games Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Osmos, and EDGE. Those three are available for any price you choose, but you'll also get World of Goo thrown in if you pay more than the average price (just over $5 as of this writing). As always, you can also choose how you'd like your contribution split between developers and charity (and the Humble organization itself), and you'll even get access the Windows, Mac and Linux versions of the same games as an added bonus. Hit the source link below to get started, or head on past the break for a video if you need any more convincing. We should also note that the Android games are offered as direct downloads, not through the Android Market; installations instructions are provided following your purchase.Update: Toki Tori has now been added to the bundle as well, and an alpha release of Humble Bundle's own Android app has also been made available for those looking for an easier way to download and manage their apps.
New Humble bundle offers Frozenbyte games, pay what you want
The folks behind the extremely popular Humble Indie bundles are at it again -- this time, they've assembled a "Humble Frozenbyte Bundle," featuring a pack of games from Finnish game developer Frozenbyte. The real centerpiece here is Trine, an excellent physics-based puzzler/platformer that's done well both on PC and on the consoles, but the other titles (Shadowgrounds, sequel Shadowgrounds Survivor and a preview of a game called Splot) aren't bad either. There's a game prototype in the mix called Jack Claw -- that's a game that Frozenbyte eventually canceled without release, but buyers of this bundle will get to play it anyway (on Windows, that is). As with the other Humble bundles, all of these games are Mac-compatible and DRM-free, and the price is pay-what-you-will, with money going either to Frozenbyte or to the EFF or Child's Play. The suggested price cost of the games separately is $50 (which would still be a great deal for four games), but you can give whatever you want to whoever you want and still get the bundle for yourself. On a quick platform-specific note, too, Mac users aren't being quite as well represented this time around -- they're paying, on average, way less than Linux users, and taking the smallest piece of the pie out of the three platforms. If you do buy the bundle (and the games, with the exception of Jack Claw, are compatible on any and all platforms anyway), make sure to show a little Mac pride over there, and prove that among the three OSes, Mac users are the most willing to pony up for great software.
