Humble Bundle debuts curated storefronts with Yogscast partnership

The Humble Bundle organization has launched a curated version of its Humble Store digital game storefront in partnership with the Yogscast YouTubers, who select which games are sold through their store and then get a cut of the sales. The partnership is billed as an effort to help people find and play the games they see the Yogscast YouTubers playing, and the business model is much akin to the Humble Store: 10 percent of the proceeds from every purchase goes to the War Child charity, 5 percent goes to Yogscast, and the rest is split between Humble and the developer. Coincidentally, Valve recently rolled out a major update to its Steam marketplace that added a suite of curation tools in an effort to make it easier for people to discover games that interest them. As Valve and Humble empower curators to more directly influence game sales, it becomes more important for developers concerned about discoverability to court the tastemakers -- some of whom may ask for money in return for promoting a developer's games. The Yogscast has itself demonstrated a predilection for doing so, having launched a "YogDiscovery" marketing program earlier this year that saw the YouTubers taking revenue share to promote games. Going forward, Yogscast will add future titles it covers to its storefront, which means that getting your game covered by a Yogscast YouTuber doesn't just offer a potential spike in sales -- it also nets you placement in a whole new marketplace.