This.

I mean, it's probably the best for indie developers to release their games for a full price, but I imagine that after the initial booth, say 6 months - 1 year, sales are not very common. One-two games per day for a 10$ would be around 7000$ in one year.

During HIB or Royal Bundle they can get this in a few hours. So, even if it means they are selling their games for less than 1$ each, in the end in two weeks (HIB) they earn money they would not see in two-three years.

This is why IndieRoyal said 100 developers already contacted with them.

$1 this time... sorry, but I am broke. And I won't be playing the games anytime soon (like, this year), so no hard feelings. ;)

I'm not saying that the bundles are bad for the developers involved (I mean, they would stop including their games if it was) but what I'm saying is that a large number of people are now less likely to buy an indie game due to the fact it'll likely hit a bundle eventually. While this may not matter for established indie devs with a good rep for quality games, smaller start ups live or die by every sale they get, so a reduction of sales across the whole market could lead to a lot of start ups folding before they even get the chance to make it into a Humble Bundle/Indie Royale.

But like I said, this is just one possible theory/outcome. It could be that more people are realizing indie games are actual quality products and are more likely to try new indie games thanks to HIB. I don't have the numbers to know one way or the other.

Just to show you the power of HIB (and IndieRoyal somehow) - Introversion Software Twitter:

"Introversion bundle out-sells Darwinia+ in first 41 mins."

Someone said that should be about 5k copies of Darwinia sold. That's around 25k pounds (this game costs 5 punds on their website).

Even if they split what they earn from this HIB between 4 games they offered, they will get ten times more from HIB for Darwinia than they earned up to this day.

I already bought Aquaria on Steam last weekend during the sale and I'm not sure if I should buy the bundle or not. I know that I'm not going to play any of the other games, so maybe I'll wait and see what other games they'll add. Well, Uplink did seem interestig but in the trailer it's got no background music, which makes it less appealing. And I don't think it would be a good habit to keep buying bundles all the time when I don't want them. :D

Not to pour water on this, but I had the impression that Darwinia+ didn't sell that much to begin with, due to the issues they had with MS and Darwinia being put on XBLA...

In any case, while I did already get the Introversion bundle on Steam a few months ago, I'll be sure to get this as they're a great, hardworking bunch of indie devs who definitely need the support. I do think though that it may not have been such a good idea to release this so close to the Voxatron bundle.

I already own every game on this set, so I might pass on it.

I just wish they'd fix the UI issues on Uplink already.

Should they put more games in the future, everybody will get them whether they paid above the average or not, correct?

I already have Aquaria and Crayon, and the average would be a little harsh on me now (it's the second bundle this month, there are also the Indie Royales, black friday sales are coming just now, christmas is at the door, etc.).

Also, the top of the page says HIB 4 is coming soon. How do they expect me to raise the donation for past bundles this way?

Usually you get every game added to the bundle no matter what you paid, as long as you paid before it was added. For example, I didn't pay above the average in the Frozen Synapase bundle (as I already had the Frrozenbyte Bundle which was the bonus and I just wanted a DRM free download of FS) but I got SpaceChem added anyway.

So buy ASAP if you want whatever games they add.

Not only pay $.01, but immediately put them up for sale on Ebay at a profit.

That is how it was the last time when they added Gish, you also got a separate Steam code for it in your download page.

I like the bundles too, but they are coming out a little too frequently now. I haven't even played the games from the last bundle, but I cannot choose to wait before buying the new bundle since it's only sold for a limited time.

Own em all, but plan on paying for it just for DRM free versions.

It depends. Sometimes they just retroactively add the games to the library of anyone who activated the main bundle code on Steam, like they did with Atom Zombie Smasher and Trauma. More recently they tend to just add a separate code, like with Binding of Issac/Blocks That Matter and earlier with Spacechem. Your best bet is to just check out the download page every time a bonus is added and see for yourself if you need to redeem it.