On May 4, 2010 the first ever Humble Indie Bundle went on sale. This bundle included World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Punumbra: Overture, Lugaru HD, and Samarost 2 and raised over 1.27 million US dollars. Since then, this once indie-game oriented online distribution site (whose first creator, Jeff Rosen of Wolfire Games, was inspired by similar Steam bundle sales), has slowly grown in influence and publicity among the online PC gaming community; the most successful bundle ever being the release of the Humble Origin Bundle which took gamers by surprise with the inclusion of triple-A titles such as Dead Space, Battlefield 3, Burnout Paradise, Sims 3, Crysis 2, Mirror’s Edge, Populous, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising, all for under five dollars.
Check out the first ever Humble Bundle trailer:
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What makes Humble Bundle unique from all other online game distributors is its option for users to pay what they want for game bundles which are offered for only a limited amount of time (with a minimum of US$1 to acquire Steam/Desura/Origin codes for “Below the average” games and an indeterminate “Beat the Average”, BTA, price for newer and more popular- and usually series related- bundle games in addition to the Below the Average Games), as well as its feature in giving users the ability to choose how they wish their money to be divided among charities, developers, and the Humble Bundle site.
Since 2010, Humble Bundle has introduced “Humble Weekly Sales” (similar to the original Humble Bundle sales but with bundle deals changing each week), options for game developers to individually put their game on sale (usually offering DRM-free downloads and Steam codes), and new platforms such as Android and Linux (in addition to Windows and Mac). However, today marks a new day in the expansion of the slowly growing Humble Bundle empire (though they are still nowhere close to big enough to rival major online retailers) with the debut of the Humble Bundle Store. Staying true to its traditions of limited times deals and donations to charity, the Humble Bundle Store is currently selling nine individual games, discounted at more than half their original prices, with 10% of proceeds going to charity (75% to the Creator and a 15% Humble Tip).
With what looks to be a new sale each day, if you’re a deal hunter or simply want to be constantly adding games to your already enormous backlog, keep an eye on the Humble Bundle Store page for awesome daily deals!