Humble Bundle gets a $1 minimum for Steam keys

Andrew Brush 21 Dec, 2011 at 10:33pm ET Article published in Gaming

It seems that some less than scrupulous persons have taken an interest in the fourth Humble Indie Bundle.

Prospective purchasers will now note the addition of a footnote stating that “only purchases above $1 are eligible to be redeemed on Steam to prevent abuse.” For the reasoning behind this move you have to consult the Humble Mumble blog which details how Valve’s current foray into gamification, The Great Gift Pile, has resulted in a spat of $0.01 purchases by those seeking to “legitimize” multiple accounts on the cheap in order to game the giveaway system.

Obviously this kind of abuse doesn’t do any favours to legitimate entrants or the participants in the Humble Bundle so the decision has been taken to not include Steam keys in any purchases under the dollar mark—but support staff can still supply them on request to legitimate buyers on an individual basis by request.

Comments

21 Dec 2011 ~ 6:01pm BobbyDigi This is a step in the right direction. Scammers have been buying up the bundles cheap and trading them for in game items since the beginning of the 'pay what you want' method. It only took two days of scaming Valve for anything to be done about it.
21 Dec 2011 ~ 6:06pm Cliff_Forster Plus, if you can't pay a buck, you have much larger issues. Nobody should complain about this.
21 Dec 2011 ~ 6:14pm ardichoke
Plus, if you can't pay a buck, you have much larger issues. Nobody should complain about this.
But people will... because they always do.
21 Dec 2011 ~ 6:24pm primesuspect It's not about "oh I'm poor I can't afford a dollar". It's about assholes who are trying to open as many Steam accounts as possible, populating them with games for $.01, and trying to get entries into the Steam Holiday contest.
21 Dec 2011 ~ 6:50pm Ilriyas Not to mention that the Humble Bundle is a bloody charity. Taking advantage of something like that doesn't make a person anything but a grade A arsehole.
21 Dec 2011 ~ 8:02pm Canti I'm surprised they didn't think of this before the sale. Even a $1 minimum isn't going to stop people from exploiting the system. Preventing people from making multiple accounts is probably the best solution but good luck with that.
22 Dec 2011 ~ 3:24am Basil Thing is, even if you can't afford a dollar you still get the whole base bundle, just not a steam key for it.

Just to clarify, Humble Bundle Inc isn't a charity itself, they are a San Fran based corporation.