Humble Bundle Bungles Indiana Jones edition, briefly offering a $70 game for free

I was reading the comments to Indiana Jones and the Grand Circlea new video game starring the famous archaeologist, a few days ago when I noticed it Weird topic on Reddit. It appears that Humble Bundle was giving the game away for free to people who linked their Steam account to the storefront.

The great circle It’s a new $70 flagship AAA video game and I thought it was weird. I followed the link on Reddit but Humble has already pulled down the list. But according to posts on social media, some people were able to get the game And turn it on For a few hours before it disappears from their Steam library.

And now, after days, Indiana Jones and the Grand Circle It is still absent from the Humble Bundle store. Search for it on Google It returns two listings on the site — one for the premium version and one for the regular version — but clicking redirects users to the Humble Bundle storefront. Indy is missing from the famous store and it is not clear when or if he will return.

Humble Bundle is a popular charity-based digital storefront, where players bundle different goods together. Users bundle things together, including books, comics and games, and then “pay what they want.” Part of what they pay It goes to charity. It’s a popular service and many big companies sell their products on Humble. It’s a great place to get amazing deals on games.

On Monday night, Wario64 — an X account that posts about video game deals — noticed that Humble Bundle was offering a new Indiana Jones game for free. Like any big deal, it alerted the public. Between Wario64 and a Reddit thread, a group of people were able to enjoy Indy for a few hours before Humble dropped the switches.

Indiana Jones is free on Humble https://t.co/j9C0YKh5mf #advertisement pic.twitter.com/GKXCUDTWFG

– Wario64 (@wario64) December 10, 2024

Humble Bundle did not respond to my request for comment and did not speak much about what happened. In a statement issued to PC Gamer, she said so He canceled all the keys For a game released “Due to an error in the pricing provided for this game, the game was incorrectly marked as ‘Free’.”

This is a harsh reminder that bringing a game into your Steam library does not mean you own the game. Steam doesn’t actually sell games, it sells game licenses. The license can practically say whatever the company wants. Steam made this abundantly clear in October when it changed what customers see when they buy something.

To comply with California’s newly passed laws against false advertising, the digital storefront has begun telling its customers that Purchase a license only At the point of sale. This has always been the case, but the details have been buried in Steam’s EULA for more than a decade. Now it’s up front.