IGN acquires Humble Bundle

Media giant IGN has acquired the pay-what-you-want game bundle service Humble Bundle, the companies have announced. Exact terms of the surprising deal haven’t been disclosed, but Humble Bundle has said it will now have "more resources and help from IGN" going forward. Otherwise, it’s still very much business as usual, it said.

"We chose IGN because they really understand our vision, share our passion for games, and believe in our mission to promote awesome digital content while helping charity," Humble Bundle co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Rosen wrote on the company’s blog.

"I can’t think of a better partner than IGN to help Humble Bundle continue our quest. We will be working harder than ever to bring you the best gaming bundles, book bundles, and store sales, while nurturing the Humble Monthly and our new publishing initiative. We will keep our own office, culture, and amazing team with IGN helping us further our plans. We will raise even more money for charity."

Founded in 2010, Humble Bundle now has over 10m customers around the world, gaining fame for allowing gamers to pay what they want for bundles of digital games. Users could also split their payments between a number of charities, allowing the company to raise over $100m for various causes during its lifetime. 

In February, the company also branched out into publishing, with its first initiative being a number of console versions of Gears for Breakfast’s platformer A Hat in Time. It remains to be seen whether this will present a conflict of interest with IGN, who may want to cover Humble’s published titles, but according to Gamasutra, Humble Bundle has stated it "will continue to operate independently in the wake of the acquisition." 

Likewise, IGN’s executive vice president and general manager Mitch Galbraith told Polygon that "editorial integrity is something we take very seriously at IGN, and I am confident that we will strike the right balance when it comes to our coverage of Humble Bundle and the games they sell."