Blah, there's no justification for TWD being Steam only, none at all.

Yeah, it greatly annoys me that HIB changed their policies so much.

There were to places were I could carefree buy everything I want, without having to think about DRM. Sure, there are other sites that sell DRM-free games, but not exclusively, which meant that you always had to check first before buying a game.

And now it's reduced to GOG.com. Now the first thing I think when there's a new bundle/weekly sale is "Okay, is it DRM-free?" and not "Cool, let's check out the games!"

And that they apparently now completely abandoned their principle that every game must work on Linux must annoy the Linux users equally as much.

I have the feeling that HIB is on it's way to becoming another Steam key seller like GamersGate, and losing their uniqueness. Very, very sad.

Yeah, just had a look at TWD on GamersGate and sure enough it's a Steam key. I'm pretty sure it's standalone if you buy it from Telltale's site so I've no idea why it couldn't be DRM-free in this bundle.

FYI everything but The Walking Dead is on one Steam key.

Yeah, but it's not DRM free on Telltale's site. There's an online verification before installation and possibly every time you start up the game (I was never clear which it was).

Yeah, but the disc version should be DRM-free unless they've taken a big step backwards.

Hmm, I don't see a disc version for sale on Telltale's site...

They haven't changed their policies. Humble Indie Bundle still requires all games to be DRM-Free and crossplatform like always. Just look at HIB 8 that is running concurrently with this weekly sale.
Sindle developer bundles (THQ), Single platform bundles (Android only), and weekly sales don't follow the same rules. I doubt they'll change the rules for the real HIBs because those are way more successful than the spin-off bundles.

The company as a whole changed their policies, I would argue. How can I be certain that they will continue being DRM-free and cross-platform on their main-bundles, when they arguably don't care about those things deeply enough that they enforce it on all their products?
How can I know that they won't abandon it for Humble Indie Bundle 9 too, when they've already done so numerous times?

Like I said, it's just not carefree shopping with those guys anymore. Only GOG.com remains.

I don't know about the Steam version, but the initial Telltale download only installed the first chapter and I then had to download the subsequent chapters separately from within the game. On 3 different attempts the game locked up attempting to download a chapter. And I don't know whether it actually phoned home each time I started the game, but it displayed a message during start-up that said it was doing so every time (I never unhooked my internet to see if it would work without access).

I had waited for The Walking Dead appear somewhere DRM-free for non-Steam price. GOG preferably but not necessary. This Humble Bundle solved my situation. Paid a bare minimum to get the Steam copy. Their loss, not mine.

Are you saying that you can buy DRM-free games from Telltale's site? That would be news to me, all I've ever bought from them directly had SecuRom or some similar DRM on it, and so far they haven't shown any interest in pleads from their direct customers to remove the DRM from games that have been available DRM-free elsewhere. Personally I'll never buy from their website again.

I was hoping this bundle would at least enable me to pay a few extra bucks for the DRM-free versions of all the games I already *bought* from Telltale, but sadly the ones I'm most interested in in this regard, that is the complete Sam & Max series and Strong Bad, are not included for the most part. Figures. Well, maybe I'll give a few bucks to charity for The Devil's Playhouse.

So, yeah, the reason why TWD is just a Steam key is probably that Telltale has a pretty ambivalent attitude towards DRM and DRM-free games. I guess we won't see any of their future games released on GOG from Day One, due to their fear of piracy (or whatever it is that makes them set such great store into their DRM - which has caused me quite a few issues in the past without Telltale Support being able to solve them).


EDIT: Nevermind, I didn't read all the post above mine before posting, sorry.

They all still have the HiB branding though - the brand stands for DRM free and cross platform - its recognisable as such and i wouldnt be surprised if a lot of rabid fans buy ' oh i must buy the next HiB bundle', buts buys one bundle realises their isnt a drm free option for certain games and complain...

Ah yeah, I just found a post on their forum from a while back saying that they have no plans to make a DVD. I'm glad I stopped buying from Telltale when I did. The only way I could justify buying their SecuROM'd download releases was the fact that there were the DVDs.