At a loss for words on this one!!
Humble was far from humble at this point, and IGN is a massive company, but this is still incredibly weird at first blush.
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More like Humble Fumble, am I right?
Yeah, I also have no idea what this could mean. Still, more like Humble Bumble, right? A Humble Stumble? How the Humble Crumbles? Lotta good headlines for this one.
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âHumble Bundle Crumbles After IGN Stumble As Stock Prices Tumble After Rumble With Steamâ
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âInvestors Grumble at IGN Humble Fumble, Lose Big in Ensuing Jumbleâ
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I have a feeling this has less to do with Humble needing support than it does with IGN needing to broaden its investments beyond media. I know IGN is popular, but I have to wonder how their videos fare in comparison to other video content creators. Meanwhile, it seems like Humbleâs doing great.
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Worth remembering that almost from the outset (within months of being spun off as an independent company), Humble was turned into a VC ship (Sequoia Capital were the first big investors).
The plucky upstart who believed in DRM-free, paying developers directly from sales, and funding ports to other OSs as part of the bundling system was very quickly pushed to one side. Why wouldnât VC companies looking for some return sell them to j2 Global?
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Looking forward to an article that can explain to me what this could mean. I donât have a clue how âbusinessâ works.
Really not sure how to feel about this. Leaning to the side of unease for now.
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Could you please explain âVCâ for the rest of us? I know Iâm not the only one ignorant about this.
âVCâ, in this context, means âventure capitalâ. This is a type of private equity that firms or funds provide, usually in exchange for ownership stakes or equity, to fledgling companies that are thought to have high growth potential. Aiming to get VC money to get your business model off the ground is very common with start-ups.
For investors, the idea is like the oft-speculated example of âoh, can you imagine if youâd bought Apple stock in 1985?â. Theyâre looking for a (relatively) small investment now to pay off big in the medium-term through their investments.
I donât know what the situation with Humble is (and this is a pretty 101/basic explanation), but I think it should cover the basics.
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i feel like Humbleâs immediate mission statement kind of obscured how fast they moved towards a typical business approach. itâs hard for me to feel like they were really that much different from say, Valve, or GOG, as every new change and partnership they made felt in line with a kind of libertarian philosophy you see in tech.
i guess what iâm trying to say that this IGN buyout already feels like something in line with their philosophy so i canât see it changing much. iâm sure theyâll be changes but iâve long given up on seeing Humble as anything more than another digital store
The thing about GOG is they have made mistakes and are part of what is now a reasonably big publisher (at least owner of a now AAA developer of games that win awards and generate high sales) but they do seem to get why they arenât Steam. Theyâve always been DRM-free as a platform and work to make that work (with how multiplayer keys and DLC works and so on for people who publish on the platform) and even when they ended up with regional pricing, they provide refund in credit for discrepancies (unlike other platforms).
Humble also started with a mission statement. It hasnât existed for years. As you say, theyâre now just another store, but Iâd say that at least GOG tries to be more than that.
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So did IGN get to pay what they wanted for this or was Humble the upper tier reward with a fixed price? What else did they get in the Humble Corporate Bundle?
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In other news Monsanto acquired Oxfam 
Uh, donât joke about that. I campaigned for a year with Oxfam America specifically against Monsanto.
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My apologies, didnât mean to make light of it. I wanted to make a point with a humorously exaggerated comparison but I see what you mean. Thanks for pointing it out.
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