Humble Indie Bundle V released – smashes previous record


1 Jun 2012

The multi-platform games bundle series Humble Indie Bundle has released a fifth games package available for download, smashing the previous record for fastest time in reaching the US$1m mark. The package, available for Windows, Mac and Linux, has grossed US$1.7m in little more than nine hours so far.

Jeff Rosen of Wolfire Games launched the Humble Indie Bundle series in May 2010. Rosen had noted the success of such gaming bundles through the Steam platform as the basis for the idea, however he was inspired by the “pay-what-you-want” and viral word-of-mouth marketing system that had proven successful with other downloadable content launches, a tactic employed by developers 2D Boy for the anniversary release of their game World of Goo. Payments for the bundle are run through online payment systems PayPal, Amazon Payments and Google Checkout, with proceeds being split between developers, charities and humble bundle organisers.

The fifth bundle in the series features four games, with an extra game and soundtrack available if the purchaser pays more than the average purchase price:

 Amnesia: The Dark Decent – A survival horror game by Fictional Games which has sold more than 400,000 copies on Windows, Mac and Linux OS.

Limbo – A multi-award winning puzzle-platformer game by developers Playdead, launched in July 2010 and available on XBLA, PSN, Windows, Mac and Linux.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery(sic) – An action/adventure game from Capybara Games released on iPhone, iPad, Windows and Mac OS.

Psychonauts – A platform adventure game from Double Fine Productions. Double Fine Productions’ founder is Tim Schafer, formerly of Lucas Arts and renowned for his work on the point-and-click adventure games of the Nineties like Monkey Island, Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle. Psychonauts was the first offering by Double Fine, which has recently announced it will be making a sequel funded by KickStarter.

Those who have paid more than the average price for the bundle will also be able to download Bastion – an action RPG from Supergiant games.

There have been 228,000 bundles sold so far, with payments totalling US$1.74m. The average paid is US$7.63 with Linux users being the most generous, contributing an average of US$11.86 per bundle purchased.

The bundle offer is live until 14 June.