Humble says that the new iteration of sliders will still allow buyers to customize how much money goes where, but there will be a minimum amount earmarked for Humble from every purchase.
Following a controversial (and quickly reversed) decision to remove pay-what-you-want sliders from Humble Bundle purchases, Humble has now detailed a new pay slider system that it hopes will help Humble adapt to the shifting PC storefront landscape without catching the ire of its customer base.
If you missed the controversy earlier this year, a full explainer can be found here. The quick version is that Humble Bundles have long used a slider system that gives bundle buyers complete control over how much of their purchase goes to charity, to game publishers, and to Humble itself.
That proposed change from earlier this year would've switched to a system with two, non-customizable split options that ultimately capped charity donations at 15 percent. After outcry, Humble canceled that plan less than two weeks after it was announced.
Now, Humble has shared a blog post detailing the future for Humble Bundle sliders and a very light look at the new iteration it plans to launch in mid-July. Humble says that the new iteration of sliders will still allow buyers to customize how much money goes where, but that, starting later this month, there will generally be a minimum amount earmarked for Humble from every purchase.
"Sliders will clearly indicate any minimums to customers and the flexibility to adjust donations will be available in every purchase of a bundle," explains the blog. "This change comes after ten years of having the option to lower Humble’s percentage to zero."
The post notes that the split will vary from bundle to bundle, but will generally allot 15 to 30 percent of each purchase to Humble. That's close to the default chunk Humble gets from Bundle purchases right now, but under the current system buyers are able to reduce that share all the way to 0 percent. Starting in mid-July, there will be a restriction on how low Humble's share can go.
It's an interesting change when keeping the failed slider-less update in mind. The proposed default values for the canceled change gave 85 percent to publishers, 5 percent to charity, and 10 percent to Humble. The 'Extra to Charity' version reduced the publisher share to 80 percent and the Humble share to 5 percent in order to give 15 percent to charity.
While the failed, slider-less system saw Humble claiming a comparatively smaller chunk, the new slider system gives Humble a larger split by default with those aforementioned minimums in play, presumably meaning that any significant increase to how much of a purchase goes to charity will have a larger impact on the publisher's share.
As with the previous slider updates, Humble notes that its decision to change is due, in no small part, to the broader game storefront market and how much that space has changed in the decade since Humble first set up its pay-what-you-want slider system.
"The PC storefront landscape has changed significantly since we first launched bundles in 2010, and we have to continue to evolve with it to stay on mission. The update will allow us to continue to offer great prices on amazing games, books and software all while supporting important charitable initiatives with every single purchase," writes Humble.
"The change to sliders lets us continue to invest in more exciting content so we can keep growing the Humble community which will ultimately drive more donations for charitable causes. We’ll also continue to create more ways to give back such as with our 100% to charity bundles."
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