Humble Bundle, Inc. Acquired By IGN (Updated With Comments From Both)

UPDATE: We have received comment from Humble Bundle co-founder John Graham and IGN co-founder Peer Schneider. It clarifies that Humble is still continuing to publish games, which puts IGN in murky ethical territory regarding coverage.

“You can expect it to be business as usual, but better," says Graham. "The Humble Bundle our audience knows and loves will continue to operate independently from IGN, with Jeff and I at the helm along with our whole team. When IGN approached us months ago, we were not looking to sell the company, we were just focused on what we’ve always been doing: offering great games for our community while supporting charitable organizations around the world. We made a business we were passionate about without an exit in mind, and we felt like we they and found a partner who understands who we are and what we do."

Peer Schneider, who also acts as IGN's chief content officer, explained how IGN plans to handle coverage of games that, essentially, they are now publishing.

“We're going to use a two-pronged approach to ensuring editorial integrity when it comes to Humble Bundle. First, we will keep a rigid separation between IGN's editorial team and the Humble Bundle team. Second, we will provide full disclosure whenever IGN creates content about a game, bundle, or subscription created by or funded by Humble Bundle. This is the same effective approach we already use when IGN creates content about the products sold by our advertisers and commerce partners.”

It remains to be seen how this will work in practice, but it is interesting to know that IGN does not plan to shy away from covering Humble-published games. IGN review editor Dan Stapleton has already retroactively acknowledged the relationship on Twitter when discussing Humble Bundle's A Hat In Time coverage.

The original story is as follows:

Humble Bundle Inc, the company behind the charity game bundles of the same name and the Humble Store for digital game sales, has been acquired by IGN.

Humble is likely best known for the charity indie-packs that were based on a pay-what-you-want model, which allowed consumers to decide what tier they would like to purchase and how to divide it among charitable causes, developers, and Humble itself. IGN is, of course, the media giant behind IGN Networks.

The acquisition is oddly timed, as Humble only recently began publishing games on their own, including the release of A Hat In Time, a 3D platformer somewhat mired in controversy. It is unclear if the IGN purchase will affect the publishing business at all, but Humble Bundle has stated that they are unlikely to make any significant business changes despite the acquisiton

Despite the heavy emphasis on charity, Humble Bundle has always categorized itself as a commercial business instead of a non-profit, so nothing will have to change in that regard. It does bring up questions of how IGN will treat Humble-published games in the future, but that bridge might only be built when it is time to cross it.

We have reached out to Humble Bundle, Inc. for comment but did not receive any response by the time of writing. The story will be updated should we receive significant comment.