Humble abandons ‘one-click’ Steam Key redemption

Looking into new ways to protect developers going forward

Just over a year ago, Humble Bundle implemented OAuth “one-click” Steam Key redemption in an effort to simplify the process of adding games purchased through the service to your Steam account while protecting participating developers from bulk purchase and resale abuse that was undermining the service.

According to a recent update, Humble will be forced to revert back to the previous method of issuing Steam keys due to Valve’s discontinuation of support for the OAuth protocol.

Recognizing that this change could potentially dissuade developers from participating in future Humble Bundles, we reached out to the company for comment on its plans going forward to protect developer’s interests. A representative from Humble had this to say:

“We are looking into other ways to protect our developers, but for now Steam keys will have to be redeemed manually. We take our developer partners’ concerns seriously and try to do the best we can to reduce fraud. We have a few security features in place to prevent bulk purchases and are always looking into other ways to make the system better for both our partners and our customers.”

It’s reassuring to know that the company has the best interest of developers in mind as it moves forward. To date, Humble has managed to raise over 50 million dollars for various charities over the course of the past few years and without the trust and confidence of the participating developers, this would not have been possible.