Last week, 2D Boy celebrated the first birthday of their hit PC and WiiWare title, World of Goo, by offering the game for whatever gamers wanted to pay.  While skeptics (like myself) expected pretty much everyone to pay a penny for the game, it turns out that not everyone out there is a cheapskate, and the experiment was a huge success.

57,000 people took advantage of the deal, and downloaded World of Goo for a price of their choosing.  While almost 30% of gamers did choose to only pay a penny, almost as many paid between $1 and $2, and 2D Boy’s sales chart shows spikes at the $5 and $10 marks.  A few gamers even went so far as to voluntarily drop $50 on the title , but the average price paid was $2.03.

As an interesting side effect of the offer, World of Goo’s sales on Steam and WiiWare both saw significant increases, with Steam’s sales of the game rising 40% and WiiWare’s seeing a 9% jump during the birthday offer.  These were both offered at their regular price, showing that the game is good enough to garner continued support, and that people will buy lesser-known, high quality titles as long as they’re aware of them.

$2.03 per copy may seem low, but 2D Boy is calling the special a huge success, and with the spillover sales on other platforms, it’s hard to argue.  Personally, I thought that pretty much all gamers would pay as little as humanly possible.  Apparently, I’m just a jaded cynic with no faith in humanity, though, and the community turned out to be more supportive than expected.  It warms my heart, though, and gives me hope that this business model could be successful in the future.

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