The indie game community is rallying together to put a substantial number of their games on sale next week. Why? To send a message to online retailers and publishers that the issue of pricing should be in the hands of the developer, not some retail or marketing exec. The iOS App Store and Valve’s popular Steam service let developers pick their price and give them the ability to put their games on sale whenever they want, and indie devs want this freedom to spread to other download services and platforms. So, in order to show everyone the benefits of open pricing, they’re dramatically slashing the prices of their own games across a number of platforms.
The official Because We May site has a listing of the games that will be part of the sale, and though it doesn’t list specific prices, it promises that each game will be “deeply discounted.” The sale is spread across a number of different platforms, including the iOS App Store and Steam, so chances are good you’ll find something you like.
Highlights on Steam including the excellent, retro-stylized SHMUP Jamestown, pretty much of all of DoubleFine’s games on Steam (Psychonauts, Stacking, Costume Quest,) the very hard but very addictive Super Meat Boy, and best of all, the cult-classic Cave Story. The full list of PC/Mac games that are going on sale on Steam can be found here.
If you’re looking for something to play on your mobile device, the extremely well reviewed Canabalt and Eufloria for iOS are both part of the sale, as is Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP, a game which I recently reviewed the PC port of and enjoyed thoroughly. Android users also get to share in the savings, and highlights on that platform include the Droid version of Canabalt, World of Goo, and Swords and Soldiers HD.
In addition to those games, there’s many more titles available for both PC, Mac, and the browser based Google Play service, all of which are listed on the Because We May website. The sale runs from May 24th until June 1st, so if you’re interested in one of these games, you might as well buy them then, as you’ll be able to save a few dollars as well as send a message to the game industry about their pricing practices.
