Humble Bundle’s recent “Humble Heal: COVID-19 Bundle” raised $1,170,824 (£825,000), it announced in a recent blog post.. While games were at the forefront of the bundle, including indie hits like Superhot and Undertale, books and other software were bundled in.
The Humble Heal bundle, which ran in early May, was unique in that a fixed 100% of the money raised will be going to the charities nominated by Humble. The traditional Humble model splits proceeds between the nominated charity, the publisher, and Humble, with buyers being able to choose how to divide their money. With this bundle however, all proceeds should be split equally between Direct Relief, Doctors Without Borders, International Medical Corps, and GiveIndia.
“At a time when the country’s healthcare system is crumbling under the second wave of the pandemic and Indians are facing so much devastation, you have come forward and joined hands with us to provide critical patients with life-saving aid, meals to hungry families, and cash relief to low-income families who have lost a breadwinner to COVID-19,” said Priyana Prakash, the Director of Partnerships at GiveIndia in a statement to the Humble community.
It’s surely a welcome bit of positivity for Humble Bundle, which recently faced backlash from users after discreetly removing the sliders that allowed users to adjust what percentages of their donation went to charity, the publishers, and Humble itself. Instead, they provided two preset options, both minimising charitable donations, which was met with extensive criticism.
In response, they rolled back the change and apologised—admittedly in a statement that suggested that they would be experimenting with similar changes in the future, just with more transparency. For now, those sliders are hidden under a drop down menu, which doesn’t bode hugely well.
At the time, critics of Humble Bundle pointed out that indie storefront itch.io hosted a substantial charity bundle last year without taking any profits. The Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality last June sold over 814 thousand bundles and raised over $8.2 million for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the Community Bail Fund.
The end result of both of these bundles is significant support for charitable causes that need them, as well as more games in our libraries from the developers who donated them. This can only be a good thing.