I would imagine they will provide a key once they get more, but I do remember this happening in the past with a bundle where they weren't able to get more keys, so they just never provided any. I think it might say somewhere "while supplies last" or something like that so they don't have to provide keys if they run out.
Humble doesn't assign you a key when you buy the bundle, they assign it when you reveal the key on your account. Ever since this happened last time, I started revealing all my Humble keys right when I buy the bundle instead of waiting until I am ready to use them.
Comment has been collapsed.
Just like Wall Street.
Take your money and sell you something they dont own yet...
In Texas, we call that stealing.
Comment has been collapsed.
Edit: What I wrote below is incorrect. Humble gift links generate a key for your region where you made the purchase, not the region of the person receiving the gift. I really don't understand why Humble doesn't just assign you a key at the time of purchase then.
Original comment below
There might be some logic behind it, but I am not positive if it works this way. Some games have region locks and because they offer you the ability to generate gift links to send the games to other people, if they assigned you a key at the time of purchase, it may not activate in the region you want to send it to. As long as they have not assigned you a key yet, you can probably send someone the gift link and then when that person clicks the button to generate a key, it will give them a key for their region.
It is still wrong that you can buy something and then not get what you paid for though. I wouldn't be upset if it was only temporarily out of stock and then they provide you with a key when they get it, but to never give you what you purchased is wrong and should be illegal. I think the previous issue that I am remember had something to do with a dev revoking the keys and refusing to provide more to Humble, but I am not positive. If that dev has an agreement with Humble, Humble should be able to force them through Steam to provide the keys that they agreed to.
Comment has been collapsed.
Thanks for the insight.
Didnt think I had to do it with a legit key seller.
Again, your input is appreciated.
Comment has been collapsed.
The region it will activate in is always at the time of purchase even for giftlinks, that's why you see region lock warnings when generating the giftlinks (if there are any). For example Hero's Hour in today's Choice (https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/llpBX/humble-bundle-march-2023-humble-choice-40) , if you are from say Europe, and bought the bundle, and generated a giftlink for Hero's Hour and give it to someone in NA, they will not be able to activate it even if they are the one who redeemed the giftlink, no matter what.
Comment has been collapsed.
I remember reading somewhere that Humble gift links worked that way, but I guess whatever I was reading was wrong, or maybe it was that way years ago and it changed at some point. I just checked their support page and it sounds like the only thing you can gift that will generate keys in the recipients region is an entire Humble Choice. You have to select that the entire order is a gift at the time of purchase though.
This really makes me wonder why Humble doesn't just assign keys at the time of purchase then. Maybe some people just never activate keys for games they already own or don't want and Humble can save money by not giving out those keys.
Maybe that is why Humble hates key traders and sellers so much, because they might calculate into their costs that a certain percent of keys from bundles will never get assigned because people buy bundles to get certain games and already own or don't want some of them. These people just never touch the games they don't want and if Humble never assigns keys for them, they profit. Traders, sellers, and people who give away their spare keys always take the full amount they paid for and that cuts into Humble's profits in their mind.
Comment has been collapsed.
It's a bit more of an issue when you see they're still selling those games on the store First Class Trouble
Can't tell if they are selling something they really can't provide or they simply don't restock only for the bundles.
I have same issue with another one but yes, better just reveal them as soon as possible.
Comment has been collapsed.
I got similar sheananigans with Peppy Adventure in a bundle never sent. The support told me they were sorry not to be able to deliver the product but still sell it on store Peppy Adventure
I let it go but now I prefer to buy on other stores where they deliver what you order
Comment has been collapsed.
Its stealing take take someones money and not give them a promised item.
Comment has been collapsed.
Doesnt most if not all bundle sites tell you to redeem keys as fast as possible.
Comment has been collapsed.
I missed that memo.
Humble Bundle has a key expire memo? If so, its an accepted scam?
Comment has been collapsed.
its KNOWN for YEARS that the keys EXPIRE after some time...
its even marked bold in different colour text that it will expire at date xx
EDIT/// i have to apologize, i was wrong
Comment has been collapsed.
This is only true for some of the keys. Most of them are valid for years.
Comment has been collapsed.
thats also true. but according to humble the keys should be activated in a certain time frame, thats what you see when you get your bundle.
its up to the devs to revoke the keys after this time frame or leave them beeing valid. in the end, its still the fact that you should activate the game asap, so it doesnt sit unused for months
in my opinion they should never expire since you bought your copy like you do when you get it from a physical store. i hate that some devs revoke the keys just to make sure that you cant resell them or trade. not sure if humble or the developers, or if both came up with this shitty idea.
Comment has been collapsed.
I specially checked HB about this timeframe and vast majority of my keys doesn't have any notice about it. Therefore, as I said previously, the expiration is more an exception than a rule. Usually it's about the keys they've given away for free and some third-party (non-Steam) services.
Comment has been collapsed.
alright, i also just checked it and i was totally wrong.
i also found some unused keys from jingle jam 2019 and activated a few, they were still valid. lol
i had the impression that at some point they had these time frames and i think it was when HB tried to cut down reselling and sharing the keys on this site/other sites...
Comment has been collapsed.
The game is from the December Bundle I bought in January.
Comment has been collapsed.
well sorry for your loss and after reading through your thread here i need to apologize, even if i never experienced problems with HB.
its a shame and it seems they are quite unable to provide keys for the amount of sold bundles/games.
i still dont get it why they dont know how many keys they own for a certain game and still sell, even when its out of stock!
Comment has been collapsed.
It seems you have to play the waiting game. It happened to me with a July 2022 Choice´s game. I got an email saying that it got restocked, on February 2023. Patience is your best ally!
Contacting support won´t speed up the situation since they don´t seem to know when they´d be restocked, but you get an email when eventually it does.
Makes me recall "Galen" from the tv series "Crusade" when he said "Expect me when you see me".
Comment has been collapsed.
Waiting for a key for 4 months now for a game they still sell in their shop. Asked about it they said:
"I do apologize as bundle keys and store keys are from separate key pools with a separate partner or contractual agreements tied to them. Sadly, we cannot move keys from a Store key pool to backfill an exhausted Bundle key.'
:(
Comment has been collapsed.
How do they exhaust bundle keys? Why don't they stop selling the bundle moment they are out of keys?
Comment has been collapsed.
I don't know. I do know I don't buy the 'we've got different pools of keys for the same game and while we will not provide the key you bought in a bundle, we continue to profit by selling the other keys...'
Comment has been collapsed.
Fraud.
Take your money and not deliver on the promise.
Comment has been collapsed.
Oh cmon stop throwing "scam, theft, fraud" around.
Such a drama queen. Sure it's fuck up on humbles side and they should definitely provide you with the key. So go ahead and fight to get it.
But it's literally 1% of the cases. It's not fraud - it's unfortunate fuck up. Who knows on whose side - either humble has some internal issues, maybe they didn't get the keys from publisher, maybe they had some contractual issues. Either way I am rather sure they didn't go "UHAHAHA, Let's steal keys from ashtwo"
Again - they are responsible for this and they should provide you with key. But it's definitely not fraud. Fraud is when someone intentionally fucks you over. Same for theft and scam. Call me again when 50% or more of the bundles end up with problems providing keys. Until it's such a little number of keys for one or two specific games in a very specific bundle then let's keep it at an issue which has to be solved without crying rivers.
Comment has been collapsed.
Couple of years ago I would just +1 on this comment.
But since IGN took over HB, I wouldn't be surprised if they would actually be like:
"UHAHAHA, Let's steal keys from ashtwo"
Comment has been collapsed.
Oh yeah - of course. I am not a fan of humble at all since IGN took over.
And I am not surprised they have issues inside with keys and all this.....
I just find calling it theft, scam and fraud is a tad bit overboard. They are an incompetent profit driven corporation no doubt. But that's another story. I mean you could fill a book with fuck ups (even last choice bundles coupons not applying for many). But this just smells like your regular run of the mill corporation bullshit.
Comment has been collapsed.
I don't like double standards.
I've seen people found guilty of theft and send to prison after stealing chocolate bar that was like 0,5$ worth.
In the meantime I bought set of keys from HB (for above the average idk 6$ maybe for 6 keys so that would be 1$ per key) and HB refuses to send me key for last 4 years because they are out of keys (they have separate keys for the same game though). Also not only for me but for different game for OP and many other people. But you don't call it a scam or theft but "corporation bullshit".
The fact is that if they sell more keys than they have - they should replace them. Even if it's gonna generate loss for them. Otherwise - selling stuff that you don't own without intention to provide what you are selling is book example of scam and theft.
It's especially stupid if you think how stuff like that generates bad PR for them. Having some money for covering such fuck-ups should be in their policy.
Comment has been collapsed.
Give an inch and they take a mile.
If no one calls out their BS standard operating procedures, they will push it to the limit and abuse others.
I came into this experience a bit hot as I was not aware this was standard for them to occasionally sell more keys than available in bundles.
Comment has been collapsed.
Of course. I am not opposing you here. They defintely have to be called out for doing that.
Comment has been collapsed.
damn, okay i didnt even know that they do it this way. this is totally pathetic of HB...
Comment has been collapsed.
I always redeem my keys after purchase and save them in a word document to make sure they are safe.
Sorry for the issues this caused you. 😥
Comment has been collapsed.
I got the rest of my keys without issue.
Thanks for opening my eyes that they do run out of keys without warning.
Comment has been collapsed.
That's great to hear. The process is more complicated than we think, and because they always have separate keys for separate objectives, their priority will always be where they make the most money. That would be the store. The Humble Choice or other Bundles are sold in bulk, so the price isn't as high as the rest, so they need to prioritize that as a business.
I think once you reveal the key is pretty much considered as safe.
Comment has been collapsed.
Dont worry, Poly Bridge is "temp" exhausted over year and they dont care
Comment has been collapsed.
I recommend creating a giveaway with the key before, not after, the giveaway starts, and subsequently, ending.
I've had a number of instances like this. It delays your being able to send the key. And in this case, possibly indefinitely unable to do so.
I don't know if it would help, but you could try contacting the dev/pub.
Comment has been collapsed.
Keeping an eye on this thread after someone bumped the July 2021 choice and I realized I never claimed my keys from that month... and Yakuza 3 Remastered is currently out of stock. Fucking rip lol.
Comment has been collapsed.
Still haven't provided keys for Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens from the Starlight bundle. Yet, they are selling it in a BYOB.
I never had the opportunity to claim it. It's been out of stock when I bought the bundle, so claiming it early to avoid this wasn't an option.
Comment has been collapsed.
That hurts!
I figured my keys were safe for a year or two. They do say somewhere it expires after a couple years.
They sell keys they owe you in another bundle, yet wont restock your key in your bundle. That doesnt bode well.
How soon after buying the bundle, did you find out that they were "Temporarily out"?
It was 2 months for me when I went to claim it.
Between Hard drive space, power and internet problems (life happens) the last 2 months, I wasnt active on getting my keys.
I did a Steam Key claim rush on the rest of my keys. Those at least gave me a key, hopefully that makes the rest safe for now.
Comment has been collapsed.
Straight away. As soon as I bought the bundle on September 30th, those keys were "temporarily" out. I thought they'd be restocked in a week or two, so didn't sweat. (They were still selling the bundle with exhausted keys, and no warning about that.)
I usually activate all keys that I want to keep right away.
Comment has been collapsed.
This happened to me a while ago, but a few days later a key was available when I tried again. I’m new to Humble Bundle though.
Comment has been collapsed.
Wait, WHAT?
Some of you are still waiting for MONTHS for some keys?
I've been pretty trusting in Humble, expecting them to restock everything in a manner of weeks, tops. This is very troubling.
If they don't put a lid on this and the word gets out that the keys from everyone's bundles aren't reliably available, they will start to have real problems. More and more people will lose their trust and rush to redeem everything they have and we will have a cascading "run on the bank". Then everything will be out of stock.
Their whole idea of selling more than they have will backfire spectacularly if they don't get on top of this. Are they even aware of this problem?
Comment has been collapsed.
I went to get a key for a December bundle game for FIRST CLASS TROUBLE
and Humble told me it had no keys... Feels like LootBoy.
Comment has been collapsed.