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Humble Indie Bundle now Steam-compatible, second Bundle teased
If you were one of the charitable souls who purchased the Humble Indie Bundle earlier this year, donating an amount of your choosing to Child's Play while also supporting independent game development -- or, if you were one of those cretins who pirated the package instead of paying a penny for it -- we've got good news. The Bundle's creators have worked out a deal with Valve to allow the five games therein to be activated on the Steam platform. How convenient! If you missed out on the choose-your-own-price collection when it was available this past summer, don't get too glum -- the Bundle's official site has been updated with a teaser for a second dose of affordable indie games. We'll let you know when we hear more about this collection, which we're temporarily naming the "Presumably Even Humbler Indie Bundle."
Humble Indie Bundle extended, pulls in over $1 million
If you haven't gotten in on the Humble Indie Bundle, which packages five great indie games for a price of your choosing, you've still got time -- the sale (which also benefits charities like Child's Play) has been extended after making over $1.1 million in just a few days. And now, as if all but giving away their games wasn't thanks enough, the devs are giving back by making four of the games in the bundle (Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD and Penumbra Overture) open source. At this rate, there's no way they can legitimately call the next one the "Humble Indie Bundle 2," can they? Dudes are rolling in it. Let's just say we're eagerly anticipating the "Go Pick Up My Suit From the Dry Cleaner Semi-Indie Bundle Fueled by Dew" in 2011. [Thanks, killerrin]
Humble Indie Bundle moving towards $1 million, still being pirated
The Humble Indie Bundle that we posted about the other day is doing quite well -- they've raised almost US$800,000 by selling five indie games (playable on Mac, Linux, and Windows) for pay-what-you-will. In fact, they've done so well that they've added another game into the mix -- you'll also get Samorost 2 if you pick up the bundle. And a little birdie pointed out to us that if you pause their trailer video at about 1:16, they'll be adding another bonus to the mix if they reach a full million dollars raised. [Spoiler: They say they'll actually release the source code of Gish, Lugaru, and Penumbra Overture.] Is there any bad news about this giveaway? Well yes: people are still pirating it. The developers claim that 25% of the bundle downloads are "pirated" -- people who didn't pay anything at all for it. They didn't secure the link, authenticate the downloads, or protect the game with DRM (and they didn't ask users to pay any more than one cent for it), and people are still just rolling up and downloading the games for free. Unfortunately, that doesn't solve any arguments -- those for DRM would say that real security would prevent that, and those against DRM would claim that it won't. At any rate, those are five great indie games that are worth your money -- if you downloaded them for free, put a few bucks in the pot.
One-quarter of Humble Indie Bundle downloads were pirated
Perhaps you've heard of (or purchased!) the Humble Indie Bundle -- a set of five DRM-free indie games, which you can choose your own price for, the entirety of which goes to two completely deserving charities. Despite the bundle's altruism and affordability, Wolfire Games reports that over one quarter of the total downloads of the package were pirated. You read that right -- a grip of people have stolen the choose-your-own-price indie-bundle-for-charity. Talk about sticking it to The Man. This fraction of creeps shouldn't cheapen the fact that the bundle's already brought in $716,944 for the five games, as well as the Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, but it's still pretty disheartening. If you'll excuse us, we need to go watch Happy-Go-Lucky or perhaps a few episodes of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition until we regain our faith in humanity. [Via Ars Technica]
Humble Indie Bundle: Pay what you want for World of Goo and four others
You've commented on Joystiq posts about oppressive DRM many times before. You dutifully wear your Target-purchased indie game t-shirt every week without fail. And you read every Joystiq Indie Pitch we post. But if you want to put some money towards supporting indie games, you won't find a better way to do it than this. Wolfire Games and a few other indie developers have put together the "Humble Indie Bundle" sale, offering five terrific award-winning indie games (World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru and Penumbra Overture) for the low, low price of ... whatever you want. That's right -- they're asking you to pay what you feel is right for these bundled, non-DRM, developer-owned Mac, Linux or PC games. And that's not all: You can even specify part or all of your donation to go to a charity, either Child's Play or the Electronic Frontier Foundation. That's about as selfless as it gets in gaming -- pay what you think it's worth, to charity or the people who made it. The average donation so far is about $8.00, but individuals have donated as much as $500 to the effort. You get lots of chances to say you support indie gaming, but fewer great chances like this to put your money where your mouth is. And walking away with five great indie titles to play doesn't hurt, either.
