Humble's new subscription service envisioned as a book club for games

The folks who run Humble Bundle have launched a new $12/month subscription service, Humble Monthly, that delivers a fresh handful of mystery games to subscribers on the first Friday of every month.

This is another potential revenue source for game developers, though the service seems to have more in common with the Humble Store than the Humble Bundle. Those who subscribe pay the set monthly fee and cannot choose how it is distributed -- 5 percent of the proceeds go to charity, and the rest is under Humble's purview. 

"This allows us to negotiate set terms with each developer based on the the amount of subscribers we have," Humble Bundle exec Robert Bowling tells Gamasutra via email. "This is a very different approach than pay-what-you-want promotions where it's more about generating an audience of hardcore fans which then also comes with a nice boost in revenue, albeit an unknown amount since it's pay-what-you-want."

Bowling added that Humble Bundle has already planned out the first six months of this promotion, noting that "We spent a lot of time with developers and publishers to walk through the value of having a large group of people dive into your game every month at the same time. It really allows for some unique marketing opportunities, much like a book club, where you know you have a set number of people being introduced to your community at the same time."

According to Bowling, developers can request to be considered for inclusion in a Humble Monthly package, and their game may then be slotted into a specific month alongside other games that Humble's curation team believe might complement each other. 

"We really like to balance out the variety of games in each month," said Bowling. "To give the player a 'taste test', if you will, of games we know they'll love while also capturing something they may have never expected."