Humble Indie Bundle Keeps Getting Better, Exceeding Expectations

Business Models

from the how-business-should-be-done dept

Last week, we wrote about Wolfire Game’s Humble Indie Bundle offering (though, amusingly, since then, it’s been submitted over and over again — with some people saying they’re amazed we hadn’t written about it yet), where five four indie games were offered up in a “pay what you want” bundle. I was among those who paid up and downloaded the games (though, for some reason the “big draw” game World of Goo refuses to work on my computer). Over the weekend, I was surprised to get an email telling me that another game was now available as a part of the bundle. It appears that some other indie developers wanted to join in on the fun, and so everyone who already paid now also gets access to that other game, Samorost 2, from Amanita Design. This was pretty cool on a number of levels. At a time when so many video game developers are freaking out about people getting anything for free, these game developers are rewarding people who did pay by giving them more for free.

Think about the basic conceptual differences in approach here. You can spend all your time trying to punish negative behavior, or you can focus on rewarding positive behavior. Which strategy is likely to win more loyal fans in the long run?

Along those lines, a bunch of folks have also sent over Wolfire’s blog post revealing some back-of-the-envelope states on “piracy” of the game, suggesting that some folks were clearly sharing the download links and downloading more than single copies of the games. The discussion is pretty matter of fact, and basically recognizes there are a whole bunch of reasons why people might do this. But the really important part of the post is the fact that Wolfire doesn’t seem particularly bothered by this, and knows that the focus should be providing more value for those who want to pay and want to support the games:

What are we going to do about it?

Not much.

Shouldn’t we use a percentage of the proceeds to send our indie-lawyers after them? Perhaps trace their IP addresses?

No — we will just focus on making cool games, having great customer service, and hope for the best. It sure seems to be working right now!

….

Making the download experience worse for generous contributors in the name of punishing pirates doesn’t really fit with the spirit of the bundle. When considering any kind of DRM, we have to ask ourselves, “How many legitimate users is it ok to inconvenience in order to reduce piracy?” The answer should be none.

And that, right there, is an encapsulation of the different mindsets in the market today: do you spend all your time setting up reasons for people to buy, encouraging positive incentives… or do you focus just on punishing those doing things you don’t like (even if they would never buy?). Oddly, some are focusing on the fact that the games were still pirated as some sort of condemnation of “pirates,” but that doesn’t make sense. If anything it shows that there are reasons other than money that people download unauthorized copies (i.e., contrary to certain claims, it’s not just about “free stuff.”) Sure, anything you put out digitally is going to get pirated. Who cares? The focus should be on key metrics: how much money did you actually make (and as of this posting the numbers are already pushing $750,000) and how many more loyal fans did you bring into the fold? Who cares that some people are still sharing the games for free? Those people are not the ones who matter.

Filed Under: business models, piracy, positive experience, video games
Companies: wolfire games