Humble Origin Bundle Breaks $5 Million

[Andy Chalk]

Humble Origin Bundle Breaks $5 Million

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The Humble Origin Bundle has topped $5 million in less than two days.

On August 14, we brought your attention [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/126854-Humble-Bundle-Teams-Up-With-Origin] to the Humble Origin Bundle, an EA-powered collection of games including Dead Space 1 and 3 (no idea where DS2 is), Crysis 2 Maximum Edition, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Mirror's Edge, Medal of Honor and, for those who forked over more than the average, Battlefield 3 and The Sims 3 Starter Pack. It's not a bad collection at all, especially for less than the cost of a half-decent burger, but the fact that EA and Origin were front-and-center made it look a little... well, you know how people feel about EA and Origin.

And yet here we are: On August 16, less than 48 hours later, more than one million people have dropped coin on this thing, raising a little over $5.2 million at last look, a figure that continues to climb (the Humble Bundle site updates in something close to real-time) and will likely be over $5.3 million in short order.

Srange, no? Origin is easy to hate but it's hard to argue against Dead Space 3 or Mirror's Edge (or whatever's in this list that you haven't played) for a dollar. And let us not forget that EA isn't actually getting any money out of this; all of it, minus an undisclosed slice for the Humble Bundle guys, is going to some very worthy charities: the Human Rights Campaign, Watsi, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the American Red Cross and the American Cancer Society.

Make of it what you will. The Humble Origin Bundle will be available until 11 am PDT on August 28, and despite a few big spenders the average price is still under five bucks.

Source: Humble Bundle [https://www.humblebundle.com/]


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[Andy Shandy]

What a bunch of assholes, eh?

5 Million raised spread across various charities but damn them for having the gall to use their own digital distribution system to do it! (even though plenty of the games came with Steam keys)

But seriously, well done EA for raising all that money for good causes.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

I never found origin that bad to use, so I could care less about having to use it. Though, I still did grab Steam keys for all the games except Dead Space 3, since there was no Steam key for that. My brother and I both got this deal. I payed $5, and I paid $1 for my brother since he didn't want Battlefield 3 anyway. It was nice to give him a boost on his Steam library on the PC I just built him a week ago. He loves being able to play games like Mirror's Edge at 60 FPS now (Crysis 2 was a bit of stress though, but he didn't mind 30 FPS on that either)

 

[Doom972]

Considering that some these games aren't cheap (because Origin sales be damned), I can see many people buying multiple copies to later give as gifts.

Getting that much money to charity while selling games for dirt cheap definitely makes EA look much better for me.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Don't forget that with the exception of Dead Space 3 and BF3, all of the bundle titles are available as Steam keys.

I recommend you get them as Steam keys too, because Origin is currently hurking it's guts out and being slower than normal. This is not a problem I had getting the games from Steam.

Medal of Honor 2010 is much better than I was expecting...

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

I never found origin that bad to use, so I could care less about having to use it. Though, I still did grab Steam keys for all the games except Dead Space 3, since there was no Steam key for that.

Same thing here. All those extra keys I just gave away on social network sites.

As for Origin, the prices are too high but the games are still good. The service doesn't break either. Of every review for Mass Effect 3, did anyone ever even mention it ran through Origin? Nope, because people don't care as much in reality as they complain on the internet. EA has also had a real change of heart (i.e. change in business practice to get more money). In less than a year they've revamped their distribution, started green lighting smaller projects, and over all stopped saying such dickish things to its consumers. I bet they'll still be in the running for "Worst Company in America," but this time it'll be strictly out of tradition ^.^

 

[SanguiniusMagnificum]

Well, it's impolite to look a gifted horse in the mouth (or however that expression goes), but most of these games, well.... kind of suck. I'm sorry that I couldn't find a better word to voice my incredibly subjective opinion, but the only games that I would be interested in are Mirror's Edge and BF3.

 

[paketep]

Not strange. Many of us are ignoring the Origin keys and just using the Steam keys.

Knowing that EA doesn't get a dime (and that it goes to charity) helps a lot.

 

[Scars Unseen]

It may be of interest to some that if one of the games is not available in your region, the Steam key will not work, but the Origin one will.

 

[Something Amyss]

Don't forget that with the exception of Dead Space 3 and BF3, all of the bundle titles are available as Steam keys.

And The Sims. I doubt many care, though.

If it had been available on Steam I might have tried it to see what the deal was. As it is, I'm in no rush for the other Origin games, so I doubt I'll bother.

 

[Ldude893]

I've a feeling that EA is just doing this to overcome its public image as the biggest bastards in the gaming industry.

But what the hell, that's a lot of money going to some great causes, so credit is where credit is due. Nice work to EA and to everyone who helped chip in.

 

[The White Hunter]

Don't forget that with the exception of Dead Space 3 and BF3, all of the bundle titles are available as Steam keys.

I recommend you get them as Steam keys too, because Origin is currently hurking it's guts out and being slower than normal. This is not a problem I had getting the games from Steam.

Medal of Honor 2010 is much better than I was expecting...

Medal of Honor 2010 is a grotesquely underated game. It's not amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but it is solid and enjoyable and does offer some kind of realism. Bullets sound flat, impact feels significant and sounds painful, the shooting is heavy but accurate, the sound design is good and the game is very understated and has a unique approach, where it really just has you as guys doing their jobs.

Guys with epic beards.

It's a solid 7/10 game, short though. Multiplayer is alright but under-developed.

Sequel was utter bollocks though.

OT: How dare EA push their own digital distribution service on us all and raise 5 million dollars for charity! What an utterly despicable PR move!

But no seriously I bought this within hours of it going up, for a solid $7. It's a great deal and Origin really isn't that bad of a thing, it's just straining under the pressure of the redeems from this bundle.

 

[anthony87]

Few tinfoil hats in this thread already....

Pretty solid deal anyway, getting BF3 and Dead Space 3 for a fiver makes me a happy camper. Not a fan of the whole Battlelog thing though.

 

[SweetShark]

I still waiting to see the other games they will reveal.
I am very sure we will see also DS2 in few days.

 

[Dragonbums]

While good on EA for doing this charity fund, I kind of see it as an ulterior motive to get more people on Origin.
Sorry EA, but no matter what you do I ain't having that garbage on my computer.

Anyways- $5 million dollars is a lot.
The question shouldn't be how much they raised.
It should be- how much of that money is going to be taken by the charity fund heads before it actually gets to the places it was intended to help.

 

[DataSnake]

I never thought I'd be typing these words, but good on EA for doing this.

 

[Jumwa]

Origin's code redemption was down for over a day, and only came back up for me today.

Talk about timing on that one.

 

[Slash2x]

Yeah no one is installing Origin for this. I got the bundle and it sent no money to EA(winning) and only used the Steam keys. Oh look I own copies of these games! I can legally install a copy from another source that does not use Origin, because I paid for it.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I wonder if EA, having seen the other side of the coin, might actually improve their business ethos from this? If not, at least they did some good.

Hopefully we won't hear EA denigrate sales like they did when launching origin and finally see the value of showing good faith to their potential consumers.

captcha: got my mojo...

I don't know captcha, EA is a long way from being the passionate company they once were back before they turned into a full blown publisher. But it's a good thing none the less.