Indiependence Day anti-sale hopes to help squeezed indie developers

A number of indie games developers intend to celebrate American Independence day tomorrow by not putting their games on sale.

With the intensifying race to the bottom threatening the bottom line for many smaller (and some not so small) developers, the promotion hopes not only to highlight the situation but also provide a much needed revenue boost for participating studios.

There are more games coming out than ever before, and games only seem to sell when they’re on sale,” the Indiependence Day site said. Players have been conditioned, through bundles and mega-sales, not to pay full price. And although money isn’t the primary motivating factor for a lot of us, if the dynamics of the industry don’t change, indie games will become an unsustainable model.

Indie games have been such a source of creativity and originality over the last 10 years, and we want to keep them going.

To bring some awareness of this to players, a group of indies have decided to come together on July 4th and NOT put our games on sale. We encourage fans of indie games to support their favourite developers by buying their games at full price.

If you bought a game on sale and wound up really loving it, perhaps buy a copy at full price and gift it to a friend. Or pick up that game that’s been on your wishlist for a long time. Whatever your platform of choice, we’d love your support.”

Participating developers include Tale of Tales, Oddworld Inhabitants and 2D Boy.