The Humble Indie Bundle: Pay Whatever You Want for 5 Indie Games - News

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 05 May 2010 / 3,640 Views

Have a computer? Then click here! Five indie classics, with a combined retail value of $80, are now available for the nice price of whatever you feel like paying. Really. The money you choose to give these heroes will be split seven ways, going directly to the five developers and their two favorite charities, Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Or if you want, you can make sure your whole payment goes to the devs or the charities, or customize the split however you'd like. So far they've raised over $300,000 with over 39,000 contributions. The average contribution is $7.93 right now, but some anonymous donors are paying as much as $500 for the package. You can have these five games for five hundred bucks or five hundred cents, and all they ask is that you help spread the word, since these indie folks don't have a marketing budget.

After you make your payment and decide where it goes, you will be e-mailed a link to download the games. You will have access to DRM-free versions for PC, Mac, and Linux, forever. You can download them, play them without an internet connection, back them up, and install them on as many computers as you like. Like most deals that are too good to be true, this is all better explained with a nice little advertising rap. And they've taken care of that too, with this groovalicious little video:

Source: The Humble Indie Bundle at wolfire.com

So how much did you pay, and which game is your favorite?

23 Comments

GlingGling (on 07 May 2010)

@kain_kusanagi, "always" is a strong word to use and highly inappropriate for at least three of these games. Gish, Aquaria, and World of Goo are all critically acclaimed. Each alone are probably worth at least $10. My favorite of which is Gish. In my mind few indie games are overpriced (but some developers are definitely delusional), and many of the best are free.

kain_kusanagi (on 06 May 2010)

I gave 10, 50/50. I think that's fair, indie games are always overpriced in my opinion.

The Ghost of RubangB (on 06 May 2010)

@Hephaestos, I read somewhere that they spent 10K of their own money making Goo. Then at GDC they said they spent 96K, but I think that included paying for their rent and food for 2 years, and buying some necessary hardware and software, and some other stuff. I'm not sure. But they've made a couple millions on WiiWare. Amazing indie success story. I gladly paid for it on WiiWare and just bought it again as part of this bundle, so now I have WW/PC/Mac/Linux versions of the Goo. I guess now I have no excuse to not go back and finish it!

Hephaestos (on 06 May 2010)

Thanks for supporting the humble bundle! Please check your email for more information. You should receive your downloads shortly.

If you run into any trouble, please contact us here and we will get you set up ASAP.

We don't have a marketing budget. Please help us by spreading the word!

Hephaestos (on 06 May 2010)

WoG is 2 guys working on laptops in coffeeshops... I guess the 96K is what they paid themselves in salary :p

Anyways split by 7 that's already 55K for each, likely reimbursing a large part of the dev costs for all these games.

I personnaly won't give to charity though...

The Ghost of RubangB (on 06 May 2010)

@Vermise, I hadn't heard of the Eagles doing it, but Radiohead did a pay what you want deal with In Rainbows a few years ago, and they made a killing and got to keep every cent. And then Nine Inch Nails gave away his last few albums for free on the internet. I think one was a 4-disc album and the 1st disc was free, and another album was just entirely free. And David Byrne and Brian Eno put their last album online for free, but you could still pay for a deluxe edition if you wanted it. Every time these guys completely skipped out on any marketing whatsoever, outside of maybe 1 or 2 interviews and asking their fans to spread the word.

These indie guys have made $82,000 more since I posted this yesterday, with about 9,500 more contributions. Now the top 10 donations are $200 or more, and it wasn't like that yesterday either. I wish I knew how much it cost to make all these games. This crazy stunt might pay for all of them. I only know World of Goo cost $96,000, but that already made more than 20 times that much money back on WiiWare alone.

I hope they put out a press release when this is all over, and announce how much money went to the devs, to Child's Play, and to the EFF.

CrashMan (on 06 May 2010)

World of Goo by itself is worth 20 bucks

blunty51 (on 06 May 2010)

I'm gonna put about $20 to this, the only one I played is World of Goo.

I assume the rest are at least pretty good.

Kantor (on 06 May 2010)

I gave $15. To be honest, they were being ridiculously greedy, charging $16 for an indie game. None of them are really worth more than 5 bucks. And, of course, bundles are always cheaper. I gave it all to the developers, because THEY deserve to be rewarded for doing this. If I want to donate to charity, I don't want anything in return, anyway.

Vermise (on 06 May 2010)

I might be wrong, so someone correct me if I am. But I think The Eagles (the singers) did the same thing with one of there new albums. They left their old record company and I guess started there own by doing the same thing, pay what you want for there new album and I heard they made more, then what they did with the record studio, so don't feel bad for them there making a killing. I don't know any of these games, but if they look good you bet I'm gonna get them!!!

DOLBYdigital (on 06 May 2010)

So glad to see Aquaria getting some more attention! Seriously amazing game that is worth it by itself. It's one of those games that I want to shout from the rafters and shove in the face of anyone who says games are not art....

Best way to describe the gameplay would be a mix between ecco the dolphin and geometry wars.... i guess. The beginning is a little slow but that is because the game actually has a great story and needs to setup the situation and scene.

I put $40 to this bundle even though I own most of the games and gave to half to charity. Gotta support and love the Indie scene, keeping gaming fresh, innovative and FUN!

moondeep (on 06 May 2010)

I sure hope people support this... so that other developers do similar offers. Personally, I probably won't play any of them (well maybe Goo, even though I have it on Wii already), but I'll likely donate $10 for the heck of it.

jsheedy (on 06 May 2010)

Even though I already had World of Goo. I spent 25. Not a lot of games run on linux, and a lot of these games are good.

XiaoMay (on 06 May 2010)

Well, 9$ is so cheap... oh please, it's even cheap for W of Goo alone !

I would give 15 i think

FreeTalkLive (on 06 May 2010)

Seems too god to be true but I did it and posted the VGChartz article on FB.

Barozi (on 06 May 2010)

sigh If only World of Goo would run on my 24" monitor......

Theo (on 06 May 2010)

When radiohead did the pay what you want, I really hoped that the idea would take off.

It's such a good idea, and the best way to counter piracy. DRM puts a noose around the necks of loyal consumers, making piracy seem like the only option if you have crappy internet.

Killergran (on 06 May 2010)

I love Pay what you want schemes. It's just so... honest.

ameratsu (on 06 May 2010)

I'm biased but this is worth buying for Aquaria alone. And you get World of Goo!

cmeese47 (on 06 May 2010)

Spent 10 bucks

nsimberg (on 06 May 2010)

Definitely some of the cream of the indie crop.

VGhippy (on 06 May 2010)

@Mirgro

lol I'm the opposite. I've been wanting to buy Penumbra and Aquaria for ages, but I'm not interested in the others.

@OP thanks for letting me know about this!