Humble Bundle is not just a website for games. They also sell eBooks, comics, software, specials, and lots of digital content, that too in bundles. The name Humble Bundle syncs perfectly with the offers on the table. Considering the prices, humble is the least to say. But is Humble Bundle legit?
Starting from a 2-week bundle offers, this website has surely grown in sales and offers. They have built a strong market presence over the past 9 years. Humble Bundle was first established as a subsidiary partner of Wolfire Games. Later, in 2017, Humble Bundle was acquired by IGN Entertainment, a Ziff Davis subsidiary.
Humble Bundle Review
In this article, we will be going through the offers, user-interface, buying process, and other aspects of this website. We will help resolve some of the most common queries you can have about Humble Bundle.
Surfing through this website can be a tad difficult for new users as there are no guidelines or segmentations. One cannot identify whether a game is fighting, arcade, or a first-person shooter (Unless you know exactly what you are looking for!) Fonts are quite large and guarantee easy visibility of the content as well as the terms to its usage, if any.
The website keeps offering lower plan prices frequently to boost sales and offers to credit $8 for your next Humble Store purchase. All you need is to invite a friend, but it comes with a limit of 30 referrals.
How does the Humble Bundle work?
After you have purchased a bundle from Humble Bundle, you will get the keys for Steam, Uplay, GOG, or the respective gaming platform for the game/s via mail. This mail will include a detailed process of redeeming the key as well to help you through it!
User Interface
Humble Bundle might seem difficult to surf, but after spending a few hours things will become a lot easier. Comparing the UI with its rivals and alternatives such as fanatical or instant gaming, Humble Bundle scores 8 out of 10.
The home page is filled mostly with games, even though it sells a variety of other digital products. The best part about its website is the lack of intimidating popups and flash content. Background color and spaces remain consistent as you browse through content, so this is well-planned out and somewhat well-branded website. The uniformity also assures that the Humble Bundle doesn’t emphasize any game or other digital content for you.
Although there is no mention of a gaming platform in the title images, platforms are shown before you make the purchase. The website will prompt you to link your Steam account with your Humble Bundle account (You need one to buy!) before purchasing a Steam game.
The website mentions the supported platform, developer, publisher, operating system, genre, and system requirement for all separate modes. It also mentions all the disclaimers and other details on the purchase page. It will also provide you with trailer videos and screengrabs.
So, is Humble Bundle Legit?
Sure, looks like it so far!
Sorting Mechanism
You will find all the games under the store segment of the website. It has 4 classifications on the menu bar such as On Sale, New Releases, Best Selling (featuring FPS, RPG, and STRATEGY games), and the Browse menu, where you get the option to search for games based on genre. It also features a special option for Nintendo Switch games.
Scroll down the website to check out segments – What’s Hot, New Releases, Hot pre-orders, and ‘Trending deals.’ Apart from this, you also get a nifty vertical price chart which includes the latest Popular Games, Newly Released Games, and Pre-Order Games.
An individual row of each game features the icon of supported platforms, discount breakdown, and ‘Add to Cart’ feature with an updated price. In the ‘New’ and ‘Pre-order’ sections, games on early access have no discount. You might have to pay the full amount for most of them under the ‘Pre-Order’ section.
Surfing through any section won’t give the feeling of being manipulated. It gives new and old users the freedom to surf without being subconsciously forced to visit a particular section makes this website really, humble.
How To Buy on Humble Bundle
While you can buy games individually, you can get a bit confused, mostly in the choice section. Every new user is unsure of how it works, but we will break down the process to make it easier for you.
Let’s start with the Humble Monthly!
You get two different billing options – Monthly and Annual. The annual plan gives an additional discount of 25% over the monthly plans. Each of these plans has 3 different levels to choose, each having a different price and features. Get access to a number of games as per the plan.
Lite – Billed at $4.99 monthly, this plan offers access to the humble trove from where you will get 90+ DRM free games, which you can download and keep forever. You will also get a 10% off on Humble Store Purchases. You get access to Humble Trove where games and other digital content are updated with new selections every month.
Basic – Billed at $14.99 per month, the basic plan gives you the option to keep 3 out of the 12 games in the monthly bundle choice. Available only for new users. Additionally, you get all the features of the Lite section.
Premium – Billed at $19.99 per month, this plan offers you to keep 9 out of the 12 games in the monthly bundle choice forever. While new users get to keep 9 games, subscribers of the previous month get to keep 10. It will also give you access to Humble Trove and a 20% discount on Humble Store purchases.
The monthly plans cost a bit more than the annual ones, but these are charged at the end of the month. In simple words, if you purchase the October bundle, you will not be charged before the end of October. You have the option to pause the subscription and rollover to the next month.
The annual plans are about 25% cheaper than the monthly plans and offer the same features as in the monthly plans. Hence, there is no push for making customers purchase the annual plan for extra benefits. Under the Basic plan, you will get 34 games every year to keep while the Premium plan offers 108 games in a year!
That’s a lot of games!
Support Services
Humble Bundle’s support service is available in the drop-down menu of the ‘About’ section. Clicking on Support will take you to a different website offering services in 6 different languages namely English, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, and Chinese.
You get a search bar for your queries or you can alternatively go through a particular section troubling you. Each section contains a lot of articles addressing different issues. In case your issue cannot be resolved from the Factual questions, you can submit a request to the support team.
Under the request section, you must select the pre-listed option which includes a General Inquiries and My Question Isn’t Here option. For all the options you will have to provide your contact email address, Subject of your problem, followed by your message.
This would also require the 13-digit Transaction Id and Product Name with an Attachments option. The process seems thorough and leaves no space for further complications.
What’s the catch?
The support team is available only on weekdays from 7 am to 10 pm (PST).
Is the customer support any good?
With a turnaround time of roughly 3 business days, the support system is a bit slow that’s what we feel.
Is Humble Bundle Reliable and Safe?
The certificate to this website is issued to www.humblebundle.com by RapidSSL RSA CA 2018 which is valid from 4th September 2019 to 4th April 2021. This is an intermediate certificate owned by DigiCert, linking the root certificate of RapidSSL with HumbleBundle’s SSL certificate. It offers a 256-bit encryption key, at par and somewhat better than current industry standards.
So, Are you Safe?
The website is protected by security protocols meant for the protection of the user data. These protocols make it difficult for fraudsters from imitating the original website. For additional security try using a VPN service to secure your data.
Make sure you check the spelling and certificates before randomly opening any website from Google Search choices offering similar services.
Although this website requires a large amount of cookie access, the lack of advertisement and flash content makes it worth it. You can always revoke the cookie access as soon as you are done shopping.
Conclusion
When it comes down to selecting a website that offers a bundle of games and other digital content at dirt cheap prices, Humble Bundle is one of the best around and is totally legit and safe.
They claim to have donated over USD 187 million since 2010 in charity and given the fact that it’s part of IGN makes it more trustworthy.
FAQs
Why is Humble Bundle so cheap?
Most cheap games offered in the Humble Bundle are old. As older games bring less revenue to publishers, they don’t mind selling the same for cheaper prices. By the time these games get older, the target audience of the publisher will already have played the games.
The same is not the case in New and Pre-order releases, even on Humble Bundle. These games are rarely offered on discount.
Where is Humble Bundle based?
After the acquisition by Ziff Davis in 2017, Humble Bundle is now based out of Rincon Hill in San Francisco, California with over 60 employees.
Do you keep Humble Bundle games forever?
Whether you can purchase a game from Humble Bundle and keep it forever varies with the plan you have purchased with. The basic plan will let you keep 3 games from 12 while the premium plan offers you to keep 9 out of the 12 games.
How does Humble Bundle make money?
Humble Bundle is a distribution partner. Their revenues come from the 25% commission over every sale out of which they keep 15% for managing their business expenses. The rest 10% donate for charity works. Quite transparent!
Is Humble Bundle safe to link Steam?
The purpose of the prompt to link Steam before purchasing a Steam game is intended for your own benefit. It assures that you don’t buy or redeem any game that you already own. Also, it helps you enjoy a game on Steam at cheaper prices!
Is Humble Bundle legal?
From the service it offers to the content on its website, everything is protected by copyright. The company has registered trademarks and is under the protection of intellectual property rights. You can consider Humble Bundle a legally covered entity!
