Humble Bundle announced today that in May it will begin removing its distinctive sliders from game bundle store pages, in effect capping the amount of the purchase price customers can donate to charity. News of this change has enraged some onlookers, who characterised it as greedy.
First launching in 2010, Humble Bundles became a popular way for people to buy games and digital software while helping support charities in the process. Before purchasing a bundle, users could manipulate three sliders that would determine how much money the charity, software publisher, and Humble Bundle Inc. would receive from that purchase. If so inclined, people could donate all of their purchase to the selected charity.
But it seems that after a decade of using this system, Humble Bundle is changing things up. The sliders are being removed, to be replaced with fixed, pre-set options that all send a significant cut of the proceeds to Humble Bundle and publishers. Further, the portion going to charities will now cap at just 15 per cent.
Humble launched over a decade ago with a bundle that featured the ability to pay-what-you-want and support charities. Today we’re sharing some updates coming to bundle pages and how they will help us continue to support charity. https://t.co/0sXM6dT0V0
— Humble Bundle (@humble) April 23, 2021
In the blog post announcing its plans, Humble Bundle suggested the decision to remove sliders was because it wanted to unify its various services.
“Since we launched bundles over a decade ago, sliders have not changed even as Humble evolved by building products like Humble Choice and the Humble Store that all support charity without sliders,” it wrote. The company also mentioned a few less important UI changes.
The blog also included an apology from Humble Bundle for trialing the slider changes for some users last month without warning or notice. That was the first indication that sliders were not long for this world, which today’s news confirms.
While the change isn’t live yet, fans are already sharing anger and disappointment about the donation cap and the removal of the sliders. Many claimed that Humble Bundle was their favourite way to buy games, and that they would no longer support the store if it went ahead with its plan. Others pointed out how bad a look it is that a store dedicated to charity, and which is literally called “Humble,” is now planning to greatly reduce charitable donations and take a cut from all future purchases.
Kotaku reached out to Humble Bundle for comment about the removal of sliders and the 15 per cent cap on charitable donations.
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