revenge-of-the-titans posts

Another busy day for news. Looks like Homefront may be doing OK in terms of sales:

• Steam has the first automatic patch for Total War Shogun 2 that fixes a few issues.
• Steam also has new updates for Dogfighter (includes new map and two new planes)and Race 07.
• You can get a free copy of Theatre of War: Africa 1943 if you pre-order Theatre of War 3: Korea on Steam.
• Indie game Revenge of the Titans is now on Steam and on sale for 10 percent off its normal price for the next week.
• More hints about a possible Hitman 5 have been revealed.
• Mass Effect 2 won for best game at this week's British Academy Video Game Awards.
• EA has now officially launched the Facebook game Dragon Age Legends.
• Movie soundtrack composer Hanz Zimmer will contribute to the Crysis 2 soundtrack.

The second incarnation of the Humble Indie Bundle is now over and, thanks in part to the organizers extending the deadline by five days, the latest "pay what you want" indie game bundle brought in $1,815,934.53 in revenues for the five indie games (Braid, Machinarium, Osmos, Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans) plus two charities (Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play). The six games from the first Humble Indie Bundle were added later in the week if people donated more than the average per-person amount.

More detailed financial stats will be revealed later but the average per donation was $7.80 with Windows users averaging $6.63, Mac users averaging $9.25 and Linux users donating an average of $13.75. The largest single donation was made by an anonymous bidder who gave $5,555.

Update: There's been some updates to the site since we posted. The final revenue number is now $1,822,482.80. Plus a person calling himself "Nexus Scorpion" is the new number one contributor with $6,132.96.

The team at the Humble Indie Bundle have been generating a lot of money already with the second batch of games with its 'pay what you want" business model. But now the team has upped the anty. The Humble Indie Bundle 2 now includes all of the games from the first Humble Indie Bundle.

Yes, you can get all of the bundle's current games (Braid, Machinarium, Osmos, Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans) plus all of the game's in the original bundle (World of Goo, Gish, Aquaria, Penumbra Overture, and Lugaru HD plus the freebie Samorset 2). People who have bought Bundle 2 can download the Bundle 1 games now. People who have yet to purchase Bundle 2 can get the Bundle 1 games if they pay more than the current average which is currently $7.35. Paying $7.35 to get a whopping 10 great indie games (plus one freebie) is still a massive bargain.

The Humble Indie Bundle 2 has now generated over $1 million in revenue since the "pay what you want" indie PC game downlad event launched about six days ago. It was supposed to end on Tuesday but now it looks like the second Humble Indie Bundle 2 is getting an extension.

According to the bundle's Twitter page the date has been moved back a few days as its organizers "work on adding some new features." According to the Humblebundle.com page it is now scheduled to end on Christmas Day around 6 pm Eastern time. That means you still have time to donate a few bucks (or over $3,000 like one person did) to get five indie games (Braid, Machinarium, Osmos, Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans) plus donate to two charities (Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play).

The second round of the Humble Indie Bundle has continued to generate an incredible amount of revenues for a "pay what you want" model. On Saturday evening the revenues breached the $1 million mark as gamers continue to donate what they can for five indie games along with two charities and the Humble Bundle organizers themselves.

Another new development is that the games can now be redeemed by Humble Indie Bundle owners via two download services: Steam and the newer service Desura. Two of the games have yet to show up on Steam (Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans) but they will be made available to Humble Indie Bundle buyers when they launch on Steam. There are still two more days for the Humble Indie Bundle; it's scheduled to end on Tuesday, December 21 at 4 pm Eastern time.

It's been just one day since the launch of the "pay what you want" return of the Humble Indie Bundle but so far it looks like this second effort to highlight indie games will be an even bigger success than the first such effort. According to the web site the revenues from Humble Indie Bundle 2 have generated just over $500,000 in just the first 24 hours. Nearly 70,000 purchases have been made to get five indie games (Braid, Machinarium, Osmos, Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans) with an average of just over $7 per purchase (together, the games normally sell for about $85). It's currently unknown how much money has been given to each game. It's also unknown how much was contributed to the two charities (Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play) or to a tip for the Humble Bundle organizers.

Some people have spent well over that average to get these games. One of them is Markus "Notch" Persson, the creator of the indie hit Minecraft. According to the site he's currently the person who has spent the most with a massive $2,000 contribution. The bundle deal still has a lot of life left in it; it's currently scheduled to shut down on December 21.

Last year the team at indie game developer Wolfire launched the Humble Indie Bundle which let people pay what they wanted for five indie games. The bundle generated over $1.2 million over the length of the deal. Now the same team is doing it again with the Humble Indie Bundle 2.

Five more indie games are a part of this new deal: Braid, Machinarium, Osmos, and two games that technically are still in beta versions: Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans. All five games are DRM-free and come in Windows, Mac and Linux flavors. You can choose to spend any amount of money you want to get all five games and like the last bundle you can also choose to donate a portion of your money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play. This year there's also an extra option to tip the Humble Bundle folks. According to the Wolfire web site, "We have some humble ideas on how to change digital distribution that we're going to try out." The Humble Indie Bundle 2 lasts until December 21 at 4 pm Eastern time. You can check out the launch trailer for the bundle after the jump:

The tower defense genre (as we have said many times) is a crowded one. Add another entry to the list of tower defense games. However, this one is different. Revenge of the Titans is an RTS/TD hybrid where the enemies attack you in an entirely free-form way. Something of a cross between Harvest and traditional TD games, it has interesting features such as indirect upgrading, resource gathering, and mazing. For example, you can place batteries next to a tower to increase its damage, or a scanner to increase its range. The trailer shows off some of these features as well as the high quality of production. Definitely keep an eye on this one!

[Via IndieGames]