So just bought the Team 17 Humble Bundle and it appears they now have you tie your Steam account directly to HB instead of just giving the keys. For some this may be a great time-saver, but I think it's a bummer as I always used the extra keys and put them in my kid's steam account. But I guess I understand since this will probably just end up being more sales for them...

It might just be for those games or it might also be to incentive more people to buy he bundles instead of begging for keys on the boards.

Ahhh, lame. That'd probably affect my buying decision on occasion, being able to give away the extra codes is one of the reasons I liked those packs. If I want and don't own most of the games, that's one thing, but when I'm just trying to get at two or three of the titles being able to give away the rest was my main incentive to buy there.

Why are they doing this as anything other than an option, is it just a straight up "we're removing options from our customers because we think it might make them buy more?"

It's a real bummer that I can't gift extra keys to my friends, but then again it's a little crazy to complain when the bundles are so cheap.

There are sites that resell steam keys that they get from Bundles. It would help stop that too.

@katimanic: Yeah, I suppose given how the Bundle is set up, I can see how that might be a problem. Still sucks for those of us who weren't abusing the system, however. I get that they are running a business, however.

Thinking about them as "customers" seems like the wrong idea to start with. Humble Bundle is meant to raise money for charity first, devs second, and itself third. You're not a customer when you buy a bundle, it's more like a donation, where you just happen to get tons of great games as a thank you gift. That's why some people spend thousands on the exact same stuff you can get for a fuckin dollar.

Whatever they can do to raise more money for good causes, shouldn't really be frowned on.

A lot of this was due to people using the extra keys as giveaways on stuff like Steamgifts.com as well as reselling the keys. Getting a bunch of keys for $1.00, starting up a shady website and selling them back for a higher price.

I think this sucks, but oh well.

They didn't want people giving away keys. They asked people to stop giving away keys, and people kept giving away keys, so they came up with a system to stop people from giving away keys.

How is Worms Revolution, by the way? I used to enjoy the Worms series tremendously. The last one I played was Worms World Party (which was a sort-of updated version of Worms 3). I tried some of the later ones, but they didn't manage to grab me as much as the first ones did. Have they gotten any better?

Sucks for people that weren't abusing it. As is often the case with things like this it's the few unscrupulous people taking advantage of a good thing that ruins it for the rest of us.

Looks like they made an official statement about it. And at least they were perfectly honest about why they did it, which is what we assumed was the reason anyway. Bummer that they had to go this route with it but I completely understand with all of the abuse going on.

http://blog.humblebundle.com/post/65643651960/now-its-easier-to-add-games-to-your-steam-library

Aren't these games DRM free anyway? What's to stop someone from just giving his friend an exe. Good on them to stop the key reselling though, it got really bad during the EA bundle.

You thought that was bad? There were scum buying bundles for $0.01 and selling them full price via paypal in the first 4-5 bundles or so.

I'm fine with this. I understand they want to make the most money they can. I usually donate most of my money to charity anyway and give the devs a little too.

It's only a few bucks anyway.

That's fine I guess. It'll save time for sure.

I suppose they had to draw the line somewhere. The quality of the deals that the humble bundle group routinely offers is still unparalleled.

That's a shame, but I get why they'd do it. Still, it was nice to give those extra keys to friends and family.

hasn't interest started flagging in the bundles?

i think they shouldn't have put them out as frequently as they do. kinda ruins the allure/mystique about them.

Dang, well I guess it's sadly probably necessary.

@ripelivejam: The bigger problem for me is that the "main" numbered bundles have so many repeated games lately.

Good, this should have happened a lot sooner.

And to those complaining about not being able to gift extra keys to friends, is it really such a big deal to spend another 3-5 dollars for another set as a gift purchase to do that if you really wanted to?

With the Origin bundle i was able to activate both versions of codes Steam/Origin for those games so maybe its also part of that and as u mentioned not selling 2nd copies to people thus saving them money?

What i find odd tho is you paid for that key so why should it matter if you already have it on steam. That key is YOURS to do what u want with.

I guess what you have to realize that Humble Bundle does this mainly for charity. It was nice being able to pick up spare keys on forums, or giving them to friends or family, but with this new system, more money will be able to go to Humble Bundle. It's really not that bad, these are ~5$ bundles. It's not much to ask for a bundle of good games. I'll be sad to see keys go, but I guess it's for the greater good.

I would rather have seen them set a minimum price.

Yes it's for charity, but if I am pledging money on a bundle, it is with the expectation of getting exactly what I paid for

I'd like to be given the choice of activating the game on my Steam account or putting it in my inventory so I can gift it to someone. That would still stop resellers and solve everyone's problems, wouldn't it?

Well, they've changed the policies again. Now, if you already own a game you're given a special Humble Bundle link that will allow another Humble Bundle user to redeem that game, I assume through their own linked Steam profile.

As it happens...

Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes - https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=6bhAFXE6dVbmYXAd

The Whispered World - https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=cdEaABVdTHsfXHDZ

Hey thats cool. Keep the status quo on users and weeds out the scum.

Also I redeemed Edna and harvey, since I was just checking it out and going "I never get one of these, usually someone has snapped it up." turns out no. Ill check it out.

@mlarrabee said:

I honestly didn't have a problem with them completely doing away with the key sharing. I've always found it crazy the way that some people beg for keys that they could get by just donating a few dollars to charity.

That being said, I guess this is a decent compromise that cuts off the resellers that were profiting from reselling the keys.

Grabbed The Whispered World cus I wanted to see how this new system worked. Thanks duder. Now I feel sorta bad about it.

So here's a key for F.E.A.R. 2:

https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=saxapassWttCSxck

I'm not so sure how this is a deterrent for resellers though. It does advertise the Humble Bundle in every link though, so maybe that's how they'll lessen reselling.

@chaser324: I just like giving extra keys to some of my friends when I already have the game. Heck, sometimes getting a gift from a Bundle will convince me to go get one myself and pass on a gift too. I also just think it'd be a waste of a key, unless they can recycle them somehow.

Though I do think that resellers suck and beggars are annoying.