Humble Announces Monthly Subscription Service

Humble Bundle originally offered DRM-Free indie titles and progressively worked towards adding mainstream Steam games and launching its own digital distribution store. This resulted in a huge amount of money being raised for charity and demonstrated how generous the gaming community is. Today marks the company’s boldest move so far and entry into the subscription service arena. Humble Monthly requires a payment of $12 per month in exchange for Steam codes.

The codes received are permanent and won’t stop working if you decide to cancel the subscription. However, there’s no information whatsoever regarding how many games are included, and the quality. It’s possible for Humble to include excess keys from previous bundles. This lack of information might appeal to some, but I feel consumers are taking a big risk when signing up to the service.

On another note, only 5% of your money goes towards charity which might be a shocking statistic to some. Even more ridiculously, gamers in Japan cannot access the service due to a region lock. This seems to contravene the open roots which Humble became so idolized for.

Just another example of why I avoid buying from @Humble Bundle as much as possible. Stop regionally restricting. pic.twitter.com/Wpxn2qNTjv

— Matt | … | So tired (@bansama) October 1, 2015

While there is the possibility of acquiring highly lauded games in a surprising package, I’m not convinced about the subscription’s business model and complete lack of transparency. I’ve commended Humble in the past for updating their list of supported charities, but this really does leave me feeling disappointed.

Do you believe the Humble Monthly service is a terrible idea?