Humble Subscription Service Is Dumping Mac, Linux Access In 18 Days (arstechnica.com) 37
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Humble, the bundle-centric games retailer that launched with expansive Mac and Linux support in 2010, will soon shift a major component of its business to Windows-only gaming. The retailer's monthly subscription service, Humble Choice, previously offered a number of price tiers; the more you paid, the more new games you could claim in a given month. Starting February 1, Humble Choice will include less choice, as it will only offer a single $12/month tier, complete with a few new game giveaways per month and ongoing access to two collections of games: Humble's existing "Trove" collection of classic games, and a brand-new "Humble Games Collection" of more modern titles.
But this shift in subscription strategy comes with a new, unfortunate requirement: an entirely new launcher app, which must be used to access and download Humble Trove and Humble Games Collection games going forward. Worse, this app will be Windows-only. Current subscribers have been given an abrupt countdown warning (as spotted by NeoWin). Those subscribers have until January 31 to use the existing website interface to download DRM-free copies of any games' Mac or Linux versions. Starting February 1, subscription-specific downloads will be taken off the site, and Mac and Linux versions in particular will disappear altogether. Interestingly, the current Trove library consists of 79 games, but Humble says that the Trove collection will include "50+ games" starting February 1. This week's warning to Humble's Mac and Linux subscribers notes that "many" of the current Trove games will appear on the Humble Launcher, which is likely a nice way of saying that some of the existing games will not -- perhaps around 20 or so, based on the aforementioned numbers. Despite these changes, Trove's selection of games will remain DRM-free. FAQs about the Humble Launcher suggest that subscribers can download Trove files and continue accessing them in DRM-free fashion, no Humble Launcher or ongoing subscription required. The same promise has not been made for the more modern game collection found in the new Humble Games Collection.
But this shift in subscription strategy comes with a new, unfortunate requirement: an entirely new launcher app, which must be used to access and download Humble Trove and Humble Games Collection games going forward. Worse, this app will be Windows-only. Current subscribers have been given an abrupt countdown warning (as spotted by NeoWin). Those subscribers have until January 31 to use the existing website interface to download DRM-free copies of any games' Mac or Linux versions. Starting February 1, subscription-specific downloads will be taken off the site, and Mac and Linux versions in particular will disappear altogether. Interestingly, the current Trove library consists of 79 games, but Humble says that the Trove collection will include "50+ games" starting February 1. This week's warning to Humble's Mac and Linux subscribers notes that "many" of the current Trove games will appear on the Humble Launcher, which is likely a nice way of saying that some of the existing games will not -- perhaps around 20 or so, based on the aforementioned numbers. Despite these changes, Trove's selection of games will remain DRM-free. FAQs about the Humble Launcher suggest that subscribers can download Trove files and continue accessing them in DRM-free fashion, no Humble Launcher or ongoing subscription required. The same promise has not been made for the more modern game collection found in the new Humble Games Collection.
Yea, they also now require an accoun tto make a (Score:5, Informative)
purchase - citing security which is a fucking lie. They're trying to make yet another mediocre Steam store rip off and don't give a fuck about alienating customers who have been buying shit from them for 10+ years. I know this because they told me so when I complained, so fuck them, they have utterly abandoned why and where they came from.
Re: Yea, they also now require an accoun tto make (Score:2)
The way I read the email they're definitely trying to start an alternative games distribution system and later to the party than Epic, however it did seem like they were keeping the monthly set of steam keys at least for now. Many/some of the steam games work with proton or natively so long as they keep those I might stay subscribed.
No longer community focused. (Score:5, Insightful)
Humble used to be something great for everybody but now they have become yet another corporate game service that doesn't give a damn about the community, only making more money. It's really quite depressing.
Re: No longer community focused. (Score:1)
Re: No longer community focused. (Score:4, Interesting)
Nope, Humble sold out long ago. Maybe the first six or so Humble Bundles included any Linux or Mac titles, pretty much everything since then has been old and recycled Windows-only content.
I can't speak to the Linux content, but there's probably little point for Humble keeping the macOS games around any more because, almost without exception, their titles are 32-bit only. macOS Catalina and later are 64-bit only so you can't run any of these games any more without crappy Parallels/VirtualBox solutions or just by keeping old hardware around. I'm not defending Humble here because, as a customer, it's a pretty shitty thing for them to do but, as a developer, I understand that they can't go back to their suppliers and insist that they recompile everything for modern 64-bit systems. Especially when a lot of those suppliers are 1- and 2-person shops that probably don't even exist any more.
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Isn't even Windows 64-bit now?
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64 bit Windows happily runs 32 bit Windows applications. MacOS will not run 32 bit applications any longer. Nor will iOS. You need to use older, unsupported versions to run 32 bit applications.
I am very happy (Score:2)
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I'm currently involved in a data protection complaint against them over this. When they were bought out they told me that I either had to accept my data being shared with the buyer, or lose access to my purchases.
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It is capitalism. Well, capitalism _is_ depressing.
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Unfortunately, many people have the wrong idea about capitalism. The point of capitalism is to make a profit using invested capital and effort but nowhere is it written that the point of maximize the amount of profit made. Always pushing to increase profits while sacrificing quality is something that greedy people invented.
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True. But combine capitalism with the greed that is indeed readily found in far too many people and you get exactly the results described. You can argue that capitalism is not at fault and the greed is, but the fact of the matter is that capitalism is not a good thing when combined with a typical human being. Yes, I am also aware that the known alternatives are not much better.
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Yes, I am also aware that the known alternatives are not much better.
That reminds me of Churchill having said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” :)
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Yes, I am also aware that the known alternatives are not much better.
That reminds me of Churchill having said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” :)
I was thinking of that one, yes. Unfortunately makes a lot of sense.
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According to Adam Smith, Capitalism is when the Government sets up regulations so that anybody with the needed Capital can compete on a level playing field. This entire effort involves restrictions on established, entrenched businesses so that they can't keep newcomers out.
It has nothing to do with profits, and everything to do with establishing the right of the little guy to compete.
I asked my kid about this (yeah, I'm old) (Score:2)
First thing she said was "oh, it's only the subscription service. ok, the subscription part has sucked for about a year and a half so I’m not too worried" and "basically the subscriptions haven’t had any good games in a looong time".
Apparently most of their "humble bundle" stuff has nothing to do with this service, and is actually closely tied in with Steam.
However my old brain has seen enough things to predict this is only the first move in a bigger plan, which probably involves setting up some
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I think the last like 6 bundles I bought were books, but that's okay, it's not like they have no [gg.deals] competition. [youtube.com]
There are business (Score:2)
As for Linux, well we were kind of warned about this. Valve has massively improved the quality of wine under Linux and also made it super easy to use. And even without Valve wine has gotten a lot better. This means there's a lot less drive to make native games under Linux. More importantly it is less drive to play native games under Linux. I distinctly remember some na
Really disappointing (Score:4, Insightful)
I originally started using and supporting the humble bundles due to no DRM, they gave a cut to charity and they had a number of titles available for Linux.
Seeing them go this direction is really disappointing.
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They long ago began basically just selling you steam keys, so whether there's DRM has long been up to the publisher. I don't pay anything for DRM games I'm not willing to lose, which is convenient because humble bundles are cheap.
Windows has dominated PC gaming since time was time, though. Games for Linux have often had trouble running on newer Linux, while most Windows games will run on newer Windows without any special effort.
Humble Biundle? (Score:3)
Hubris Bundle.
the long fall of something once good (Score:5, Interesting)
Humble Bundle started as a great initiative.
Recently, it was a disappointing cash-grab. They're pushing out bundles all the time, so much that it's impossible to keep track, and much of it is trash.
It is visible that their focus has shifted dramatically. From providing something cool for the community to making a quick buck. Or something. Dropping Mac and Linux is just another sign of that. It does make sense from a commercial perspective. It's an asshole move from a community perspective.
So bye, bye Humble. It was nice for a time, but you've turned into an asshole, so I'm dumping you.
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I think it's pretty absurd to think every bundle from every store front should some how appeal to everyone.
The thing is that in the beginning pretty much every bundle was great. Maybe not always to everyone's taste, but even if, for example, you didn't like platformers, you'd see that the platformer bundle looked like a great collection.
What's going on is that you can't make great bundles all the time, especially not at the rate they're pushing them out now. That's the real problem. They used to release something whenever they had managed to set up a great bundle. Now they created themselves the pressure to rele
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I do miss the classic Humble Indie Bundles.
You and me both, yes. I got a lot of games from those. Now I'm mostly waiting for Steam sales hitting my wishlist.
Resuming... (Score:2)
They gave a "humble" kick in the *** to its costumers... Great PR move...
For Mac, mostly old, can't run (Score:1)
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If you cared that much about gaming, you wouldn't be using a mac for it. At no point has any mac ever been as good for gaming as its PC competition, even in the rare occasions when the mac was faster. (Even in the 68k days the mac had a faster processor much of the time, but its graphics hardware was shit.)
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If you cared that much about gaming, you wouldn't be using a mac for it. At no point has any mac ever been as good for gaming as its PC competition, even in the rare occasions when the mac was faster. (Even in the 68k days the mac had a faster processor much of the time, but its graphics hardware was shit.)
Depends on your focus. Most serious gamers that prefer/require Macs have either a console(s), and/or a dedicated Windows gaming rig.
But some Mac Users just want to do some casual gaming. For those, the Mac titles generally are still ok; and keep in mind that some of them play iOS/iPadOS games (where Apple DOES have some cred.). Also keep in mind that Apple Silicon Macs all of a sudden potentially have access to those games, too.
But yes, Windows seems to be where PC-based gaming has been for quite some time;
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Also keep in mind that Apple Silicon Macs all of a sudden potentially have access to those games, too.
Unless they were PPC or 68k binaries, since Apple has dropped support for PPC emulation, AND 68k emulation, while I can still run many DOS games from the dawn of the PC on my Windows 7* machine, and can run the vast majority of titles for any version of Windows on x86 or compatible.
Apple COULD have maintained backwards compatibility for that software, but deliberately chose to drop their compatibility layers instead of maintaining them, while Microsoft deliberately chose to continue to maintain them so that
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Also keep in mind that Apple Silicon Macs all of a sudden potentially have access to those games, too.
Unless they were PPC or 68k binaries, since Apple has dropped support for PPC emulation, AND 68k emulation, while I can still run many DOS games from the dawn of the PC on my Windows 7* machine, and can run the vast majority of titles for any version of Windows on x86 or compatible.
Apple COULD have maintained backwards compatibility for that software, but deliberately chose to drop their compatibility layers instead of maintaining them, while Microsoft deliberately chose to continue to maintain them so that ancient software would still work. Frankly, this is one of the big factors that has kept MacOS from dominating. PC users are used to being able to keep using the software they purchased for years and years and then some more years. Mac users are used to Apple changing direction and abandoning whole swaths of the software they depend upon.
You mean the same backwards compatibility that has kept Windows at the top of the vulnerabilities-list for decades? No thanks!
And while Macs don't dominate the business world (and likely will not for a while yet, although they are gaining by leaps and bounds [computerworld.com]), I bet if you restrict the "market" to homes and small businesses, the marketshare ratio is approaching 50:50, especially in the U.S. unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a decent study of that market segment.
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You mean the same backwards compatibility that has kept Windows at the top of the vulnerabilities-list for decades? No thanks!
Windows is insecure by design, their backwards compatibility has little to nothing to do with their insecurity since it's handled by VMs.
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You mean the same backwards compatibility that has kept Windows at the top of the vulnerabilities-list for decades? No thanks!
Windows is insecure by design, their backwards compatibility has little to nothing to do with their insecurity since it's handled by VMs.
VMs or no, the more Libraries to maintain and test, the more potential (and actual) Vulnerabilities. Windows' Inter-Process Messaging (and other) design problems just ensure it never will end.