In an unprecedented blunder, digital bundle platform Humble Bundle mistakenly offers the $70 Indiana Jones title at no cost.
In an unprecedented blunder, digital bundle platform Humble Bundle mistakenly offers the $70 Indiana Jones title at no cost.
I recently checked out some reviews for the recently launched video game, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a couple of days ago. I stumbled upon an intriguing discussion on Reddit. It appears that Humble Bundle was offering the game for free to its users who linked their Steam account to their platform.
This particular game, Great Circle, is a top-notch, $70 AAA title, and I found it peculiar that it was being given away for free. I clicked on the Reddit link, but Humble Bundle had already taken down the listing. However, as per numerous social media posts, some fortunate individuals managed to get the game and run it for a short while before it disappeared from their Steam library.
Fast forward to now, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is nowhere to be found on Humble Bundle. A search on Google pulls up two listings for the game, one for the premium edition and one for the standard edition. Yet, clicking on them redirects users to Humble Bundle's storefront. It seems that Indy has vanished from the popular platform, and it's uncertain when, or if, it will reappear.
Humble Bundle is a widely recognized, charity-driven digital storefront. It allows users to bundle various items together, including books, comics, and games, and pay what they want for it. A portion of the payment goes to charity. It's a well-liked service, and many mainstream companies sell their products through Humble. It's a great place to find fantastic deals on games.
On Monday night, an account named Wario64, which posts about video game deals on X, noticed that Humble Bundle was offering the new Indiana Jones game for free. Following the discovery, Wario64 shared the information with the public, leading many to enjoy Indy for a brief period before Humble Bundle withdrew the keys.
Humble Bundle did not respond to my inquiries and has not provided many details about the incident. In a statement to PC Gamer, Humble Bundle admitted to revoking all the keys for the game it had given out due to a pricing error. The game had been mistakenly marked as free.
This incident serves as a stark reminder that obtaining a game on Steam does not guarantee ownership. In fact, Steam doesn't sell games; it sells licenses. The license terms can be quite flexible, as the company sees fit. This was made clear when Steam revised its terms and conditions in October 20XX, in compliance with new California laws against misleading advertising. At the time of purchase, customers were now informed that they were only purchasing a license, not the actual game. This information had been buried within the Steam EULA for more than a decade, but it is now more prominently displayed.
In the future, tech-savvy gamers should be aware that obtaining a game on platforms like Steam only grants a license, not full ownership. This was emphasized after the Humble Bundle incident, where they had to revoke the keys for the free Indiana Jones game due to a pricing error.
Moving forward, if technology permits, developers and platforms might consider offering true ownership of digital games to their customers, changing the way we perceive and interact with our online game libraries.