The Binding of Isaac closing in on 450K sales

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jan 28th 2012 2:00AM

Edmund McMillen's The Binding of Isaac, a dark, "Roguelike" exploration of childhood trauma, is close to selling 450,000 copies.

"It's just ridiculous, there's no reason for this game to have done well. It's nice for everyone involved," McMillen said in an interview with IndieGames.

"When I started development on Isaac, I wasn't even sure if I should charge for it, because I didn't think people would want it, in all honestly. I had to shop it around to a bunch of different developers, and say like 'Do you think I could sell this?', because I thought it was way too weird, I thought the content was too disturbing and creepy. I thought it would just rub too many people the wrong way and I thought the design was just too hardcore for any kind of mass amount of people to enjoy."

Due to the success of Isaac, McMillen and crew are currently working on The Wrath of the Lamb expansion, which will be $3 and launch "when it's done."

Tags: Edmund-McMillen, mac, pc, sales, the-binding-of-isaac

Reader Comments (26)

It definitely deserves that many and more sales. Definitely my favourite game of 2011. Still play it every week. If you haven't played it, what are you waiting for!? It's only $5!!

When you see great news like this you don't mind reading a "It's over 9000!" joke

@Stevetrop Man of Mystery
So you didn't like the one I cracked in the comments for the RE6 article? You just had to start my morning with tears, didn't you...

Bought it and the soundtrack. I'm actually playing it right now, even though it froze due to the flash coding not using only CPU power...

So I didn't really have any idea what this game was about until the last few days. I had assumed it was a little more surreal, rather like Super Meat Boy. But as I learn more about it, the more intrigued I become.

It's a $5 game that's a twin stick zelda-esque dungeon crawling rogue-like smash tv-esque shooter with a f*cked up grotesque black comedy theme with religious undertones that you'll probably invest as much (or more) hours as...I dunno, Skyrim? SWTOR?! Diablo?! What the bloody hell are you still reading this for?! What do you want, an invitation? Buy this game NOOOOWWWWW!!!!
*announcer explodes, followed by everything around him exploding for some inexplicable reason*

@Churrotastic

I don't understand. I really like those games a lot and someone gifted me this game and I just... don't see what's fun about it :/

I've gone back to it multiple times to try having fun with it but I just sit there like ".... why am I playing this :| im about having as much fun as isaac is!" everytime lol I guess its just not for me, but I want to like it! lol

@Pikachief
Yeah I bought it and it was okay. I personally thought Dungeons of Dreadmor was a better rougelike game as I still play it and BoI I stopped after I beat it once.

That being said I'm always glad when an indie developer does well so congrats Ed.

"It's just ridiculous, there's no reason for this game to have done well."
This is my reaction to a lot of AAA titles.

I for one am not surprised at all. Seems like there are a lot of indie devs that are surprised when their games do well, and they shouldn't be. Just because some big studio isn't interested because your idea isn't mainstream and safe enough for them to feel comfortable doing it, isn't a reason to worry. It speaks more about their flaws at recognizing stuff gamers will actually be drawn to.

This guy seems insincere and arrogant.

@REDBELTS Edmund McMillen is both of those things. My brother was a big fan of super meat boy and asked him if Binding of Isaac would come to consoles. His reply was "Consoles don't deserve this game". And now he's acting like he never thought anyone would want it. He's a huge prick who uses the excuse of being an "indie" developer to sell mediocre clones of other games.

@REDBELTS He is. Team Meat are arrogant as hell and now we`ll all get downvoted by their insane legion of defenders.

@REDBELTS

Why yes, yes he is.
However, here's the thing, he deserves to be able to be arrogant, the man is a genius when it comes to making video games.
Should he tone it down a bit? Yes, he should. But, he's one of the best. Something he makes on the side, and thinks is terrible, turns out to be one of the best games of the year... That's saying something.

@HydrophobicFish PSN ID Hydrophob

Nah, nobody "deserves" to be able to be arrogant.

Being good at something is never an excuse for being a dick.

@REDBELTS he is. I cannot stand team meat and their douchey personalities.

@CptScrambles

I don't really get it. I read the whole interview and didn't think he came off as "douchy." And is comments on consoles may be justified, as it's not exactly easy for indies to get on consoles.

Does everyone have to talk like a PR bot just so as not to offend people?

I'd much rather someone tell it how it is, or how they feel, than to talk to me in BS PR fluff. To each his own I guess.

@DaDiddles You must have missed my comment. In which he doesn't speak how he feels and is a huge dick and individuals but when it comes to press he acts incredibly humble. He feels like he can say whatever he wants to fans because he has an swarm of people who will defend his N+ and SmashTV clones to the death. He didn't offend me with this interview. I'm just sick of how fake a person he is. He hasn't done anything amazing. People think he's a genius because when he's an indie developer. Meanwhile tons of actually good indie games get overlooked. Meat Boy was enjoyable. Binding of Isaac is incredibly boring the the gameplay is nothing new. If a studio of 100 people put out the same game people would call it garbage.

@CptScrambles
I can only agree with your statement. I played a demo of Meat boy and thought it was the same as N. Binding of Isacc looks awful and I hear it doesnt support controllers and was even made in Flash? Lol?

Why do indies who clone games get celebrated and showered in glorious praise, but when other companies clone (Zynga, Rovio) they get slaughtered?

And those comments he made make him sound like a total **** I certainly wont buy his games in the future.

Obligatory ''RIP personal computer video games''

"It's just ridiculous, there's no reason for this game to have done well."

How about the fact that the game is really, really good?

@CptScrambles I don't think you really know what humble means, and you probably never really played either if you just straight up call Meat Boy a N+ clone and Isaac a Smash TV clone. Go watch Northernlion's interview with Edmund on YouTube. Northernlion is a Let's Player, an individual. Ed doesn't come off as a douche at all.

@Churrotastic You missed the point entirely. Interviews would be when you get humble "my games are no good and I'm so fortunate to have fans" Mcmillen. Replies to emails or other private messages are when you get "My games are a gift from god and you can all line up single-file to suck my dick"

The Binding of Isaac is NOT a roguelike. It takes more than random dungeons and a high level of difficulty to merit that description; a roguelike must also be turn-based. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike#Gameplay

@MacMog

I was wondering when the semantics police would show up.

@MacMog

You are him: http://www.metatube.com/en/videos/5458/Robot-Chicken-complaint-about-gobots-skit/

So, any rumours on a date for the DLC? :)

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