Humble Bundle will start capping charitable donations again, despite backlash earlier this year
New slider changes will give Humble a minimum 15% to 30% cut
Back in April, Humble Bundle removed the sliders that let buyers determine how much money from their purchase went to a publisher, a charity, and Humble themselves, effectively capping the amount you could give to charity at 15%. It wasn't a great look for a charity-based storefront, and following a lot of backlash, they rolled back the change shortly after. Now, however, they've announced a new tweak to the system, making it so the minimum you can allocate to Humble will be between 15% and 30%.
"During testing earlier this year, we heard your feedback that choosing where your money goes through sliders is an important part of why you choose Humble," they posted yesterday.
For context, since Humble first started in 2010, shoppers have been able to choose to give 100% the money they paid for a game to the storefront's partner charities. The sliders that let you allocate the funds aren't going away, but Humble are making it so they take a minimum of 15% to 30% cut depending on the game. It's not as drastic as the previous change, though it does still lessen the amount you can give to charity.
"Why change after ten years? The PC storefront landscape has changed significantly since we first launched bundles in 2010, and we have to continue to evolve with it to stay on mission," they say.
"The change to sliders lets us continue to invest in more exciting content so we can keep growing the Humble community which will ultimately drive more donations for charitable causes. We'll also continue to create more ways to give back such as with our 100% to charity bundles."
This new iteration of the sliders will arrive sometime in mid-July, and the splits on each bundle will vary. Humble add that "sliders will clearly indicate any minimums to customers and the flexibility to adjust donations will be available in every purchase of a bundle.
When they said they still wanted to "explore different approaches to the sliders and how they work" last time, I didn't think they'd double down on the whole "give less to charity" thing. While this change is slightly better, it's clear this is a move for them to make more money. Which is a shame - the storefront's whole selling point is that it lets you give so much to charitable causes. Without that, it's just another key reseller.