No more BundleStars --> Fanatical

Wish this thread had a poll -- haven't seen anyone yet here or on other forums who likes the name change. Some are "eh, whatever, as long as everything else stays the same" and some are "but ... why?"

I'm in the latter camp, don't like the new name, it's so generic and doesn't sound much like a serious game bundle/store site to me.

What worries me a bit more than the name change is all the corporate speak and hype and "We've got exciting plans for Fanatical that we can't reveal just yet."

.... I'm just not excited. Hopefully the name (and site design) really is the only thing that changes ;)

Even with a name change like this, I'm going to stay as far away from the new site as I can until others have verified it is indeed safe to use. I also like the name BundleStars better than "Fanatical".

Happy to know I'm not the only one puzzled by that XD
And the new name is dumb.
... ... ...
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OT: Wait guys, Dumbo is not called "Dumbo" because of "dumb", right? > ruined childhood memory

Don't like the name at all, but hope they don't ruin everything :D

Being called BS was kind of an issue but they somehow managed to chose a worse name, how?
The worst part is that the parent company has a decent name, they just seem to suck at naming their storefront.

Is bundlestars a better name? Was it ever good, really?

Whenever i see things like this i imagine myself in their shoes. What would i do to increase reach, portray how we've been changing vision and ambition? Improve the service, the features... the image as well. All valid points- they're talking about new ui, faster load times and trying to be content creators (blog) so this isn't just a redressing the new name.

From a business perspecive (and commmon sense sincerely) Bundlestars was a bad name with an uninvinting design that looked like some kind of 90's/early 2000s cheap site- a cheap plastic bin of bin-games bundled. More or less fitting. Im sure quite e good number of potential customers (non frequent bundle buyers like us) wouldn't even bother checking the bundles (and not noticing the good ones) from the looks and name alone.
And i talk from experience- ive talked a few friends into bundles with varied results. Theres this one friend who may buy one from whatever place after my evaluation, but another of my friends did bought one or two bundles from humble... but was skeptical with bundlestars.

That was before he bought and liked the humblebundles mind you- but what made him more friendly towards humble for his first buy if the bundlestars bundle was also packed with titles he was interested?
Theres no fiction why marketing spends so much on advertising, storefronts, branding... Humble have amazing brand choices and ease of use on top of good bundles and quickly rose.

Is fanatical a cool and inovative title, does the trailer and branding seen exciting?
No- it just seens like an average run of the mill generic gaming business.
But that alone is way waaay above what bundlestar achieved. Generic and average aren't bad- in business its a quality and strategy opting for familiarity above ambition, stardom, its own niche. It can run the risk of disapearing amongst similars but...
...theres no similars in branding withing Bundles.

Just think about it: Humble yells indie and charity and hip all over the place. Indiegala and many others look like... oh, all of then look like cheap bin sites like bundlestars did. Wonder why they want to differ?
Fanatical tells us what? Games - fun, big, small, older or newer, any and everything. Its retail store style like so many physical game stores but this one is built around bundles. Theres no bundlesite that i can recall going with the same style of branding.
By doing this they put thenselves side by side with other kinds of stores- your gamestops, nuuvem, etc, etc. A customer from one of those first landing will get the idea, feel familiar and safe and... oh, bundles. Thats something many stores don't offer.

Its a business. It was a good decision and move.
Is their commitment to being cool, approachable, 'fanatical about games' real or just marketing talk? Thats another topic but the same question can be put to any business. Majority of cases there can be passionate employees but in general the company isn't as enthusiastic about the product as it is with selling it. No surprise.

If that kind of company talk puts any of you off buying stuff... Then imagine you don't buy apple, samsung, etc right?
'We care about you' 'passionate' - nothing of that sells me but quality, but if theres quality i buy. If we deny solely on bs marketing talk then we better learn how to live without consuming because capitalisms consumption only learned to talk like that. Im drinking coke right now despite hating their ads. Some are creative and fun, many are just trying too hard to be emotional and cool. Behind it is a corporate giant of bad beverages with no real value but fleeting taste. But i like that taste. Separate things.

Were me in charge id have done a similar move way earlier. Heck, i would have never branded it 'bundlestars' to start with. Im more aligned with humble and itch.ios styles of indie first and hip, personaly, but in their position right now i wouldn't change to something like that because theres already Humble being leader with that style of branding. Business needs strategy and no good will is enogth to face the leader on similar terms.

Their PR and creative teams must be fired, intermediately.

hope they didn't pay someone to come up with that name for them - sounds bad as a name for a store :OP

hb merge, bundlestars rebrand? interesting who will be next :)

I bet they screw it up some how. They still don't even allow 2 factor authentication or any security at all.

They should fire their marketing department for that awful name.

The reaction to it has not been positive on their youtube page,apparently.

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!
small improvements, same offer atm.

I lost some of my unredeemed keys from May and April :(

Support ticket sent.

EDIT - Just found out it's not lost, but my order is not in the list unless I search for it, or access the order directly by order number.

Just gonna quote myself from a chat I was having earlier

I just realized their logo made me think I have pornhub open in one of my tabs

What I've noticed is that all bundles listed currently, even the very old ones that I paid like $1.49 or even $1, are now priced €3.29 or so... which is like 2x the price it used to be.