World of Goo publisher files for bankruptcy

Brighter Minds was only their publisher for physical copies of World of Goo. This doesn't affect any sales they made on their site, or their relationships with Nintendo, Valve, etc. So it's not good for 2D Boy, but I think their digital sales were/are far more significant.

A 90% piracy rate is absurd. While there may have been a lot of people who downloaded the game or played it once, that doesnt mean that they would have gotten close to even half of those people to buy it.

I'm not condoning piracy, but when people can get stuff "free" they will try more stuff out. Most people were probably never going to buy the game to begin with. You cant just count people who downloaded it as lost sales overall because that would be a very incorrect statistic.

At this point... I ask...
WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP?
If I buy the PC version on top of the Wii version, will that help? Seriously, I'm going to do it.

I would think with the way it did on WiiWare, there would be no reason to be in bankruptcy.

I love how people in these comments are panicking thinking this has more to do with World of Goo than anything else. Yeah, World of Goo was really successful, and the publisher still went bankrupt. That means they did a whole bunch of other things wrong that had nothing to do with World of Goo.

I hope everyone who pirated this game burns in fucking hell.

Remember that the publisher are usually the one that will fund a lot of money into developer to make games in hopes it bring them a big return. Developer can't work if they're not getting paid.

They got my $15... (well, I guess Nintendo probably got to some of it first).

Best game I've played on the Wii.

I paid for it. It was $20 for me at least. And I didn't give it to anyone.

OK people 90% piracy rate DOES NOT mean they lost that in sales!
Just because someone downloads it doesn't automatically mean they would have bought it.

I downloaded it to try it and deleted it the next day. If I couldn't D/L I would just never play it.

I blame the people who buy crap Wii games and leave the good ones to rot.
I am sad to hear this though"/

While i think that anyone who pirated this game, even just to "try it out" is scum, I dont think the piracy rate is "staggering". Thats just joystiq flaimbait...

the devs have gone into the figures in detail, and compared them with other titles, and said they think the piracy rate is around 80%, which is lower than most other titles.

90% seems to be about average for the industry, though of course it does include the "just trying" group and a few other people.

re: BananaBoat
"Imagine those sales, except add 90% to them."
900%

"A 90% piracy rate is absurd. While there may have been a lot of people who downloaded the game or played it once, that doesnt mean that they would have gotten close to even half of those people to buy it.

I'm not condoning piracy, but when people can get stuff "free" they will try more stuff out. Most people were probably never going to buy the game to begin with. You cant just count people who downloaded it as lost sales overall because that would be a very incorrect statistic." -- NyghtcrawleR

So few people seem to understand this basic concept. Some people who pirate a game may have bought it if piracy weren't possible. Most would not. There is only so much money to go around, and there is no way WoG would have sold 10 times as many copies. I doubt it would have even sold twice as many on PC.

Something else that seems to be going over people's heads here is that 2D Boy is fine, and World of Goo is selling very well. It's the publisher who is in financial trouble, not the game, not the developer. Anyone complaining here about the big bad pirates killing WoG and its developer don't have a clue about what really is happening.

wait what happens between chapter 7 through 11, as well as chapter 1???

muahahahahaha

The deserve to go out of business. I've not seen World of Goo on a single store shelf. I mean that's what publishers do right? Everyone I know downloads this game. In which case, a publisher isn't needed. So, I'm sure they didn't see much financial gain from most of WoG's sales.

Sounds like another publisher with incredibly thin margins got squeezed out of business by the lack of easily available credit. Piracy is not the key issue at work here, kids; the key issue seems like a bad business model based on publishing shovelware and DVD games: Zoo Vet, Dodge That Anvil, The Nancy Drew DVD game. People are tightening their belts and they see no more reason to buy pointless crap, so we have a casualty. I hope Ubisoftz are watching this situation closely.

This is a shame for sure, but I think I'd cry more over the dev's (2D Boy) going under than the publisher for pretty much any title. Small publishers just can't survive in today's games market, not with companies like Activision/Blizzard and EA out there, unless they have some huge killer app.

And I, for one totally support DRM on games. I think it's completely fine, as long as it isn't completely ridiculous. I think that a lot of games like WoG get a ton of work put into them, and they should get their money back and then some, and DRM is a way of ensuring that they do it, then I'm all for it. What it all comes down to is this: when developers who come out with really amazing stuff like this don't make money on said amazing product because the game has all pirated to hell, they can't make more games, and that's a crying shame.

Yes once again I'm sorry for my language. I don't know what the deal was, I guess I was just sick and tired of all the stupid comments on these gaming websites. I just went overboard.

Piracy has nothing to do with this filing for bankruptcy. 2D Boy was self-published in many areas, including Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/22000/

No fucking wonder why their publisher wasn't getting enough revenue. Go Kotaku for another poorly researched sensationalist piece of shit.

I pirated this. Mostly because I wanted to see how much download speed I could get on the epic seeder/leech ratio.

Sounds like a case of bad money management. I'd have a hard time believing that the development costs were huge and staying at the top of the WiiVC list means they are making money on the game. I'd like to hear more on the story.

Hopefully the creators will keep doing their thing elsewhere. It's a great game. Coincidently I just bought it yesterday on the Wii download.

well, as long as the developers are okay, they can find another publisher.