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Show Me The Sales! Another way to support indie games

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satoru

Positech Games (maker of Gratuitous Space Battles) has amassed a central location for you to get great deals on some indie games. All proceeds go directly to the devs, as you're not buying through any middle man.

In any case it's a great way to get some indie games for cheap

Show Me The Sales

Here's Cliffski's Blog link to give you an idea of what the project is about

Cliffski's Blog about Show Me The Games

13 years ago*

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12 Comments
satoru

I don't like bumping for bumping sake but hey I think these are worth it :)

13 years ago
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lokonopa

I don't like that I can't see prices without clicking through.

13 years ago
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KobaltKnight

I agree. I don't know too many people who like to have to push "Buy Now" just to be able to see how much it costs to buy it. Otherwise, it is definitely an excellent concept for a site.

13 years ago
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BlueLegion

^this

13 years ago
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satoru

Dunno lots of sites do this with their silly "ADD TO CART TO SEE PRICE" thing.

But yes I admit not seeing the price on the main page is a bit of a bummer. Hopefully it's something they can address for the next iteration.

Personally I like that all these different indie distribution channels are popping up now.

13 years ago
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DuckieMcduck

I suppose it's a way for the costumer to focus on the games other than the prices. The "X% OFF!" is just an attractive if the game's interesting enough.

13 years ago
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cvladan

Some of the games are more expensive than in the usual places, e.g. Frozen Synapse @ Gamersgate.

13 years ago
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satoru

You could take Spiderweb software's perspective in that, since you're buying the game directly from the developer, they get more money and thus paying a higher price is ok as you are sure that 100% of the money goes to them, for future games.

We all talk about 'supporting the indie scene'. I think we should do so by showing such support with actual dollars that go directly to devs.

13 years ago
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cvladan

If the goal is to support the developers then it's absolutely fine, but one could already do that by going to their sites and purchasing the game directly. But if people are searching for the best bargain then they should be careful here.
Also, wouldn't it make sense to encourage people to buy directly from the developers by making sure that their prices are cheaper than in other places? Since they wouldn't need to give retailers a cut they could make it cheaper and still get more money from a sale. I don't really understand how, if all the money is going to the developer, I actually have to pay more.

13 years ago
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satoru

The games here actually redirect to the dev's payment site directly.

As for it costing more, I reference Spiderweb above since Jeff posted a lengthy discussion about their games and how they're marketed on different platforms and such. It's an interesting read from one developer's perspective.

http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-all-our-games-are-now-cheaper.html

His argument is that those coming to the site are not going to be as price conscious since they already want a fairly niche product not available elsewhere. You can argue the merits of that of course.

13 years ago
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cvladan

I know the games redirect to the developers, that's why I was saying that you could already support the developers directly if you wished to do so. What I was trying to point out is that, at first glance, this seems like one of the recent bundle-type promotions and it isn't. The audience here is not a niche audience that is going to the developer site directly, it seems it would be more like the people that buy the HIB or Royale bundles i.e. a generalist audience looking for a bargain in a collection of diverse titles (like in Gamersgate or Steam).

13 years ago
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KobaltKnight

I get what they're trying to say, but it seems like pretty bad logic. If the developers don't have to give a cut to the retailers, then they don't need to charge as much to get the same profit. Rather than showing that people are generous by buying there, I personally feel that it does a better job of casting a negative light on the indie game developers as being greedy.
As for people going there looking for a niche product, odds are they already know what they're looking for and therefore would also likely already know somewhere else that they can get it cheaper.

13 years ago
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Closed 13 years ago by satoru.