Has this happened to you before?
Comment has been collapsed.
Extremely common, and apparently just gets worse as more time passes from a bundle, and also in general? A year ago it happened every now and then, now it's not uncommon that it happens while they actively sell the bundles. It sucks, so always claim your keys as soon as possible because Humble is untrustworthy to ever change it for the better.
Comment has been collapsed.
It happens, and is very frustrating, sometimes taking them over 12 months to replenish the keys (and even when they sell the same game in their store). It seems particularly egregious that so many are unavailable in recent bundles. I guess December was more popular due to the 6 month offer they had.
Comment has been collapsed.
I've waited almost 2 years for 3 keys from the same bundle. At least in Fanatical when a game in a bundle runs out of stock they put the "sold out". Even you get early warning, "low stock" or something similar. But HB? They keep selliing even when keys run out. And then you have to wait for them to get to the same agreement with the publisher so HB doesn't lose money, ofc. They're not going to give you a key from their normal store stock which might cost as much as you paid for the entire bundle. And the BIG problem is that you don't know if they're out of stock until you get to the page with the keys; so don't forget to check the latest update on that bundle in the Deals forum, which should point which keys are out of stock or replenished.
I've heard of people with incomplete bundles from +3 years ago, forgot in what HB bundle thread. The one with "We Have To Talk" IIRC.
As others say, as soon as you can get to the page with the keys, claim them all and save them somewhere safe. Because they can freeze your account too.
Comment has been collapsed.
Revealing early in the past had me flagged as a reseller and support told me never to reveal until intended to use or it may happen again, and next time they may not replace the keys. I'm not a fan of Humble because of that, and now this just adds to it.
Comment has been collapsed.
I'm not a fan of HB either due to their erratic flagging of reseller/suspicious activity/paranoia/selling stuff they don't have.
But I've been since 2020 revealing the keys ASAP and never had a problem. I'd rather say that if they use that as a reason to flag you as reseller, of even suspicious, they're stupid. 99% of people would demostrate instantly that they activated the keys, or argue that they do so to avoid trying to reveal them later to receive the "keys temporarily exhausted" (and HB has a very stretched sense of time).
Thankfully I got rid of Choice and hopefully this year I'll not buy any bundle. From them or from anyone. Maybe Jingle Jam.
Comment has been collapsed.
3 keys from Octobers choice were out of keys for me , Jusant , Mcpixel3 and Jack move . Jusant and Mcpixel3 have restocked after that so right now its just Jack move i havnt gotten
Comment has been collapsed.
There's also a case like Roboquests (november 2022), which still says it's out of stock (at least it did a few months ago), but if you ask support they'll probably give you a key.
Comment has been collapsed.
Humbles business model is to buy less keys from devs/publishers then sold to consumers under the assumption that many customers will never reveal the keys, and pocket the sold/revealed difference.
When buying from Humble ALWAYS reveal your keys! This is true for non-bundles as well, as this person found out the hard way on a key that now sells second hand for over $1000!
Comment has been collapsed.
Only problem with that is once doing a giveaway here years ago, because the key was revealed like 2 weeks before being activated, they flagged me as a reseller and deactivated the key. Told me in the future only to reveal once I intend to have it redeemed on steam, or it may happen again. As a result, I only reveal keys the moment I'm giving them to a winner or claiming myself.
Comment has been collapsed.
Are you sure it was a key and not a gift link? Gift links can be brute forced, so once you specify a game as a gift link it becomes a ticking time bomb.
Comment has been collapsed.
I suppose that's a possibility, but it's been like 3 or 4 years, so I don't recall 100%. Just remember having issues with giveaway, and having to deal with Humble support because I was flagged. I'll likely just start revealing the keys right away, and if a future issue comes of it, I'll just stop using Humble.
Comment has been collapsed.
It happened to me. I was lucky and after a few weeks I had them again.
But it was literally keys at the end of that month's humble.
Comment has been collapsed.
I usually reveal them right away so I dont have this issue :)
Comment has been collapsed.
Had issues a few years ago with some bundle keys I gave away here, they thought because of how long it took me to activate a key I was reselling, was a fight to get a new one, and was told only to reveal once it was going to be used or I may encounter the same issue. Don't like it, but I get worried with humble keys now.
Comment has been collapsed.
Humble assigns you a key when you reveal it, not when you buy the bundle. This happened to me with a game a few years ago and ever since then I always reveal all my keys as soon as I buy the bundle even if I don't plan to use them right away.
Comment has been collapsed.
I stopped revealing keys years ago because of an incident where I gave one away here and the key was deactivated because they thought I was reselling. Had to go through the whole ticket process to get a new key, and was told never to reveal a key until it was ready to be activated.
Comment has been collapsed.
Is it even possible for Humble or any other store to see if a key was used? I didn't think anyone but Steam and maybe the dev/publisher of the game could see that info. I think Humble just knows the date you made the purchase and the date you requested a key or gift link. I don't think they have any more info than that about who ended up with the key or whether it was ever activated at all.
Not revealing a key until you intend to use it would let them know that you are buying games and storing them until you found someone to give it to, whether that is a giveaway, trade, or sale. If you wanted it for yourself, there would be no reason to wait and hold onto certain games from a bundle while others get used.
Comment has been collapsed.
AFAIK only the publisher can see when or if the key was used. Not Humble.
It's possible the publisher can see when you revealed the key though. If that is the case, they could look them up and see that you revealed but didn't activate it and then deactivate the key in Steam.
Comment has been collapsed.
That's what I thought. So, unless it is a Humble original game or Humble is contacting the publisher and asking them directly about a specific key, Humble has no idea what happens to a key after it is revealed.
Comment has been collapsed.
As lext said, don't think they can actually see, but I also don't know how they come to the conclusion someone is a reseller (especially since I'm not, and they thought I was), so I'd rather not have the issue happen again and chance not getting a replacement because they don't believe me. I tend to just reveal keys once I decide to redeem, or a winner has been picked for one of my giveaways, then add the key to avoid issues. But this situation presents a new issue. I'll just have to claim all the keys tomorrow before I setup giveaways to be safe, and hope they don't revoke any before redeemed by winners. Honestly might just stop buying anything from Humble in the future, they complicate everything.
Comment has been collapsed.
Lol they just told you not to reveal the keys so they have keys for others. Just reveal the key and store away on a spreadsheet if you are not ready to activate it.
Comment has been collapsed.
Easy solution... Claim and reveal the keys as soon as you purchase it on day one of the release. Don't bother waiting to reveal the keys. It will just get worse from here on out.
Comment has been collapsed.
This solution won't always work. I just bought their current programming games bundle, and two games were out of stock. Of course, HB never bothered to tell me this, but they certainly had no issue taking my money for something they don't actually have. It's honestly insane this is even legal, especially when there's so many people who are waiting years for the keys they bought. More insane that there are so many people that will defend it. It's just fraud, really.
Comment has been collapsed.
In the past this has been resolved pretty quickly, for me. But currently I'm still waiting for one key from March and one from April. No idea how much longer it will be. It's hard not to laugh at the idea of waiting for a purely digital resource to be 're-stocked.'
Comment has been collapsed.
It's hard not to laugh at the idea of waiting for a purely digital resource to be 're-stocked.'
Especially since the games that are "out of stock" are also being currently sold on the store part without any issue.
I get that they got the bundle keys in bulk at a discount from the publisher but considering it's their damn fault for not estimating the number of keys right, they probably should be the one losing money by subbing with store keys when they "run out"
And they wonder why people just skip the bundle and buy the games they want from it on gray sites...
Comment has been collapsed.
I was thinking they do it specifically to slow down grey market sales and trading, but you're probably right that it actually encourages it.
Comment has been collapsed.
I dont understand how they can sell something that they dont have. 5 months ago i bought Tabletop Simulator.. still wasnt able to take key cuz they are out of stock.
Even worst... Roboquest bundled in 2022.. i still cant get key for this because its "temp" exhausted. Temp is 2+ years?
And if u ask em? We dont know, soon, maybe... or maybe never?
Comment has been collapsed.
33 Comments - Last post 16 minutes ago by doomofdoom
23 Comments - Last post 57 minutes ago by Inkyyy
1,177 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by J1mmyG1ft
2,317 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by MonoceroS
330 Comments - Last post 2 hours ago by aquatorrent
4 Comments - Last post 2 hours ago by hbarkas
207 Comments - Last post 3 hours ago by anditsung
1 Comments - Last post 2 minutes ago by Marshdemallows
160 Comments - Last post 5 minutes ago by OneNonLy
29 Comments - Last post 11 minutes ago by AceBerg42
17 Comments - Last post 18 minutes ago by Carenard
2,889 Comments - Last post 27 minutes ago by JMM72
39 Comments - Last post 46 minutes ago by PapaSmok
243 Comments - Last post 51 minutes ago by quijote3000
So I just went to claim some of my Humble games from last 2 Choice bundles, and I'm getting the exhausted keys message for multiple of them, including Darktide, Lamplighters League, Crime Boss, Moonstone Island, and more. Is this common? Do you guys encounter this often? Does it take long normally for the keys to be given?
Comment has been collapsed.