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Kristian: Look at the picture I attached to my post. He does not mention the word "indie" once in there.

Edit:

Also their Facebook page says: "We bundle awesome cross-platform games, movies, music, and books."

Again without mentioning anything about "indie". These are the principles of Humble Bundle Inc. This is why I and many others supported them. This was their major selling point. GOG is DRM free but (until recently with regard to Mac and still with Linux) not cross-platform.

The Humble Bundle guys were priding themselves on that DRM free, cross-platform combo(as evidenced for example in that attachement and the description of their FB page) and a lot of people were supporting the bundles just for that reason. Hence Linux gamers having higher averages than the rest, even twice as high. You can see this support expressed in a bunch of Linux centric parts of the web as well.

Now they are shitting on those principles with glee. The result will make it much much much harder for them setting up a HIB under the old principles since otherwise fence sitting developers will never sign up for that now. So all the awesome DRM free and Linux(and often Mac as well) debuts will stop. Meaning fewer DRM free and Linux games. It will of course hurt GOG as well since AAA's may well stop signing up for the service. GOG has mentioned that they have a top three wishlist of signing up Microsoft, Lucasarts and Take Two. The chances of that happening just got sliced in half at best.
What is better, providing awesome games to people or having a DRM-free service?
They decided the former is more important. To turn down this offer from THQ would go against their principles of distributing as many great games as they can.
There is no reason for any on-the fence developer to agree to those terms any more. Humble Bundle can't claim that is a non-negotiable condition for their bundles any more, the developers will just point to the THQ bundle as a precedent and demand to be treated fairly and equally. Humble Bundle Inc has just thrown away their negotiation leverage on those points.

Edit:

The above was to amok.

Toast_burner how would you like if GOG did the same? They may soon have to in order to stay a float.

Edit2:

This will mean fewer DRM free games and fewer cross-platform games.
Post edited November 30, 2012 by Kristian
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Kristian: There is no reason for any on-the fence developer to agree to those terms any more. Humble Bundle can't claim that is a non-negotiable condition for their bundles any more, the developers will just point to the THQ bundle as a precedent and demand to be treated fairly and equally. Humble Bundle Inc has just thrown away their negotiation leverage on those points.
you see, as opposed to your views, most business meetings are done by negotiations. There is some talk and people make an agreement. This is generally how things work. It do not work with a non-negational polarity... People want to be in the HiB, they have to follow HiB's rules, and people do want to be in HiB. If they get some who don't want to abide those rules they will not get in, which I do not doubt have happened many times already. So they will negotiate, not put up demands, that is not business but terrorism (also some people who only see the world in black and white).

Anyway, feel free to think you know this best as much as you want (because my world view have no problem accepting that you do, and I am fine with it :)). You will never convince with just repeating the same message over and over again without any change. All I am saying this is now a pointless conversation and all that is left now is just to wait a few months and see who is right.
I actually hope THQ do get a good bit of money out of this just so they can get the likes of Metro Last light,Saints Row 4 and Company of heroes 2 out the door.

I know THQ have made a huge number of mistakes in the past but to be honest they have released some really good games.

As for it being a Humble pack and being steam only well i can understand where people come from regarding the drm/steam side but then again the fact you are getting 100s of £ of games for a fraction of the cost i certainly dont mind them being on steam and hopefully the games will reach GOG in which case we can get the DRM free versions then.
amok, the thing is people will be entering future negotations knowing about the THQ bundle and will point to that and say: "Yeah we with love to be in your bundle, naturally we except to get the same fair treatment as THQ" and Humble Bundle Inc will have no way to refute that or get them to change their mind about that. I mean asking for fair and equal treatment is the most natural thing in the world.

Edit:

aluinie, this has put the nail in the coffin as far as any chance of GOG signing THQ. These games will NEVER EVER become DRM free. Humble Bundle made sure of that by doing this.
Post edited November 30, 2012 by Kristian
And in related news, now 390.000 units sold.

Making it the second most sold bundle already.

Yet, it only made 2.2 Mio USD due to the low average.
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Kristian: amok, the thing is people will be entering future negotations knowing about the THQ bundle and will point to that and say: "Yeah we with love to be in your bundle, naturally we except to get the same fair treatment as THQ" and Humble Bundle Inc will have no way to refute that or get them to change their mind about that. I mean asking for fair and equal treatment is the most natural thing in the world.
Nope, because HB do not need to go begging people to join their HIB, it is the other way around... And HB can refute exactly who they want and on what grounds they want, because this is under constant negotiations between the partners and every one of them can change their minds and terms at any point until a contract is signed...see - shades of grey. That's how it works.
amok, Humble Bundle cannot with a straight face say that they are DRM free after this. They will have no choice but to allow others to create bundles like this.

"Nope, because HB do not need to go begging people to join their HIB, it is the other way around..."

Sorry but in cases like Double Fine, it is very much Humble Bundle that has to do the begging. So no company like that will EVER agree to cross-platform, DRM free term after this since they want to be given the same treatment as THQ.
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Kristian: amok, Humble Bundle cannot with a straight face say that they are DRM free after this. They will have no choice but to allow others to create bundles like this.
As long as their main bundles are same as always, I don't care. Never been a huge fan of the themed bundles, though I've picked up a few.

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Kristian: Sorry but in cases like Double Fine, it is very much Humble Bundle that has to do the begging.
source?
Post edited November 30, 2012 by kalirion
what ever happened to you know buy games cheap and have fun playing them ? instead of sniffing the drm in it like a coke addiction :P

in short , its a good bundle buy it , play it and have fun
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Kristian: amok, Humble Bundle cannot with a straight face say that they are DRM free after this. They will have no choice but to allow others to create bundles like this.

"Nope, because HB do not need to go begging people to join their HIB, it is the other way around..."

Sorry but in cases like Double Fine, it is very much Humble Bundle that has to do the begging. So no company like that will EVER agree to cross-platform, DRM free term after this since they want to be given the same treatment as THQ.
yes, that's why they offered to do the game jam right now for example.... anyway, there is nothing else you can not say to me which you have not said 3 times already, and which I do not think is a bit of rubbish... you will not convince me before you come up with a new and improved argument then "just because they did so now, the world has changed completely". It is my core believes that the world do not work like this, and I have never seen any single piece of evidence that it does.

As I have said before, please feel free to believe as you do, we will soon see who is right or wrong. I am not going to respond any more to you post unless you manage to say something new and innovative. have a good life, and I will resurrect this when the next HIB is released. (In case you did not notice, I am feeling quite confident that I will be right)
My source is common sense. Look at the commercial and critical success of Double Fine. They are a highly esteemed dev studio. They, unlike 90%+ of all deves, have been able to retain IP rights for all the games they have done. Thereby proving the amount of leverage they have.

Edit:

the above was to kalrion.

Edit2:

Let me add kalrion that this hurts future "regular" bundles since the likelihood of seeing games debut as cross-platform and/or DRM free in such bundles just dropped to near 0 with the exception of companies that are already passionate about those things.
Post edited November 30, 2012 by Kristian
HB =/= HB if not cross platform and DRM free. Need to see flag apple penguin not only flag.
Post edited November 30, 2012 by asdfasdfadsf
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Kristian: amok, Humble Bundle cannot with a straight face say that they are DRM free after this. They will have no choice but to allow others to create bundles like this.
Or they could, you know, not. If they're setting up one of the standard numbered HIB's and a developer only wants to deal with steam, HIB could say "That was a one-time thing with THQ, we're not doing that for the standard bundle." If the developer in question throws up a fuss, they can just not be in the bundle, there'll always be another game who wants in.

HIB is not a legal court, precendent is not legally binding with them.
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Kristian: this hurts future "regular" bundles since the likelihood of seeing games debut as cross-platform and/or DRM free in such bundles just dropped with the exception of companies that are already passionate about those things.
Yes. Once you provide precedence for an exception everybody is going to want it