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[aristabulus]

...

Giveaways may just have to be key only.

From where, though? stock up on Humble WinZip bundles throughout the year? I've had at last one of my HB keys expire on me in the past.

Free keys always expire. It's use them or lose them with Humble and other venues.

I've not had any paid keys expire on me, fwiw, but I haven't let any sit for more than a year, either.  Generally, whatever I have squirreled away ends up on the Xmas pile.  Ye Olde Announcement didn't explicitly say anything about changes to Humble keys or similar (how would that even work?) but I suppose it's not impossible.  If anyone hears anything on that note, do please let us know.

Humble's deals don't look that different from Steam's deals for most titles; the usual suspects at the usual incremental/plateau'd discounts, with one or two semi-crazy deals as a bone to throw towards the cheap seats.

[Frumple]

Ye Olde Announcement didn't explicitly say anything about changes to Humble keys or similar (how would that even work?)

It indeed didn't mention anything on that front, but the how would be about as simple as removing the steam key aspect and only letting it (steam activation of humble etc. keys) work through direct account link or whatever it is. Rather than a key, you'd input account ID. Presumably that would roll out alongside a complete removal of key-based steam activation, with everything of that nature having to go through something like humble's account link whatever it is. It'd lose a fairly disgusting amount of business, but in all honesty steam could probably tank it and the effects of shanking every associated vendor in the gut and keep going, at this point.

I could see (in a "Holy shit, you just lost a bloody fuckton of customers" sort of way) humble (or whoever) forcing you (probably in response to valve mandate) to immediately on purchase or somethin' choose whether a game will be steam activated or not or whatever, and then piggybacking that on steam's thing -- i.e. if you want a giftable steam activation through humble, you'd have to choose that option and the recipient immediately on purchase. Probably on top of making the non-DRM and steam versions outright exclusive, with you picking which you get when you buy (which, to be fair in the most damning of faint praises sort of way, doesn't actually do much considering you can shove non-steam games into your steam library and still play with most of the various gubbins steam brings to the table besides ease of access and pricing).

[aristabulus]

Ye Olde Announcement didn't explicitly say anything about changes to Humble keys or similar (how would that even work?)

It indeed didn't mention anything on that front, but the how would be about as simple as removing the steam key aspect and only letting it (steam activation of humble etc. keys) work through direct account link or whatever it is. Rather than a key, you'd input account ID. ...

They already had a system for account linking previously, and it got scuttled because Valve deprecated the API it relied upon.  Officially, the "linked-to-me@steam" still shows in Humble's web UI (don't know if it actually _does_ anything anymore), but I have to manually paste the key into Steam's activate-a-thing window.

If Valve does force Humble to alter its key system, I think the more likely change to occur is the paid keys get a timer like the free ones do already.  "You have a week to use it, or lose it."  Anything more than that, implementation would be a nightmare; I seriously doubt that old API is gonna get dusted off or reinvented.

[Shooer]

Add the fact that the keys you are buying from humble aren't coming from steam.  They are coming from publishers/devs.

[Frumple]

Eh, that'd matter basically not at all if steam decided for some ungodly reason to go that route. They'd just drop the same sort of hammer on said publishers/devs (no more keys! Send us their steam ID with our cut of the money and we'll activate your product for their account). I'm not sure how far off we are from steam being able to do something like that, and devs not really having terribly much choice (save to be massively uncompetitive, sales wise) beyond grin and bear it. Relatively more sure we're not anywhere close to them actually being willing to do something that enormously stupid, but they're probably not all that distant from being able to and continue as a company and distribution platform.

Though @ arista, yeah, I doubt it'll happen. Point wasn't if it will, but how it could Fixing up a new API or somethin' to do it (or, "better" yet, not and leaving other folks to figure things out on their own) would be a fairly obvious method.

[Retropunch]

Urgh I hate this, I used to always buy games as gifts for friends/family birthdays and gift them out as necessary. Most often, I didn't have someone in mind - especially if it's a 'good' game that most people would like, I'd just gift it to whoever it's most suitable for at the time.

I imagine this will hit a lot of the indie games that tend to be on sale a lot pretty hard - I certainly wouldn't have bought a lot of sale stuff if I had to gift it to someone specific immediately. My brother and nephew do the same thing, and I doubt we're unique in that.

Most of all though, I hate that they make it sound as though they're doing it for the customer. Nothing makes me groan more than when they wrap up a corporate policy in 'we thought we'd help you by removing a feature you love!'

[penguinofhonor]

Hopefully developers will be more comfortable putting their games on steep discounts now, since they don't have to worry about people hoarding the game and undercutting the full price after the sale. That issue being dealt with could mean more deals for budget gamers.

[n9103]

As a side-note, GOG.com isn't exclusively retro games (well over a couple years now) and they're not pulling these kind of shenanigans.

[Shooer]

As a side-note, GOG.com isn't exclusively retro games (well over a couple years now) and they're not pulling these kind of shenanigans.

Mainly because they don't have these kind of systems that could be used the way the steam systems could and they are smaller and don't sell AAA games.  Those two things are why they haven't been pushed by governments/publishers for changes like valves is HAVING to do.

[Il Palazzo]

don't sell AAA games

These don't count?
https://www.gog.com/games?system=windows_10,windows_7,windows_8,windows_vista,windows_xp&price=a25&sort=bestselling&page=1

[aristabulus]

As a side-note, GOG.com isn't exclusively retro games (well over a couple years now) and they're not pulling these kind of shenanigans.

GOG has never done an inventory system (or trading cards / account gamification), so they aren't as likely to have grey-market problems like Steam seems to have.

It's been a while since I used GOG for a gift, but iirc it was straightforward.  The items in an order get rolled into a magic link code, which you send to the giftee.  They use the code, and are prompted to make an account if they don't already have one.

[Il Palazzo]

They have Stellaris in Humble Monthly - i.e. for $12. That's a good discount.

[Radsoc]

Thanks for the heads-up, subscribed. Too late I discovered they got a really generous referral bonus. If anyone is considering subscribing, remember to use a referral. We could probably refer you in over PM. In such a case I would propose to use codes in order, i.e. Palazzo's first and so on in a chain.

[Il Palazzo]

I don't care enough. You guys go on ahead.

[Radsoc]

Syrian Warfare is 32% off, at about 14$ this week :
http://store.steampowered.com/app/485980/Syrian_Warfare/

Excellent game for those who liked Sudden Strike and Close Combat.