World of Goo "Pay What You Want" Sale a "Huge Success"

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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World of Goo "Pay What You Want" Sale a "Huge Success"



2D Boy's "World of Goo First Birthday" experiment - allowing gamers to pick up the acclaimed indie title for as little as a penny - is being hailed by the game's creators as ridiculously successful.

Last week, 2D Boy announced that it was pulling a Radiohead and giving away the critically acclaimed World of Goo for as we see on the official 2D Boy site [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95453-World-of-Goo-Holds-a-Pay-What-You-Want-Sale].

All in all, approximately 57,000 people bought the game last week, and a graph of how many people paid how much money can be found here [http://2dboy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/histogram.png]. Unsurprisingly, the most popular price was the cheapest: Almost 17,000 people picked up World of Goo for $0.01. The second most popular price range was between $1.00 and $1.99, with further spikes at $5.00-$6 and $10.00-$11, and little bumps at $15-$16 and the game's current retail cost of $20-$21.

Ignoring that most people opted to pick up the game as cheaply as possibly, it's hard to see this as anything but a success. In the span of a week 33,741 people acquired the game for at least $1.00, and many paid more than that (7347 people buying the game at $5 equals a not-too-shabby $36,735, for example). So at the end of the week, there is a lot more money in the pockets of the 2D Boy duo than there was at the beginning - pretty good for a game that's been out for a year, huh?

Also interesting was the impact that the sale seemed to have on other channels that didn't have the "pay what you want" deal going on: Steam sales of the game rose 40%, and while weekly fluctuations on Steam are certainly not unheard of, an increase of that magnitude (coming on the heels of a 25% increase the week before) is rather rare. Meanwhile, WiiWare sales of World of Goo jumped 9% - not quite as big, but not insignificant, either.

There's a lot of interesting data over on the 2D Boy site, including results from a survey about why people chose the price they did (the most common answer? "That's all I can afford right now") but the data all points down to this: By letting consumers pay whatever they want, 2D Boy made a ton of money off of a year-old game in the span of a week. Oh, and the sale was so successful that they're extending it a few more days - if you still haven't picked up World of Goo, you have until October 25 (Sunday) to pick it up for as cheap as a penny. What's stopping you, man?

(Via RPS [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/10/20/world-of-goo-sale-provides-fascinating-results/])

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Syphonz

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Aug 22, 2008
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Yeah, uh, I "bought" the game feeling generous putting down the remainder of my paypal account of $4.78 and it was never emailed to me. I'm not pissed or anything, it is only $4.78, but I'm still disappointed.
 

Cuniculus

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May 29, 2009
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Great game. Worth almost whatever they want, so the game getting sold for so little is really unbelievable.
 

Trivun

Stabat mater dolorosa
Dec 13, 2008
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I paid a penny, simply because as a penniless student I can't really afford more. It's a great game and I would pay the full price if I could afford it, but sadly I can't. And yes, I know that seems pretty heartless, but 2DBoy did a great game and I reckon they should definitely carry on the good work, I'll be sure to look into any future projects they have going as and when they arise :D
 

snuffler

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Jun 4, 2008
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Hrm, I actually really enjoy this model because it seems like people are more willing to pay something than nothing. 17,000 payed $0.01, but 40,000 paid something more. Personally, I would totally sell a game I made with the pay what you want model (because it would, in fact, be a 2d graphics game using sprites and such, not some 3d high investment franchise game. I'm actually working with SDL, OpenGL and other open source game development libraries to see what I can do with those technologies, although this has been put on halt so I can hopefully finish an animation for the video contest!) It seems like a good way for even unknown publishers to get their label off the ground and get some dough in the front door.
 

hansari

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May 31, 2009
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CantFaketheFunk said:
Steam sales rose 40%, and while weekly fluctuations on Steam are certainly not unheard of, an increase of that magnitude (coming on the heels of a 25% increase the week before) is rather rare.
Steam was also having a half off sale (52.8% to be exact) of all "Half-life" related games the same weekend.

I'm surprised the Escapist never said anything about it. (Not that valve needs support like an indie developer does...but still, half-off is a big deal...and it was to celebrate Gordon Freeman being voted "greatest game hero of all time.")
 

Caliostro

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Jan 23, 2008
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CantFaketheFunk said:
What's stopping you, man?

Sadly, lack of a credit card/paypal. Anyone feels like giving me 1-online-cent? :D



But in all seriousness, I think companies could really profit from taking a lesson here, specially on their older games, some of them classics. I imagine most companies don't have the balls to put their new shinny tittles up like this (which is understandable really), but imagine if Blizzard pulled one of this with the Diablo or Starcraft collection? Or Raven with the Jedi Knight series? ID with the Doom series? Etc.

Sales are good people. Good games at cheap prices sell faster than fire spreads through rocket fuel, generating more income than less sales with higher prices. If you still doubt this, I have only one thing to say: Steam Weekend Sales.
 

Barky13

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Apr 7, 2009
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It's nice to see that people payed up to $50.00 for this. Even if it was just 4 people.
 

FistsOfTinsel

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Jun 23, 2008
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Trivun said:
I paid a penny, simply because as a penniless student I can't really afford more. It's a great game and I would pay the full price if I could afford it, but sadly I can't. And yes, I know that seems pretty heartless, but 2DBoy did a great game and I reckon they should definitely carry on the good work, I'll be sure to look into any future projects they have going as and when they arise :D
I don't want to beat up on you, but I don't really buy your excuse as a "penniless" student. Sure, it's okay to pay less, but shouldn't you really be basing the amount you pay against what you'd pay for other forms of entertainment, and compare it to the number of hours you'd get out of Goo? You could even divide that result and still get a lot more than a penny.

For example, figure you get six hours of fun out of Goo. Figure that's six movie rentals; at $3/rental (and splitting the cost between 3 friends), that comes out to $9/4 = $2.25. Even if you want a 90% discount, that's still $0.25. Paying a penny is saying that WoG is worth less to you than a gumball. That's not payment - that's an insult, even for a "penniless" student. If you're so broke that you can't even afford to pay $1 for a good game, why are you wasting your time posting about 15 times/day (4500 posts over 10 months) on The Escapist - get some employment.
 

RomanLegacy

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May 6, 2009
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hansari said:
CantFaketheFunk said:
Steam sales rose 40%, and while weekly fluctuations on Steam are certainly not unheard of, an increase of that magnitude (coming on the heels of a 25% increase the week before) is rather rare.
Steam was also having a half off sale (52.8% to be exact) of all "Half-life" related games the same weekend.

I'm surprised the Escapist never said anything about it. (Not that valve needs support like an indie developer does...but still, half-off is a big deal...and it was to celebrate Gordon Freeman being voted "greatest game hero of all time.")
It was also Thq week, so they had a bunch of those games on sale all week.
 

BlueberryFalacy

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Apr 12, 2009
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I'm not really suprised that this worked. If they had of done the "Free T-Shirt" model it would have had around the same success (what is it with people and free t-shirts).

But still some of the prices payed do prove that these boys have the merit enough to set it up and walk away with a tidy wad of cash bulging out their back pocket.
 

DJPirtu

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Nov 24, 2008
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A huge success indeed. From the figures given, I can calculate that the totals sales sum up to at least one hundred thousand US dollars. I'd say that pretty good for a game that was released a year ago.

Syphonz said:
Yeah, uh, I "bought" the game feeling generous putting down the remainder of my paypal account of $4.78 and it was never emailed to me. I'm not pissed or anything, it is only $4.78, but I'm still disappointed.
You know, you could propably just send them an email explaining the situation and you could propably still get the game. Especially if you dig up the transaction ID of the payment.
 

incal11

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Oct 24, 2008
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CantFaketheFunk said:
2D Boy's "World of Goo First Birthday" experiment - allowing gamers to pick up the acclaimed indie title for as little as a penny - is being hailed by the game's creators as ridiculously successful.
HAHAHA
I WAS RIGHT !

A year ago I remember saying game makers should be given what we think they deserve, a bit like street performers.
People answered me this was stupid and could never work.
If only the rest of the game industry could do the same...

Now nobody remember it and this post will probably be thorougly ignored, but it still feel good.
 

Trivun

Stabat mater dolorosa
Dec 13, 2008
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BigBoote66 said:
Trivun said:
I paid a penny, simply because as a penniless student I can't really afford more. It's a great game and I would pay the full price if I could afford it, but sadly I can't. And yes, I know that seems pretty heartless, but 2DBoy did a great game and I reckon they should definitely carry on the good work, I'll be sure to look into any future projects they have going as and when they arise :D
I don't want to beat up on you, but I don't really buy your excuse as a "penniless" student. Sure, it's okay to pay less, but shouldn't you really be basing the amount you pay against what you'd pay for other forms of entertainment, and compare it to the number of hours you'd get out of Goo? You could even divide that result and still get a lot more than a penny.

For example, figure you get six hours of fun out of Goo. Figure that's six movie rentals; at $3/rental (and splitting the cost between 3 friends), that comes out to $9/4 = $2.25. Even if you want a 90% discount, that's still $0.25. Paying a penny is saying that WoG is worth less to you than a gumball. That's not payment - that's an insult, even for a "penniless" student. If you're so broke that you can't even afford to pay $1 for a good game, why are you wasting your time posting about 15 times/day (4500 posts over 10 months) on The Escapist - get some employment.
I agree totally with you, and normally you'd have a really good point. However, as it happens I've had to totally stop paying for any entertainment, I paid my TV License at the start of the year and that's been it. I haven't bought any CDs, DVDs, games, books, anything like that, in months, and the main reason is that a lot of people in the UK, students, haven't yet recieved their student loans. Which means I'm stuck with my savings. All because some idiots in the government can't tell when people have written their date of birth on a form, despite it being right there in front of them on the form. And that isn't an exagerration either, that's me being completely serious.

As for the employment thing, I'm looking for work and I only go on the Escapist in my spare time. Anyway, a lot of my posting is done in the evening and after university when I've finished work (I've not long got back from lectures now, to tell the truth, and posting earlier was done at campus when I was on a lunch break). But otherwise, I can see your point and I do agree. I simply paid a penny because it was easier to just do that rather than go through a load of maths trying to work out what I could afford against what I thought the game was worth.
 

FistsOfTinsel

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Jun 23, 2008
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Trivun said:
I simply paid a penny because it was easier to just do that rather than go through a load of maths trying to work out what I could afford against what I thought the game was worth.
Like I said, I didn't want to beat you up - who am I to know what you're really capable of paying. I don't know if you have Top Ramen ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_noodles ) in the UK - according to wikipedia, "Pot Noodle" is something similar - but when I was a student, it was not uncommon for this to be the source of a majority of your daily caloric intake. Actually, I still have Top Ramen for lunch every couple of weeks, even though I can afford to eat whatever I want. Anyway, one lunch of Top Ramen instead of whatever else you were contemplating is enough to cover the cost of $2. Maybe I'm just an old fart; I find it hard to understand a lifestyle where someone doesn't even have a dollar to pay for days of entertainment, but still has free time to surf the net & play computer games. Back in MY day, if you were in such dire straits, you'd be busting your hump just to make sure you could make rent and keep the Ramen cabinet stocked up, with little time for anything else.
 

robrob

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Oct 21, 2009
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DJPirtu said:
A huge success indeed. From the figures given, I can calculate that the totals sales sum up to at least one hundred thousand US dollars. I'd say that pretty good for a game that was released a year ago.
Sadly, going by paypal's transactions fees (2.9% + 0.30 for payments under $3k), that means at least $20,000 went to paypal out of that. There would have been the hosting fees as well, at 67MB per file, over 6TB of data was downloaded. It would have been a nice bonus for all involved, without a doubt, but it's not really a home run for the model.

It's a nice bonus on an older game for an indie, but I wonder how it compares to, say, $5 sales on previously hit titles (like Assassin's Creed being $5 on Steam at the moment). And how much the indie factor played to it, World of Goo was a hit game and we all have a little sympathy for the little guy. If EA did this a whole lot more people would pay a cent out of spite.

Also, for those talking about Steam, World of Goo sales on Steam increased by 40%, not Steam sales in general. The other sales might have pulled more people to Steam though, along with word of mouth about World of Goo thanks to their 1 cent sale. But that comes down to what it was a 40% increase over, it was a year old indie game, I doubt sales would have been particularly high anyway (all comes down to whether they went from 10 to 14 or 1000 to 1400).
 

pneuma08

Gaming Connoisseur
Sep 10, 2008
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Wow, what a strange and interesting experiment. I must certainly applaud 2D Boy for using their unique position in such a way.