Ever wonder what happened to all those games you picked up over the years through Humble Bundle? You might not like the answer.
Originally launched in 2010 and later acquired by IGN publisher Ziff Davis in 2017, Humble Bundle has gone from being a way to pick up indie games on the cheap (while giving to a good cause) to one of the most popular digital storefronts in PC gaming.
Even if it's not directly competing with Steam, Humble is a bigger deal than the name might lead you to believe. However, like many online platforms nowadays, it's quietly been getting worse when it comes to the terms it offers customers.
Back in December 2024, Humble quietly amended its terms of service. This next part might sound a little legalese but bear with me. Basically, when you buy a game through Humble (either as a bundle, via its storefront or its subscription service,) you're usually just buying access to a CD key. Whenever you redeem a copy of a given game via the Humble website, your account gets allocated a code. You plug that code into another platform like Steam and away you go. Although the earliest era of the service touted DRM-free games as a perk, its modern incarnation is basically a CD key reseller with better marketing (and the occasional good cause.)
Where things get tricky is that Humble itself only has access to a finite number of codes. When Humble runs out of those codes, you would imagine they would go out and resupply for their paying customers (even though it would be odd to "run out" given the company should know how many it sold and to whom.)
Regardless, Humble's terms of service suggest that it might offer code for the same game on a different platform but "in cases where Alternate Keys are not available to replenish, Humble Bundle is not obligated to provide them."
That small print has some pretty big potential implications. If the idea of buying a bundle via Humble, only to discover that some of the codes you paid for are 'out of stock' sounds wrong, I have more bad news: It gets worse.
As per the amended terms of service agreement:
"Humble Bundle shall not be obligated to provide any keys, including Alternate Keys, to games that are unredeemed within the aforementioned timeframe and thus become expired," the agreement reads.
If you don't remember to redeem the digital content you buy via Humble within three years, it'll "expire" like a jar of mayonnaise. That's bad enough on its own but when you factor in the reality that Humble might be out of codes for a given title, leaving you unable to redeem or play the game you thought you bought it gets even sketchier.
Humble is essentially making it the customer's to log in and see if there are more keys available. That is if they want to actually get the thing they paid for. That's assuming Humble bothers to replenish or offer alternate keys at all.
The three-year deadline here is wild given we're talking about digital goods. If you've bought games via Humble in the past, you probably own some that are older than that window. If you forgot to redeem the codes involved, there's a chance that you no longer can.
Unsurprisingly, Humble's longtime customers have already caught on.
You don't have to look far to find complaints of disappearing and expired codes on forums or Reddit. Based on the posts we've seen, it seems like those who have accrued game codes via the Humble Choice subscription are the worst hit when it comes to these issues with some customers reporting instances where they have bought a bundle only to discover that Humble was out of codes for some or all of the games involved on the other side of the checkout screen.
For what its worth, the Humble Bundle terms of service do still include a carve-out for Australian consumer law. As per the terms of service:
That may make it easier to get a refund but going that route might not make sense for those affected as it'd likely mean losing an entire bundle of games.
Given that Humble's publishing wing recently underwent severe layoffs, it's unclear whether this shift in policy is one motivated by desperation or greed. Either way, one of the best places to buy cheap video games is changing for the worse.
3 min read
