Translation - yes

Originally Posted by The End A couple of days ago, I sent an email to support asking them if $4.49 was gonna be the new starting price going forward. Here is their response.

In the early, cheaper days they used to sell around 25k-30k bundles every time in fewer days. Now it's usually around 8k-15k depending on the games. The starting price has doubled, but the minimum as the bundle goes on has not. I don't know if it's the higher price, game selection, or apathy toward bundles, but it doesn't seem to me like IR bundles are making more money now than they used to. I don't expect that upping the price again is going to fix that.

Oh geeze first there's the stress of if I don't buy it in the first few minutes the price is going to shoot up and now they even raise the minimum?

Couple that with lacklaster offerings lately that repeat both from their own and other bundles and I'm pretty much read to write Indie Royale off.

It's a shame too because there's still a fair amount of games on Desura I'd like to see in a bundle (with Desura keys) but I guess I will need to mostly look elsewhere instead of Desura's owners for that.

As for their balancing act, I hope they realize that part of the reason these bundles sell so well is the low price and that what you lose in profit per unit you can more than make up for in volume. But I guess if people keep buying it anyway at the higher price points then they'll just keep doing it.

Originally Posted by Motoki As for their balancing act, I hope they realize that part of the reason these bundles sell so well is the low price and that what you lose in profit per unit you can more than make up for in volume. But I guess if people keep buying it anyway at the higher price points then they'll just keep doing it.

Exactly. You can see the hard line where the price first went up on my collection page. When it's really cheap I'll buy it instantly as long as I want one game. That's all it takes. At $4+ the bundle has to be more desirable and and I have to think about it more.

Originally Posted by Motoki Oh geeze first there's the stress of if I don't buy it in the first few minutes the price is going to shoot up and now they even raise the minimum? Couple that with lacklaster offerings lately that repeat both from their own and other bundles and I'm pretty much read to write Indie Royale off. It's a shame too because there's still a fair amount of games on Desura I'd like to see in a bundle (with Desura keys) but I guess I will need to mostly look elsewhere instead of Desura's owners for that. As for their balancing act, I hope they realize that part of the reason these bundles sell so well is the low price and that what you lose in profit per unit you can more than make up for in volume. But I guess if people keep buying it anyway at the higher price points then they'll just keep doing it.

Yeah, they're definitely hurting themselves with raising the minimum price. I really hate that it's become "WHO CAN WAKE UP IN TIME TO GET IT AT A LOW PRICE!", and less so about selling the bundle at a price that sits well with their audience.

Originally Posted by louiedog Exactly. You can see the hard line where the price first went up on my collection page. When it's really cheap I'll buy it instantly as long as I want one game. That's all it takes. At $4+ the bundle has to be more desirable and and I have to think about it more.

Definitely. I know even for me (back when they took "pre-orders" for bundles; for those of you who didn't experience that, they'd allow people to pre-order the bundle at $3.99 without knowing what was in it aside from really vague descriptions which didn't help at all) I'd just buy the bundle because it was cheap, hoping that there'd be a game in there that I didn't have.

Nowadays, the only thing that keeps me coming back is the fact that I can buy the bundle, have the games automatically tied to my Desura account, and sell off the Steam keys to lower the cost of the bundle. At this point, I don't care if the game is on Desura or Steam, as long as it's one of them, I'm in.

Since Steam keys come with 3 to 4 out of the 5 games, you can usually sell them for around $3 or $4 total, which makes the bundle effectively cost $2-3, depending on what you paid for the bundle, which makes it always worth it for me. But I know not everybody does that, so it sucks for those of us who buy the bundle and keep everything.

The pre-orders for IR used to be $2.99.

A dollar cheaper than the starting price, but that only lasted through like 3 months of 2012 when they eliminated it. I think they gave the same canned response "trying new things."

I noticed they removed 2 old bundles from my collection page last night that somebody gave me over a year ago, which also pulled the games from my Desura library. Anybody else lose access to bundles they didn't purchase directly?

Originally Posted by humptyflunky I noticed they removed 2 old bundles from my collection page last night that somebody gave me over a year ago, which also pulled the games from my Desura library. Anybody else lose access to bundles they didn't purchase directly?

I have a few bundles redeemed from the desura key and they're still on my collection page and the games are still on my desura account.

Originally Posted by CheapLikeAFox The pre-orders for IR used to be $2.99. A dollar cheaper than the starting price, but that only lasted through like 3 months of 2012 when they eliminated it. I think they gave the same canned response "trying new things."

Oh shit, my bad. That's an even better deal. Honestly, I'd still pre-order at $3.99.

Originally Posted by Severose Oh shit, my bad. That's an even better deal. Honestly, I'd still pre-order at $3.99.

Yeah, you used to get a $1 discount for pre ordering. It was pretty awesome and part of the reason I fell in love with IR. But she's turned into a greedy shell of her former self.

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Originally Posted by CheapLikeAFox Yeah, you used to get a $1 discount for pre ordering. It was pretty awesome and part of the reason I fell in love with IR. But she's turned into a greedy shell of her former self.

At $2.99, I'd preorder every time and not feel too bad if it ended up being duplicates. Since they stopped the preorders, I've skipped several.

You know, I could swear that there was a period of time where it was actually more expensive to pre-order than to buy the bundle at launch.

When the bundle first started (Oct 2011) it was $1.99 at the start. That only lasted for the first two bundles. Then they raised the price to $2.99 and introduced the pre-orders at $3.99. After some complaints from people who pre-ordered that they were paying a buck more, they raised the bundle cost to $3.99 to match the pre-order price. Then they did away with the pre-orders after the April Fool's bundle.

I definitely could be wrong, but that's how I remember it.

Originally Posted by The End You know, I could swear that there was a period of time where it was actually more expensive to pre-order than to buy the bundle at launch. When the bundle first started (Oct 2011) it was $1.99 at the start. That only lasted for the first two bundles. Then they raised the price to $2.99 and introduced the pre-orders at $3.99. After some complaints from people who pre-ordered that they were paying a buck more, they raised the bundle cost to $3.99 to match the pre-order price. Then they did away with the pre-orders after the April Fool's bundle. I definitely could be wrong, but that's how I remember it.

Hmmm, maybe I'm wrong then. You pre order at $3.99 and pay a $1 more but lock in the price in case it goes up quickly? That sounds plausible too. I remember something about a $2.99 to $3.99 price difference. Maybe in my mind I thought the cheap pre order made sense as you were buying it sight unseen.

My fuzzy recollection is that the pre-orders were cheaper. Without good confidence, I can't bring myself to buy sight unseen.

Originally Posted by The End You know, I could swear that there was a period of time where it was actually more expensive to pre-order than to buy the bundle at launch. When the bundle first started (Oct 2011) it was $1.99 at the start. That only lasted for the first two bundles. Then they raised the price to $2.99 and introduced the pre-orders at $3.99. After some complaints from people who pre-ordered that they were paying a buck more, they raised the bundle cost to $3.99 to match the pre-order price. Then they did away with the pre-orders after the April Fool's bundle. I definitely could be wrong, but that's how I remember it.

This is the way I remember it. I never preordered, because back it was a lot easier to get in before it went up a dollar.

I remember the $4 pre-order but $3 starting price if you caught it early period too.

Before that though I think it was straight $3 to pre-order or starting.

They keep messing with stuff and honestly every time they have messed with it so far it has been for the worse.

If they are going to keep raising the price then they really need to think about either doing a build a bundle scenario or at least have a lower and higher tier setup like most other bundles do. The all or nothing at $5 plus with lots of repeats just isn't working.

Or compensate for the higher price by adding more games (like bundlestars).

Anyone have a spare copy of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People or Guns of Icarus Online for trade?

I have some games and stuff for trade, drop me a PM.

Looks like they've added a bonus game: Brand

Originally Posted by The End Looks like they've added a bonus game: Brand

It's a cute platformer about blacksmithing and there is a demo. I got it back when it was on sale on Desura for 99 cents and someone on Reddit posted about it.

If someone is just interested in just Brand potentially it could go back on a 99 cent sale on Desura.