Two weeks ago, Humble Bundle announced a controversial plan to remove sliders that allow users to customise what per cent of their game purchase goes to charity. Today, Humble announced that it’s rethinking that plan.
“We’ve heard everyone loud and clear and apologise for the way these changes were rolled out,” the company wrote in a blog post. “We are now taking a moment to pause, collect constructive feedback and be more transparent about the path forward.”
Under Humble’s old model, people purchasing games could use sliders to adjust which percentage of their game purchase went to developers, Humble, and the charity a particular bundle supported; this allowed buyers to give their entire purchase price to the charity. Humble’s initial plan would have replaced those sliders with buttons that only allow for fixed charitable donation amounts, capping at 15% of the total purchase. Humble users were angry about the change and the limits they felt it placed on donations.
Notably, today’s announcement doesn’t indicate that Humble is just going to leave the flexible split in place. Humble writes that while it’s going back to sliders for now, it will “continue to iterate” on them, taking into account user feedback. “Part of that future development will include exploring different approaches to the sliders and how splits work, along with new ways to incorporate charity into other parts of the user experience,” Humble wrote. “[W]e’re committed to sharing our plans and getting feedback from this incredible community beforehand to ensure any changes we make live up to our mission and values.”
It’s good to see the company rethinking its unpopular plan, even if the blog post doesn’t clearly indicate a complete change of course. At the very least, the company seems to have heard users’ complaints, many of whom felt the move wasn’t just a UI change, but a betrayal of Humble’s dedication to charity.
“We’re just as committed to supporting charity as we were when we launched Humble Bundle,” Humble concluded. Time will tell.
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