A Lesson in eCommerce from The World of Goo

1. wigglesPEsquire
   October 21st, 2009 at 10:53 pm

   Part of it is probably the extra publicity they've received from sites like this.

2. Alex
   October 21st, 2009 at 11:24 pm

   Since World of Goo is a digital product, they lose nothing if someone buys it for just a penny (presuming no selling cost involved).

   I always wonder if this would work on physical goods, where there is a non-zero cost of goods. It's iffy - but there are some pay-what-you-want restaurants that boost their profits with this scheme.

3. Larfin Jackarse
   October 22nd, 2009 at 3:59 am

   Tx Neatoland for posting this.

   I have read through the various links and forums and it is very interesting (if you are into this sort of thing

4. edutron
   October 22nd, 2009 at 6:14 am

   Alex, since they went through Paypal, there are costs associated with collecting the money -- I think they said they lost money for any donation less than 30 cents.

5. joe
   October 22nd, 2009 at 6:41 am

   i had pirated it on my wii so i took the opportunity to give them a little money. i can't afford $20 for a casual game i played for a couple hours but $5 seemed justified

6. JimRL
   October 22nd, 2009 at 7:15 am

   Well thanks to this post I've bought the game for $0.50 and that's $0.50 more than they would have had because I would never have got it otherwise...Plus it's a really cool game, well happy!

   Yes...I am cheap.

7. pwscott
   October 22nd, 2009 at 7:30 am

   How long before the game becomes boring do you realize you've paid 20 bucks for pixels. I paid out ten bucks for another physics game which was very challenging, but after about a week my brain was tired and I had built a solution for every level. I haven't used it since. I can only hope these games can inspire future architects and inventors.

8. bunsen
   October 22nd, 2009 at 10:16 am

   You could say the same thing about any medium pwscott... how long before a book becomes boring do you realize you've paid 20 bucks for a stack of paper with small symbols printed on it?

9. jay
   October 22nd, 2009 at 12:16 pm

   Radiohead tried this a few years ago, except they did this at the time when the album came out and not a year after release. The wiki page goes back and forth between album sales being very successful and mediocre...so I am not really sure how that one turned out.

10. Gauldar
    October 22nd, 2009 at 12:22 pm

    I think I'll toss them $5 myself for their year old independently developed game just to support them, and have it on my computer should I ever have the desire to play it. This business model works well as long as there is no middle man, and unfortunately, Paypal is such a thing and profits could be better had it not been necessary. Like record companies, I would much rather avoid them and put the money directly into the hands of the artists.

11. Skipweasel
    October 22nd, 2009 at 3:50 pm

    I paid $2.

12. Josh
    October 23rd, 2009 at 7:45 pm

    I bought this game when it first was released for $20 then I bought it again at a store for $20. So I spent $40 for the game.

    It is a great games especially if you play it on a tablet.

    What makes it even better is the lack of DRM.

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