Because otherwise, Crate will need to manage payments, failed payments, payment processing problems, downloads, refunds, installs - Steam/HumbleStore provides those services. Those services aren’t trivial. This way, the devs can focus on developing the game.
I’m curious what the “plenty of alternatives” are, though.
I would disagree with a lot with what you said, I say origin is way worse, and its from EA and I wouldn’t touch EA with a barge pole, as for Uplay, I don’t really care much for ubisoft, but at least they did change their stance from forcing games online all the time to login once to validate the game then its possible to play the game offline at least for quite a few games, which is similar to steam
as for steam, you can run that offline too, and some games don’t need steam to run, but there is steamworks, and that does require steam to be running,
but then again, puiblishers do add their own DRM on top of that, but I think steam is becoming a fairly good place for games, especially now they are allowing alpha quality games in their library
as for the alternatives, they really aren’t that many, GOG while DRM free, doesn’t have a huge selection of games, and not many big publishers will touch them because of that, but yes many KS games once done will come to GOG, but its still a small amount of users that will use that service, there is the Humble bundle store, but this is mainly for indie games,
so what alternatives are you referring too? Uplay, origin? neither of them I would touch with a barge pole and feel they are in general worse then steam
if you think steam DRM is bad, its usually because publishers will add DRM on top, most ubisoft games require a Uplay account, or the game might have limited activations, or limits, there are a few games that have them, so if anything, don’t blame steam for the extra DRM, blame the publishers
I would rather use steam over the two main stores that I listed any day of the week
As we know from other threads, everyone has their thoughts on Steam. So, please let’s not start another. 
Humble Store is the only distributor we’ve found that takes a lower cut than Steam. Every other distributor we’ve talked to, takes as much or sometimes even more than Steam. One of the smaller distributors that seems more popular with people who dislike Steam wanted 40%!
At least Steam provides significant exposure and some features beyond what smaller but equally expensive distributors can offer. Humble Store provides great value but they’re strength right now seems to be more in payment processing; whereas their distribution setup lacks some features that would be helpful. So, I don’t think there is any really perfect solution but I’d say Steam and Humble Store both offer very different but attractive features on either end of the spectrum.
Also, Steam provides different DRM options to developers / publishers, some just choose to use more or less of the available options or, as mentioned above, add their own on top of it.
Just to point this out, Steam and some developers who have released games on Steam, have said that Steam allows for absolutely zero DRM once the game has been installed IE it will let you start the game via a .exe outside of the steamclient and you will never be forced to open Steam to run the game if you don’t want to.
Still no GOG option, so, regarding the Humble option, will I be able to d/l the game at release and put it on a disc/usb drive to keep a back up copy?
Yes, you will be able to do this.
Cool, thank you! 
Is it possible to upgrade your humble bundle purchase? Say from Patron to Loyalist?
I’ve been asking this as well. I know i dont post a lot, so i see myself being slightly ignored because of it (slight paranoia :rolleyes: ). I have actually gotten an email from a Crate Dev Team member saying we can upgrade by emailing Humble. When i did that the Humble Sales Rep suggested i cancel my current preorder and purchase the once i want to buy/upgrade to rather than just paying the difference. its the same thing essentially but they want you to take that other step. I am reluctant to do that because i dont want to lose an bonuses from my Legendary (Now Patron) Preorder. If i could get a legit confirmation that i wont lose the bonuses ill be more than happy to upgrade to the Loyalist Edition and even buy another copy of the Loyalist.
I’ll inquire about this. It was my understanding that people would be able to pay the difference to upgrade.
that was my understanding as well especially when one of your own team even said so as well. I figured id try to do the upgrade method right now since its payday and i have some extra cash to do so just in case… I guess i will be the guinea pig on this one lol.
EDIT:
I dont want to double post, i get yelled at alot lol. here is a copy of the email i was sent from the Crate Sales team…
[i][b]I apologize if no one has gotten back to you yet. *I’ve kept meaning to respond but it has been insanely busy these past couple months as we push toward alpha. *To answer your question, yes, you can upgrade to Loyalist by just paying the difference. *Upgrading isn’t available yet but it will be in a week or two. *The way to do it will be to email Humble Store, who will be handling our upgrades and make your request to them. *I’ll post on the forum as soon as I get the world that they’re ready to accept upgrade requests.
Kind regards,
Arthur [/b][/i]
medierra = Arthur Bruno 
But he did just respond:
I’ll inquire about this. It was my understanding that people would be able to pay the difference to upgrade.
So I think he’ll look into it and report back here with any findings.
AHAHAH! No kidding… well that is damned hilarious! My bad Medierra! I had no idea…
Thanks Violentbydesign for letting me know they are one and the same! I am laughing my A55 off and slightly embarrassed at the same time, BUT! All in good humor though! lol.
I will be sure to double note that and to not piss the man off 
hey, i cant create new topics,
I wanted to know is the game completed?
there is some update or beta?
Game is prealpha.
Alpha is coming out soon. Was quite a bit of hype in thinking that the alpha would be out late April / early May, but in reality it’s all up in the air.
It will definitely be out this month imo.
Is there a date yet for the humble store shift / buy option?