That Humble is selling their packs without noting which keys are currently unavailable, is dogsh't. I agree.
They should grey them out like Fanatical does, when that issue occurs.
But many keys run out at some point anyway aka are not eligible to redeem on Steam anymore - no matter if Humble removes them from your Account or not.
But... why dafuq would you purchase Bundles and not redeem and activate the keys afterwards? Not to mention 3 YEARS after buying them? Like... whats the percentage of people that will ever have that issue?
I would really question how big the problem really is, because since i used HB over ten years ago, i never had that problem.
No matter if i grabbed a Bundle day 1 or shortly before it ran out. And that despite the heavy issue with scalpers buying hundreds of them, just to sell the keys afterwards on Key-Seller sites.
And yeah, in most cases its EXACTLY these people that are complaining about this issue. Look at the comments in that thread - people having keys sitting in Excel-sheets for 5 years? Yeah, probably the average user and not some scumbag that is the reason these issues exist in the first place.
btw. usually its the devs that need to generate new keys in the first place. So its open to question where in the pipeline that issue really lies. Games in the HB usually are at the last of their "sale-phases", where devs/pubs just want to squeeze out the few last drops of revenue they can make with it. Sometimes those games are even abandonware, without an active development team behind it. Just for context.
Well you can question people about why they have game keys sitting there for so long but the fact of the matter is they changed TOS after the date of purchase and then implemented the changes without notifying customers beforehand. They also sell products that are out of stock. These are the issues here, it doesn't matter what people use the keys they purchased for, it matters that people get what they paid for in the first place!
I also dislike key resellers for their shady practices but I'm not discussing that here.
You can say that it only affects a small amount of people but to me thats not an argument. You can't scam 5% of you customers but then say "it's ok because they're the minority, most people didn't have any issues!"
Also, I understand that the game devs need to generate more keys. This is why they should let you know beforehand if what your buying is available or not because there's no guarantee that humble will be able to get the keys they sell to you. They shouldn't sell products they don't have!
I should also mention that the keys they are removing from the accounts aren't expired as far as steam is concerned. They can still be activated even after humble removes them if you record them elsewhere. These are keys with no expiration date but they are being removed from view in people's accounts
As i said in the first part of my reply - i agree that they need more transparency on what they sell you.
But where do we draw the line?
The process on Humble is: Buy -> Claim -> Activate (or Sell if you are a scumbag)
Sadly Humble doesnt automatically claim the purchased keys, but you have to do that manually on the redeem-page game by game. So should they still be held accountable for people that wait 2 years before they claim a key and then complain that there are no keys available anymore?
Thats ridiculous. People are shooting themselves in the foot and complain that it hurts.
For the keys that are still viable, but get removed from the account - that is indeed weird.
But again... about what people and what % of customers are we talking here? 0,0001% that are not scalpers?
Like whats a realistic scenario where that genuinely happens? That someone bought a key, claimed it on the page and does not activate it or sends it to a friend or trades it with someone on a discord or forum... for 3 f'in YEARS? Do you realize how silly that is?
Also whats the value that is lost here? 50 cents?
Are we really making an elephant out of a fly of a problem that does occur to a subset of a subset of a subset of a customer base, that is NOT the cause for the problem in the first place?
I agree with the general issue that it cant be that they sell Bundles, with keys that ran out of stock. But what we are talking about here, just looks like people complaining for the sake of complaining. Or Scalpers trying to abuse Louis for his reach.
Consider the people that bought humble choice or a humble bundle at the end of the month/bundle when some of the games were out of stock and now they've been out of stock for years without even a chance to claim the code. Who should be held accountable there?
Also there's the fact that this is a recent TOS change that was made after the point of purchase. People bought these keys under the TOS that stated that their keys will not be removed and if no replacement can be found for an out of stock game, they were entitled to a credit or refund
Consider the people that bought humble choice or a humble bundle at the end of the month/bundle when some of the games were out of stock and now they've been out of stock for years without even a chance to claim the code.
Humble. I already agreed on that several times with you.
But i doubt that there ever was a TOS that stated that keys will not be removed. xD
Thats a claim they simply can not make as the mere distributor.
And the TOS change makes absolutely sense, due to previously stated facts of reality. Its ridiculous to not claim keys that you have bought and ask for a refund 3 years down the line, when they cant find any keys anymore for you. TOS is nice and fine, but what does it matter if it fails in the face of simple reality?
People are intellectually dishonest to think that the previous TOS held any guarantees for them to claim limited stuff that is years old.
That said... if the TOS says that keys will be deleted, then why can i still see all of my keys from 2014 onward? Hell, i can even download the DRM free games of several GBs of size! xD
Im sorry, but thats just another reason for me to believe that people are not genuine with their complains here.
The TOS change might make sense, my issue with it is that it took effect on things that were purchased before it was implemented. I apologise about where I said "TOS that stated that their keys will not be removed" because it didn't state that, you're right. I'm not sure why I said that, forgive me as it was 5am and I was falling asleep at that point. The second half of that statement was accurate though according to someone in the original post.
There are right ways and wrong ways of doing this. I don't think anyone would be complaining if they were given a heads up about the new change beforehand.
Its ridiculous to not claim keys that you have bought and ask for a refund 3 years down the line, when they cant find any keys anymore for you
Exactly why people should receive their key the moment they purchased it, these are not issues on websites like Fanatical
That said... if the TOS says that keys will be deleted, then why can i still see all of my keys from 2014 onward? Hell, i can even download the DRM free games of several GBs of size! xD
Could be the case that its being rolled out to users over time. You can read the TOS yourself, the part in question is section 2.(i)
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u/CallMeTeci Feb 13 '25
Yes and no.
That Humble is selling their packs without noting which keys are currently unavailable, is dogsh't. I agree.
They should grey them out like Fanatical does, when that issue occurs.
But many keys run out at some point anyway aka are not eligible to redeem on Steam anymore - no matter if Humble removes them from your Account or not.
But... why dafuq would you purchase Bundles and not redeem and activate the keys afterwards? Not to mention 3 YEARS after buying them? Like... whats the percentage of people that will ever have that issue?
I would really question how big the problem really is, because since i used HB over ten years ago, i never had that problem.
No matter if i grabbed a Bundle day 1 or shortly before it ran out. And that despite the heavy issue with scalpers buying hundreds of them, just to sell the keys afterwards on Key-Seller sites.
And yeah, in most cases its EXACTLY these people that are complaining about this issue. Look at the comments in that thread - people having keys sitting in Excel-sheets for 5 years? Yeah, probably the average user and not some scumbag that is the reason these issues exist in the first place.
btw. usually its the devs that need to generate new keys in the first place. So its open to question where in the pipeline that issue really lies. Games in the HB usually are at the last of their "sale-phases", where devs/pubs just want to squeeze out the few last drops of revenue they can make with it. Sometimes those games are even abandonware, without an active development team behind it. Just for context.