Are you in favor of Humble "choice"?
We'll have to wait and see the quality of these "new and better curated" games.
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I don't want to say that Humble is "dying", but they've been trying hard to maintain a place in the market for a while now. Meanwhile that market is turning away from what Humble is based on, it doesn't seem profitable for publishers to make deals with Humble and game passes are the new hot thing. Humble has to change their model to keep up and maybe find something that customers will pay them for, but it clearly seems that they're struggling with finding something that sticks lol.
But of course, essentially coaxing money out of already existing customers is not going to stick with people in the long term. There's the classic plan that was there to make people scared of unsubscribing, it's now more difficult to give money to charity and publishers, a crazy default price on bundles, worsening discounts... they're digging their own grave here.
I buy their bundles sometimes when they have something to offer me. I think I'm giving more to Fanatical and GreenManGaming though, the former brings more interesting bundles and the latter has cheaper games than the Steam store on sale and has great rewards for being a customer.
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Fanatical has had a lot of nice bundles compared to HB, the holiday bundle was fantastic and I bought it a few times for gifts and the OPUS games. They tend to have more stuff on my WL.
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I've thought about what makes Fanatical so much more interesting, and I think it could be that people expect a certain "quality" for games from Humble Bundle, and not just in Choice but in all their bundles. They can't just bust out a bundle full of $5 trash VN games (except Sakura lmao) because gamers will go mad if they do that. Fanatical has a whole range from cheap but complete garbage to "better" bundles with some interesting games in them, even if they're not AAA. And they have their mystery bundles that people like for some reason too. I guess they have something for everyone, and I'm more likely to buy a $5 Fanatical bundle with a few mediocre games in my favorite genres to try out than a "quality" Humble bundle with 1 game I want in T3.
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people expect a certain "quality" for games from Humble Bundle, and not just in Choice but in all their bundles.
It's insane, that people get mad about a bundle that they don't like.
No bundle vs not liked bundle. They buy, or spend nothing either way, but they are mad when there is a bundle, that someone somewhere may even be happy about.
HB either has some hardcore haters, or nostalgia-stuck fans, but it's quite an experience.
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Could be aftereffects of the market moving on without them. There's no unlimited supply of fresh, unbundled AAA games, most games that were destined to be bundled probably already have been, and bundles won't bring new attention to already popular games these days. It is impossible for Humble to go back to their prime days, they would probably love to do that but they can't.
For me personally, it seems that Humble draws me in more when a bundle is incredibly specific. Like focusing on a series/franchise like LEGO, Sakura or Telltale games, or straight up doing a DLC-fest bundle to complete a game collection for cheap like the PC Sim bundle now (uh, minus that it's 80% cosmetic). Those bundles get hated on too.
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So true. Services change over time if they don't disappear altogether. I think it's more complex an issue than "IGN/HB bad" though. At the end of the day, the publisher is the most important component of the equation. Between low(er) profits, flooding of keys to grey markets, and consumer expectation, it's a no brainer that these pubs would be reluctant to bite.
It doesn't help that the format has changed, prices have changed, and now certain benefits of subbing are going to change. All the while, subscribers want non-bundled quality games. In a lot of cases this means AAA headliners and well-known indie success stories. The kicker is expectations are often for pennies on the dollar too. It's simply not possible or sustainable for $6, $12 or even $20. Let alone folks want these keys for steam and steam alone. Again, publishers.
I normally buy in if 1-3 things are interesting enough. I've paused quite a lot too. I have always been a classic sub though so receiving games for around $1-2 each is honestly a lot of value for someone like me who is a bit selective and missed out on the initial bundle craze. For everything else I just use official retailers much like yourself. The savings almost always beat steam and HB consistently.
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I wonder if (or when) they will start distributing keys with timed activation. Maybe it would open bigger publishers up for the bundles if they would deactivate keys after a month, or two.
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It's plausible. While not common, there have been instances of "activate by X date" in the last few years that I can vaguely recall. I think it's possible to see quantity limits as well as time limits too if the landscape keeps sliding down in the current trend.
I think it'll be hard going forward to convince pubs that it's in their interest to participate in bundling, even if prices and quantity change, time limits are imposed, etc. While I don't believe we're at a 'dead end' yet, perhaps in another few years we'll see a completely different bundle scene than what we have now.
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There's the classic plan that was there to make people scared of unsubscribing
Yup. My thoughts exactly when I read this was "hey now I can unsub completely instead of skipping then!"
Discounts were also keeping their store in business imo. And they were not losing much money with those discounts since their prices have always been higher than the competition anyway.
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This is pretty good to me as long as the number of games don't change and there are still neat ones every month.
I don't use the humble store so the discount never mattered, and I rarely subscribed because of the price ($21.64 for all games) and only once I've gotten a coupon.
The trove is useless to me so I wouldn't be touching it regardless, backlog takes priority.
Looks like Humble Choice is going back to Humble Monthly.
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"This is pretty good to me as long as the number of games don't change and there are still neat ones every month."
This is actually something I would prefer to change more than anything. I feel like since they started including more games regularly, the quality has been getting worse and worse. I would be happy with 5 or 6 games as long as the quality is decent.
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So basically classic subscribers got 0.01$ discount. Nothing changed.
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and made it tougher to maintain the 20% discount that was automatic before.
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Well, I didn't use that so I'll rephrase: nothing changed for me. I was already using humble bundle almost exclusively for pausing or rarely confiriming the choice subscription as normal bundles were mostly uninteresting or repeats and I don't buy at the humble store anymore, I just sell stuff from inventory and buy on steam.
I think it's time for me to unsubscribe after like 6 years and just resubscribe whenever there is something interesting, less hassle XD
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Agreed there is not enough incentive to maintain a subscription anymore. Just pay per month as they come. (If any are worth buying)
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So discount will drop from 20% to 10% starting next month, unless you essentially never pause...that sucks.
I always liked the idea of Humble Choice, too bad they never attempted to give a wide enough selection of games where a 'choice' would make sense (instead of just giving the whole lot for the bundles price).
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Hey!
"Why is this service still even called Humble Choice when there hasn't been any choice involved in over a year"
now it perfectly fits the meaning: Should I buy this one?
[Yes] or [No]
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On the other hand, if you don't pause when you want to for a 10% discount, you probably will end up paying way more than you would have gained with the discount. Unless you're a Humble fiend who is pre-ordering games there all the time
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Classic Plan : You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me
Losing 20% discount doesn't really matter for me as SEA folks, since either USD or EUR currency still kinda pricey for our economy
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Are they foisting a new client on us with the new Humble App for that game collection thingy? God I'm so tired of installing different clients ....
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This will affect me in a negative way but not so much because I don't really care.
I rarely buy HB Choice or bundles in general. Mostly because of my currency and paying in dollar is a huge no. Everything gets way too expensive. Plus I don't care about bundles that much anymore.
But last year I bought HB Choice 3 times. Every time I had a discount. Paid $8 in January and $6 in October and December. $6 feels acceptable to me if the bundle is really good and that's the only reason I bought them. Will never pay 12$. If they stop giving those coupons, then I'll keep pausing or even cancel. It is what it is and that's ok.
As for the 20% at HB store, I couldn't care less. Never bought a single game at the store and never will. They don't have regional pricing. Steam is cheaper with regional pricing then any other store. [Not sure about EPIC but I'll never own an account there, not even for free games, so even if they were cheaper they'd never see a dime of my money]
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Apparently they will also remove Linux and Mac games from Humble Trove and put them behind a launcher that is for Windows-only, and still call it DRM-free.
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They have been inching toward that for months since the Trove poll and the total stoppage on Trove additions.
I can't say I am shocked. I can say however that they would have to get pretty phenomenal in the trove for me to install an IGN launcher lol
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Real Humble Bundle died with IGN and this is the last nail on the coffin IMO.
I'm sure they will success, people love launchers. /s
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I think they're worried. If they weren't they wouldn't keep changing the monthly format.
And damn, more launchers!
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They should be worried. People always could cancel, which is more likely after what they did. It literally feels like a hostile takeover.
DRM-free to one more DRM, which is pretty sad.
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We need to make up our collective mind here...
☺☺☺
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that is cool - i vote for the change but then i use to have to pay £15.99 for the bundle (and yes i meant £ not $)
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This is crazy, last I check it was 146 to 146 how are we so evenly split?
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Maintaining the balance is more attractive than voting according to your actual preference.
This is why Neutral Response was so glorious, before YouTube destroyed it.
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I do think the best bundle years are behind us. At least we were around to benefit from them, but now to try and work through the backlog... (until the next bundle, lol)
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Haha another step to the end of the monthly altogether
Why is this service still even called Humble Choice when there hasn't been any choice involved in over a year?
I guess because we still "choose" to be chumps and keep paying for bad content?
Personally I think they're shooting themselves in the foot. The discount was working mostly for them. People will just go and buy on other stores again instead of favoring the HB store.
Also, there is now no incentive for Classic subbers not to cancel their sub altogether and come back a few months later instead of skipping months at a time, since they can't lose the Classic "preferential" price anymore, as it is now the only price.
No change for me. I don't buy on HB because their prices are more often than not higher than other stores (probably to make up for the sub discount) and I will keep skipping. I may even cancel now if I keep pausing and pausing, and come back to the same price and advantages a few months later when they get their stuff together.
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Yup, I've had classic since it became a thing, and now I'm just going to cancel it.
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I have no idea why they're still keeping Classic, but making the only difference between that and the "universal" tier that you're still going to be billed in USD. Do they expect to skim off pennies from the people who are too lazy to switch if the regional pricing is cheaper? Is it a legal thing? A way to see who's active and who's not? A more nefarious plot to later change more things for Classic when fewer people are on it? There seems to be no obvious drawback for Classic users to switch their plans, and yet it's not being done automatically, unlike all the other tiers.
My natural suspicion of corporate actions I don't fully understand (but which are invariably sold as making things better, of course) encourages me to not change anything and see where it goes first. The net effect of this change for me is limited to the Humble Trove becoming worse (since it looks like the downloads will be gated behind a Windows-only app, although they haven't excluded the possibility of alternatives) but that's a very minor thing -- much like the Trove itself was. The discounts have always been minor enough that spending more money on the bundles to spend less in the store has never been an attractive proposition.
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My current strategy would be to create a secondary account, so that I can purchase the bundle on whichever account it is cheaper, without making the irreversible migration from "Classic" (billed in USD) to "Standard" (billed in EUR) status.
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This is my feelings as well. Even though they say there will be no difference I won't cancel just in case for later use. They've already shown they will change things on a whim may as well have a chance to fight it with a preexisting contract.
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Since everyone and their grandmothers are giving their opinion, here is what I will do:
- Cancel my classic subscription or better said
- Change my old Humble Monthy subscription which was renamed Humble Choice Classic subscription to Humble Choice due to paying less in EUR than in USD
- If I am unhappy with the new choice (Ha!) of games, I will cancel Humble Choice and be done with it for good
Trove aka the new Vault: In the last months more games were removed from Trove than added. And another launcher? Really, now?
20% discount: Sure, I was able to get some pretty sweet discounts when I added the 20% to already existing discounts. But in the great scheme of things, I so rarely used the 20% that I will no shed a tear when it is gone.
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Why does your heading say "Classic plan discontinued officially." and yet in the first paragraph "Classic - You will continue to pay $11.99 (USD), receive all games every month, and enjoy all benefits of a Humble Choice membership."? As long as I can stay on the Classic plan and still pay in dollars that's fine with me. I am aware, my situation is unique: I'm from EU with USD income on my Paypal account. I'm definitely better off paying $12 directly compared with Paypal's conversion fees for converting €9.99 into dollars.
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Did you read the actual FAQ or just the word "Classic" and figure that meant classic plan is still going to exist? That quote you have is saying if you are currently on the classic plan you will continue to pay for bundles, not that there will continue to be a classic plan.
"With the update, we will no longer offer different tiers of Choice. This means that there will be a single standard plan with month-to-month and annual plan options. All members, excluding Lite plans, will be moved to the new standard $11.99 (USD) plan or annual equivalent"
There will be no more tiers, which is an official discontinuation of the classic plan, not sure how much more clear it can be.
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Okay, but they're also very clear that I will be able to continue paying in USD. So how's that gonna work unless there's a separate plan of some sort? I get it now, it's not called "Classic" any more, but it must be some separate plan that allows me to pay in dollars, which I couldn't otherwise, because all EU subscribers would normally get the regional price in EUR.
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I don't think they are allowed to break the contract between the users and them - kicking them from Classic, and forcing a new subscription on them. They could deactivate all classic subs and tell everyone to renew the subscription if they want, but that would be awful for everyone lol, HB included. So the USD-paying "classic" has to stay. It's mostly possible because the new system is made in the "image of" the classic subscription. (I may pay less in €, but it's okay to keep me on $12, because that is the original offer I took when I started my subscription.)
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I still love how the votes are constantly 50/50
Anyways, I had a thought. In the FAQ, they also state they're going to start introducing other storefront's keys. Leftover keys from Humble Bundles are like 99% of this website's giveaways. I feel like there's now going to be a bunch of giveaways with people either accidentally, unknowingly or purposefully giving away keys for other storefronts.
I've seen it happen with the Amazon Prime Gaming keys. There were quite a few "Control: Ultimate Editions" that popped up, but were all GOG keys. There was one in particular that still hasn't been deleted/dealt with afaik, where the GA maker even admitted it was a GOG key, yet the winner marked the key as received (and didn't have the game in their Steam account, so definitely a GOG key).
Poor mods and admins are going to be up in their knees in reports, I feel.
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When it is reported from someone then the mods will handle the situation sooner or later.
In your described case with a punishment for the gifter and the one that marked it as recieved.
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In the FAQ, they also state they're going to start introducing other storefront's keys.
I don't think they use the word introducing. I mean I don't think things necessarily need to change, because we've already had keys for other platforms before: Battle.net, Uplay and a few times the option of GOG and Epic.
Maybe I'm being naive, but I'm hopeful that those keys will be the exception rather than the rule. And that where possible, you get the option of a Steam key or another.
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The quality of the monthly bundle, and all of their bundles really, has been going downhill for so long now. I've been saying they need to reexamine their pricing for awhile now. But now it kinda feels like the damage has already been done. It probably came down to them looking at what I would bet was a huge decline in memberships combined with a pricing structure that discouraged anyone who had ever subscribed before from ever coming back... I mean that just spelled disaster. But the thing is, how many people are gonna even take notice of the change? I am just hearing about it because I come here to SteamGifts. People who don't participate in this site or something social related to game bundles might never hear about the change and as a result might never know that HB now wants to work on getting their business back.
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it's they stop give key in future and start give only download via app like amazon prime?
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/s32u5h/humble_trove_retiring_nonwindows_executables/
https://www.pcgamer.com/humble-begins-a-shift-away-from-mac-and-linux-support/
"The Humble Choice subscription service will soon require a Windows-only launcher."
""As a Humble Choice member, you can still download them to keep for your personal collection until January 31. Windows PC versions of many of these games will still be available to download in the upcoming Humble app, alongside the brand-new Humble Games Collection."
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no thanks if that is what they do i will cancel first chance i get - what we need is games only for another launcher most of which people have multiply times already
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Will probably not cancel as they charge me USD already, don't use the 20% coupon so no worries about skipping months. Only hope that the quality of the games get a bit better than they are now (probably not)
Also no more linux/mac for humble trove sucks so much.
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Anyone know if the whole no-pausing thing will be retroactive? So say you paused a few months ago, would that count against your discount or do all subscribers get the full discount until they pause after the change goes live?
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It is not retroactive, if you buy January bundle you get full discount.
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Nope.
I canceled my sub a week ago.
But i wish all the best for the first month of the "re-launch"
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i don't get why people are mad unless you liked pausing each month (in which case i have no idea what games should be included to stop them doing so) or used the 20% store coupon a lot it is not going to be much different at least for us Windows users
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I don't liked how they treated me in the year were, it feeled like anyone else got the $6/months deals and i as someone that supported them for years got the double price. The lower sub levels got all games too, so no advantage from that.
My sub had only 1 month left, i don't grabbed the christmas offer and my limit was reached as they switched back, direct after they gave a bunch of people $2/month deals. I never paused in all the time but they came then around with "we will put all in the same pot that pause, if 1x in 4 years or nearly each time", trove got kicked and the communication was again not how i want to have it because they revealed it first after the christmas offer and such stuff isn't how i want to be treated as customer.
This was then the last drop that was needed that i said "i have enough games and save this money in the future".
I unsubscribed a few months ago from the emails of steam about reduced games.
I spend each event/sale on steam lesser and lesser.
I left different groups with needed monthly GAs.
I have nearly 14k games hidden on sg.
Let's say it go all in the same direction.
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i had to pay £15.99 per month even as someone who also was subbed before - so you might leave using Steam altogether then?
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No, i will still use steam in the same ammount as before but not with the same ammount of spend money^^.
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Not really, Humble is dead as a cold corpse right now and it's pretty much the end of the golden Humble days (it was their first bundle in 2009 that lead me to create a Steam account).
Also (and this is very much a personal guess), I'm predicting that, starting today, you will only be able to redeem keys through their new client and they're gonna be binded to your account.
Let's hope I'm wrong.
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I think that would definitely kill them. They are not stupid enough to do that...yet.
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I'm predicting that, starting today, you will only be able to redeem keys through their new client and they're gonna be binded to your account.
It did not start today, but I installed their new client and, yeah, it definitely looks like you will be right in the future :-/
After you install their client - pardon me, their app - it connects to Humblebundle.com and wants allowance to A) Collect information of all the games within your account and B) Permission to activate games registered to your account within the app.
By this, it could be possible that keys will only register to your Humblebundle account in the future and can only be activated via their app. I am not saying that this will happen, but I am saying that this is possible from now on.
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Games are everything, its not worth to buy a bad month just to keep the bonus.
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of course not i mean i paid for a year and never pause but also never bought a game straight from their store either
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Sure there's still a choice, the choice of whether to sub or not.
Though personally I was never interested in it and I've only ever gotten 1 month, which was just last month where I got an email offering the first month for $6 and there were 4 games that were actually interesting to me. Iron Harvest, Rustler, Between the Stars, and Mafia for $6? Hell yeah I'll take that deal.
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Looks like they are trying to get their sh**t together.
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these next 2 months better be really good if they want me to keep paying for that stuff
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The fact that theres no downside for classic people to unsub now is probably gonna hurt them unless they step up the game quality
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https://blog.humblebundle.com/2022/01/11/humble-choice-is-leveling-up/
It seems like we can't go one month without having some sort of shake up here. This time the messaging is even more vague, especially for the those still on the Classic plan.
"Beginning February 1, we’ll be offering just one plan that gets you ALL of the games we’ve picked out for the month for only $11.99 USD (regional pricing may vary). No more limiting which games you want from the bunch—every month, every game is yours to own forever."
Why is this service still even called Humble Choice when there hasn't been any choice involved in over a year? I've very confused on how this will affect my prepaid year of the Classic plan, so if anyone has any information that could shed some light on this new change I would appreciate it.
Edit: https://support.humblebundle.com/hc/en-us/articles/4411127626139
There is an FAQ that looked like it just had more word-y versions of the same info, but at the bottom it does go over the plan changes, and essentially says the Classic plan will be discontinued:
"All members, excluding Lite plans, will be moved to the new standard $11.99 (USD) plan or annual equivalent (region pricing may vary).
Classic - You will continue to pay $11.99 (USD), receive all games every month, and enjoy all benefits of a Humble Choice membership. Classic members will still continue to be billed in USD only.
Premium - With tiers going away, Premium members will see the base price reduced to $11.99 (USD). You will receive all games every month and continue to enjoy all of the perks of Humble Choice.
Basic - Basic members will see their price reduced to $11.99 (USD) and will now receive all games and perks!
Lite - Due to the price changes and collapsing of Choice tiers, members with a Lite plan will have their current membership canceled to avoid any issues with an increased cost. Lite members will have the option to purchase Humble Choice at the $11.99 (USD) price to receive great games and perks!"
"Still need help? Contact a Humble Support Ninja and we'll reply shortly! https://support.humblebundle.com/hc/en-us/requests/new"
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