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Itch.io rolls out first site-wide sale

Itch.io rolls out first site-wide sale

Indie games storefront Itch.io has launched its first site-wide sale.

As reported by VentureBeat, who did an interview with the firm,  developers on the platform have joined together to make bundles and discounts. One example listed is A Good Bundle, with 128 game makers contributing their projects.

“I wish there was a crazy ideological reason why we haven’t done this before but I guess the reality is that we’ve been hands off about organisation promotion,” content director Spencer Hayes said.

“We’ve asked developers in the past to run sales, but this time around, we want to turn it into an event to help connect developers and their audiences. Furthermore, because we’re a completely open platform, it can be a big challenge for us to get a lot of smaller creators to promote their games. Events like this can guide them in the right directly while encouraging them to use the tools we’ve built for that purpose, including running their own sales or hosting their own co-op bundles.”

Comparisons were made between Itch.io's own offering and the infamous Steam Sales. Valve's discounts are somewhat notorious, with consumers known to hang off from buying titles because they know the price will be cut to the bone in these sale periods.

“We haven’t pushed developers to go lower than their previous discounts or do anything they’re not comfortable with. Every discount you see on the site was one set by the developers,” Hayes said.

“That said, I think some level of discounting is healthy and allows developers to reach out to customers who aren’t able to buy games at full price.”


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.