world-of-goo posts

The great experiment is now over for 2D Boy and now that their "any price for World of Goo" sale is officially over the indie developers have revealed some more info about what happened during their unusual sales promotion for their acclaimed puzzle game

During the 13 days of the sale, the company sold 83,147 copies of the game on their web site. Sales of the Windows version accounted for 65 percent of the total sales although oddly enough people who bought the Linux and Mac versions paid on average more than the Windows users. The average donation actually went up after their first news post on the subject. By day 12 people were paying an average of around $3.25 for the game. Finally one person actually paid $150 for World of Goo, over seven times its normal $20 price.

How hard is it to get accurate sales on game downloads? Usually it's extremely hard but developer 2D Boy wanted people to know exactly how their recent "priced whatever you want" sale for their puzzle game World of Goo did. In two words, it was a "huge success" with 57,000 copies sold off the World of Goo web site. The average price people paid for the game was $2.03.

In a surprise, sales of the game via Steam went up 40 percent during the sale, and that was after sales went up 25 percent the previous week. 2D Boy has now decided to extend the World of Goo sale until October 25.
Download World of Goo Demo (32 MB)
Download World of Goo Mac Demo (32 MB)

We've written about how cool World of Goo is previously and if you haven't tried out this innovative and more importantly fun game from developer 2D Boy, you are really missing out. This week marks the game's first anniversary and to celebrate the dev team have a unique promotional offer.

From now until October 19, you can download and purchase the PC, Mac and Linux versions of the game from their site for any price you want. Yep, that's correct. You can pay as little as one cent or as much as $1 million; it's all up to you. We suspect that 2D Boy would like to have people pay as close to its normal $20 price tag as possible but hey, whatever floats your boat. It's all up to you.
Download World of Goo Demo (32 MB)
Download World of Goo Mac Demo (32 MB)

Direct2Drive has been offering a selection of their downloadable PC game library for $5 for the past few weeks. Today the site is offering a selection of titles from indie game developers for just 5 bucks from now until next Monday. Many of these games have had their prices cut by as much as 66 percent in this sale. The genres range from puzzle titles to RPGs to tower defense titles to space strategy games. If you have never tried these games before this is the perfect time to start:

Mount and Blade
World of Goo
Defense Grid: The Awakening
Sword of the Stars
Cogs
Light of Altair
The Path
Bridge Construction Set
Gish
Zatikon

Some downloadable PC game services have already started some sales that will last through most of the week:

Steam has put EVE Online on sale this week for 66 percent off its normal Steam price. Also two other games from Kalypso Media, Ceville and Imperium Romanum: Gold Edition, are on sale for 50 percent of their normal price. All of these sales expire on August 17.

Over at Direct2Drive they have put World of Goo on sale for 50 percent off this week (this for both the PC and Mac version). Also The Witcher Enhanced Edition Director's Cut is on sale for 30 percent off its normal price and the just released Death to Spies: Moment of Truth is on sale for 20 percent off its normal price.

Not to be outdone by Direct2Drive's previously announced indie game sales bundle, the folks at Valve have decided to hold their own sale on Steam that lowers the cost of getting into the indie games scene. From now until Monday you can buy all the games below in one collection for just $29.99. That's a price cut from $119.90 if each game were bought seperately

Audiosurf
Blueberry Garden
Braid
Crayon Physics Deluxe
Darwinia
Everyday Shooter
Gish
Mr. Robot
The Path
World of Goo

If that's just too much indie game action for your blood you can also purchase Blueberry Garden, Braid, Everyday Shooter, The Path and World of Goo together in a bundle for just $19.99. That's compared to a normal $59.95 price

Stardock's Impulse web site is offering up some solid weekend sales deals on a number of downloadable PC titles. From now until the end of the day Sunday you can download games like World of Goo for just $9.99 (a 50 percent discount) and Puzzle Quest Galactrix for $9.99 (another 50 percent discount).

Other games on sale include Braid for $9.99 (a 25 percent discount from its normal price) and Droplitz for just $4.99. They have also got a Trainz collectors pack with four games in the train sim series bundled for just $49.99 (compared to a normal $79.00 price). Finally their sale of Merdian4 games we mentioned last week has bee extend to also end on Sunday.

We've been covering the whole digital rights management debate for PC games almost since Big Download launched a year ago. This week Gamasutra takes on the issue with a feature article that shows that perhaps some big publisher are starting to relax their stances on putting DRM set-ups in their PC game releases.

The story looks back to September 2008 when Electronic Arts released Spore with a particularly restrictive online activation system that used SecuROM. It didn't stop the game from becoming the most pirated PC title in 2008 and many believe the DRM set-up was part of the reason. The Entertainment Software Association's VP Ric Hirsch still believes DRM is needed for PC games, saying, "There is little doubt that piracy would be far more widespread without game publishers' use of DRM."

Others believe completely the opposite such as 2D Boy's Ron Carmel who co-created the hit downloadable puzzle game World of Goo with no DRM at all. He states, "Publishers aren't stupid. They know that DRM doesn't work against piracy. What they're trying to do is stop people from going to GameStop to buy $50 games for $35, none of which goes into the publishers' pockets. If DRM permits only a few installs, that minimizes the number of times a game can be resold." Even though World of Goo is in fact heavily pirated, Carmel states, "People who pirate the game are people who wouldn't have bought it anyway." Perhaps that's why EA has decided to to away with Spore-style DRM set-ups for both The Sims 3 and Dragon Age: Origins. Ubisoft also released the PC version of Prince of Persia with no DRM at all.

Most independent game developers would love to have a hit game like 2D Boy's puzzle title World of Goo. So with one half of 2D Boy speaks, people listen. That's what happened this week at the Game Developers Conference where the game's co-creator Ron Carmel spoke about their opinions on various subjects.

One such them was DRM set-ups in games. Publishers want to keep their games from being pirates but consumers just want easy access to their games. Carmel says the solution is simple: "Don't bother with DRM--it's a waste of time. You just end up giving the DRM provider money." Carmel also says independent game developers shouldn't bother with retail publishers for their titles, saying, "Go with digital distribution--you won't need a publisher for this. Self-fund your game--and when you get to retail, go for per-country flat-fee deals."

We thought Valve was done with its weekend Steam sales deals this week with its Oddworld game discounts. Nope. Not a chance. Valve has decided to put every indie game in its library on sale this weekend as well, giving some not-so-well-known titles some needed attention.

While some of the games have just a 10 percent discount this weekend, others have larger price cuts. For example all of Meridian4's indie games have a 20 percent discount this weekend. Some titles are priced as low as 33 percent off its regular Steam price this weekend. Among those titles are World of Goo, Defense Grid: The Awakening and Audiosurf. So if you are ready to try out something that's outside the game norm, this might be a good time to do so.