Bethesda puts expiration dates on Humble Bundle keys

Bethesda Humble Bundle keys - Deathloop main characters


Bethesda Humble Bundle keys - Deathloop main characters

If you have any Humble Bundle keys sitting in your library, you might want to check them, and soon. Apparently, some of the keys given to Humble Bundle Choice subscribers in the past few months - specifically, those of games published by Bethesda - have been retroactively given expiration dates.

On Reddit, users are finding out that this problem seems to be suddenly affecting Doom Eternal (given in January 2023, expiring in January 2024) and Ghostwire Tokyo (given in June 2023, expiring in June 2024).

This is not a new thing since Humble Bundle has been sharing keys with a "redeem before" date in the past, such as Mass Effect Legendary Edition (already expired in March), but the issue seems to be a failure in communication. No warning was given about these keys expiring, especially not when they were originally included as part of their Choice program.

A very recent email from Humble Bundle does give a "friendly heads-up" about Deathloop expiring as well. In this case at least the time was a bit longer, with the Arkane game being included in Choice in October 2022 and expiring - again - in January 2024.

While Humble mentions in the email that "revealing the keys" in one's library is enough, that doesn't seem to be the case. An expired key, if not actually redeemed on Steam, would not work anyway. Still, Humble Bundle has been requested to clarify further.

Reddit users are worrying about publishers being allowed to "have their keys removed at any time". Bethesda is probably going down this route to combat key resellers, which is a fair objective. But, still, this does not explain why buyers couldn't have been notified about the expiration date at the moment of purchasing the games.

We are also aware that a developer can remove a game from Steam at any time, as well. More than ever, it is plain to see how digital is not a safe choice at all, at least if you're planning to keep your games forever.

This Article's Topics

Explore new topics and discover content that's right for you!

NewsGamingPC Gaming