The Pirate Bay adds minigame collection, McPixel, to its selection of legit torrents.
Content creators generally don’t get along with the Pirate Bay, mostly on account of the whole well… piracy thing. While mainstream developers and record companies have been quick to sick their lawyers on the Swedish file-sharing site, several indie outfits have been using the site to promote their wares. Indie dev, Sos, is one of them; his latest game, McPixel, is the first video game featured on “The Promo Bay.”
Sos spotted a version McPixel listed among the site’s selection of torrents. Rather than lawyer up, Sos decided to start giving out promo codes for the game in the torrent’s comment section. His actions caught the attention of the site’s administrators, who then contacted him to set up an official promotion.
For the next three days, an ad for McPixel will be displayed above the site’s main search bar. Clicking on it takes you to the McPixel website, where you can download a torrent of the game, which normally costs $9.99, for free. You can then pay Sos what you think the game is worth.
“I know that not everyone can afford entertainment. But everyone needs it,” reads a message from the developer. “And even though I make games for a living. I am most happy just to see people enjoy them.”
Sales haven’t exactly been ground breaking, Sos says he’s sold only 100 units with an average sale price of $1.34 since the promotion started. But that’s still 100 sales he may not have seen otherwise.
The game itself is an eclectic mix of point-and-click minigames, complete with faux-retro pixel art graphics. The torrent includes versions of Windows, Mac and Linux, but the game is also available on iOS, Android and Blackberry.
Published: Sep 7, 2012 10:55 pm