Humble Indie Bundle 8 Rakes In Over $1m In Sales

Earnest Cavalli

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Jun 19, 2008
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Humble Indie Bundle 8 Rakes In Over $1m In Sales



The latest iteration of the Humble Indie Bundle has broken $1 million in sales - an impressive feat for a software package that allows users to determine their own price.

It was only yesterday that we reported [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124398-Humble-Bundle-Gets-Back-to-the-Indie] on the debut of the eighth Humble Indie Bundle, yet here we are bringing you word that the Bundle has already surpassed over $1 million in sales. As with all Humble Bundle packages, the main draw of Humble Indie Bundle 8 is twofold: First, it collects a number of fantastic independent games, and second, prospective buyers are allowed to determine how much they would like to pay for the Bundle. Feel like forking over $2 for the entire thing? Go for it. Want to be a bit more generous and toss in $100? That's your prerogative. Either way, the Bundle seems to be a pretty successful venture.

Like most people who get paid to write about videogames on the 'net, I generally lean toward pessism, so instead of believing this sales milestone to be an indicator of human generosity, I see this success as the result of the stellar games included in this version of the Humble Indie Bundle. All told, buyers are given seven titles: Proteus, Dear Esther, Awesomenauts, Little Inferno, Capsized, Thomas Was Alone and Hotline Miami. Cursory mathematical averages peg each of these games at $10 each if you were to buy them piecemeal, so grabbing them en masse in this pay what you want fashion is certainly a bargain. Still, it's very impressive to see the Bundle break $1 million in sales in a little more than 24 hours.

At the moment, the Bundle's total sales stand at $1,207,704.88, with 212,763 purchases made so far. That breaks down to a little less than $6 per purchase on average. Assuming you were to pay only that amount, you'll be saving something like 90 percent off the standard retail price for these games. That however is not why we implore you to buy the Bunle. Instead, we urge you to pick up these titles because its proceeds can be earmarked directly for charity. When buying the Bundle you're given the option to determine how much of your cash is donated to initiatives like the Child's Play charity fundraiser and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In short, you're getting a bunch of awesome games at cut-rate prices while also benefitting humanity at large. It's a win-win for everyone, which is a bit ironic given that the most arguably popular game in the Bundle, Hotline Miami, is a massively brutal quest to annihilate assorted thugs in as violent and sadistic a fashion as possible.

Who said videogames have no redeeming social value?

Source: Humble Bundle [http://www.humblebundle.com/]

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DrunkOnEstus

In the name of Harman...
May 11, 2012
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I'm glad it's such a success. I can only applaud the creators of the Humble Bundle, and just as importantly the developers. These devs work to make their games Linux compatible, and let people not only pay what they want, but also do this with no DRM attached. Including soundtracks is just a ridiculous icing on the proverbial cake. I get every single one just to support the hopeful existence of future bundles, even if I have every game already. With all the pessimism and horrible customer relations this industry has suffered, it's important to contribute to and advance genuinely humane and generous efforts such as these. Besides, I gladly give away titles I already own, which makes my "friends" happy and the whole thing a win-win-win for everybody.
 

Evil Smurf

Admin of Catoholics Anonymous
Nov 11, 2011
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I've bought them all since 2008, at first it was to get games but I made the change from buying to expand my library to giving child's play $25 because I heard about their fantastic work. Each year more and more people give money to the humble bundle because it's the right thing to do.
 

Araksardet

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Jun 5, 2011
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I'm curious - are there any known stats on what proportion of the total revenue goes to devs, charities and the Humble Bundle guys? I know the devs do rather well by the Bundle, but I've also seen a lot of people say they send all the money to charity.
 

Bvenged

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Sep 4, 2009
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I paid £5 for it, my lowest amount yet.

Still more than the average though, and then some. Makes me wonder how many scroungers there are if I'm a tight-fisted student yet can still afford way more than the average. I wasn't interested in any of the games except Miami to begin with, and even then that's a stretched remark as it was a game I had never considered buying.

Had a quick play of Hotline Miami; not bad at all (perhaps even really enjoyable!) but I can see how it can get a bit repetitive. Other than the interrogation room by the masked people, I've lost track of the story too because I hate the music and thus am trying to get through the home and briefing mini-levels as fast as possible.

Not tried any of the other games yet. Not sure whether I want to either. This is the first bundle I've had no interest in but passed over some of my dough to help out the dev's and charity (and Humble!).
 

Holythirteen

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Mar 1, 2013
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Wow. When I bought my bundle last night it just broke 900,000.

This was the first bundle I was made aware of in a timely manner, I was eager to join all the cool kids on this one.

I already beat Thomas Was Alone on PS3, but meh, the games looked pretty damn good for just 25 bucks.
 

-Dragmire-

King over my mind
Mar 29, 2011
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Hmmm, might get this one. Probably pay $10-20 for it with 50% going to devs and 25% each for the rest.

EDIT:

Formica Archonis said:
Earnest Cavalli said:
That however is not why we implore you to buy the Bunle.
..."Bunle"? :)
Send that as a pm. They get a notification instead of coming across it reading the comments.

I find it more polite too, not that you meant any harm.
 

Xisin

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Sep 1, 2009
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Wasn't too interested in the games in this Humble. I went with the weekly Humble instead, it's Alan Wake and Alan Wake's American Nightmare.
 

TheEvilCheese

Cheesey.
Dec 16, 2008
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Been playing a lot of awesomenauts and I'm pretty sure I've nearly finished Miami already. Enjoying them both a ton and have yet to play the others yet.

Second best bundle so far, only beaten by Humble Indie Bundle V because that has 2 of my all time favourite games in it. No prizes for guessing which.
 

deathbydeath

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Jun 28, 2010
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Does anyone who has this know if it gives you individual Steam keys for each game, or if it bundles all the games together in one/two keys?
 

Holythirteen

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deathbydeath said:
Does anyone who has this know if it gives you individual Steam keys for each game, or if it bundles all the games together in one/two keys?
You get a steam key for each game.
 

ProfessorLayton

Elite Member
Nov 6, 2008
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It's kinda funny how a bunch of low budget indie games being sold for a price chosen by the consumers with no DRM can sell this much.

Games industry, take notice. When you're nice to the consumers, they will buy your stuff. Plus the fact that a lot of this money is going to charity is just icing on the cake.

deathbydeath said:
Does anyone who has this know if it gives you individual Steam keys for each game, or if it bundles all the games together in one/two keys?
It gives you individual codes. Technically you're only supposed to use them for yourself, though.
 

NerfedFalcon

Level i Flare!
Mar 23, 2011
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ProfessorLayton said:
It gives you individual codes. Technically you're only supposed to use them for yourself, though.
However, nothing's stopping you from giving away the keys for the games you already own to a friend who's only interested in that one game. Why let it go to waste, anyway?
 

Lightknight

Mugwamp Supreme
Nov 26, 2008
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This sale has a larger number of great stuff than normal. I'm glad it's doing well.

I strongly recommend Little Inferno. There is just something about the way the story is told that was great.
 

ProfessorLayton

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Nov 6, 2008
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leet_x1337 said:
However, nothing's stopping you from giving away the keys for the games you already own to a friend who's only interested in that one game. Why let it go to waste, anyway?
Probably so the friend that wants it will actually buy the bundle and donate to charity. But you know.
 

antidonkey

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Dec 10, 2009
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The biggest problem I have with the bundles is there's never enough to get me interested. If I didn't already have Hotline Miami....I might have snagged this one but I really don't have much interest in the others. I did snag the Alan Wake stuff last week. Have yet to play it but I have it. Eh...maybe I'll cave and just this copy of hotline to a friend.
 

Teoes

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Jun 1, 2010
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antidonkey said:
The biggest problem I have with the bundles is there's never enough to get me interested. If I didn't already have Hotline Miami....I might have snagged this one but I really don't have much interest in the others. I did snag the Alan Wake stuff last week. Have yet to play it but I have it. Eh...maybe I'll cave and just this copy of hotline to a friend.
But this I don't understand. You pay what you want. If you decide it's only worth 10 cents then people might mock you for being a cheapskate, but how can there not be enough to get you interested? You could pay a penny if you really wanted to. It's not worth a penny?
 

Rob Robson

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Feb 21, 2013
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If these Humble Bundles weren't always so long after the monthly pay check (the 1st of every month) then I could pay a lot more than half a dollar... But of course the people behind humble are probably from America, where the concept of monthly pay is foreign. But hey, only about the entire rest of the world gets paid monthly, so planning your shit to go on sale the 10-15 first days of the month would actually make shit sell a lot better.

Just sayin'