The Humble Bundle team continues to expand its operations and offerings. The latest venture for the Humblers is in "funding some small gaming projects," which it sensibly calls 'Humble Originals'. In other Humble Bundle news co-founder, John Graham, told Destructoid that the monthly subscriber base has now swelled to 70,000 paying customers.
The first Humble Originals title is Elephant in the Room by Mighty Rabbit Studios. This game is included in the February monthly subscription ($12, £8 per month) which was revealed last Friday. February's lineup included Alien: Isolation, Titan Souls, Broken Age, Volume, Penarium, Dropsy and this Humble Original game. The admittedly 'small title' is an exclusive for now, but won't necessarily be forever kept from the non-subscribing masses.
In general these Humble Originals will be "a little risky, a little experimental, and a lot of fun!" - and pretty cheap to develop, we reckon. Next month's mostly-a-mystery monthly bundle has the pre-reveal star game of Ark: Survival Evolved; an open world dinosaur themed game.
So how successful has the Humble Monthly Bundle been? Graham was asked that very question by Destructoid and told the magazine that "there are more than 70,000 subscribers". Apparently the subscriber project had a sticky start - there was obviously some friction in getting customers to pre-pay for a largely unknown bundle of games. However Graham was confident the quality seen thus far will get the subscriptions flowing in, in ever more steady torrents. "I think we are hitting our stride and it's become way easier to make customers comfortable," he concluded. The steadying subscription income has the brought the added benefit of re-investment in gaming - the Humble Originals mentioned above. Hopefully, going ahead, the Humble Originals initiative could bring result in some gaming gems.