Indiebox (boxes for digital games)

[cimerians]

For the physical copy die-hards.

 

https://www.theindiebox.com/

 

I can't believe this exists.

 

"Every month, your IndieBox will contain a retro-style game box, USB game cartridge, color manual, and original soundtrack. However, IndieBox will always come with other collector’s items related to the specific game featured each month. Some of the past items have been posters, buttons, stickers, static cling decals, keychains, etc."

[HammR25]

The cool thing about getting older is things become brand new again in a much shorter amount of time.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/226153-indiebox-for-the-physical-copy-die-hards/

[cimerians]

First the mind goes........then.........

 

[jhd]

The concept is interesting, but some of us have very narrow gaming interests, e.g. I love RPGs but I do not much care for platfomers... I am not keen on the idea of buying a random game every month that I may not actually like.

 

Shipping to Canada is also painfully expensive.

[bretthorror]

I dunno how many others on here use this service, but I figured I'd ask this here in case people didn't know or if they had an opinion on it. Indiebox is now switching to CDs for their games rather than USB flash drives. Initially, I thought CDs would be better, but after subscribing, I learned to love the drive. If they are doing it because sometimes games would be corrupt on the drives, I get it, though. It's just if a CD, disc case, disc art and back art end up costing as much as the usb drives, I think a cool feature is lost for bullshit jewel cases that always broke back in the day and we all hated or regular Blu-ray/DVD cases we already use for everything else. I'm sure they'll cook up some fancy ways to present the discs.

 

End of the day, I guess I'm pretty indecisive. I'm not too impressed with the switch since my new-ish computer doesn't even have a CD drive. I'm sure an external DVD drive isn't much, but it seems like it's a step backwards when modern PCs aren't coming with drives to be releasing physical games on the format. At least the USB method was something everyone could easily use.

[StopDrop&Retro]

What?!? I didn't hear about that. That sucks! They had just implemented those USB sticks with the cool designs, that was one of my favorite things about the recent boxes and now they're backing off that.

 

Damn it. I took part in that survey they sent out and got a bad vibe from it that they were either going to start charging more or delivering less. I have a bad feeling about this. My renewal is this month but if they really start to slip on other extras I might consider canceling.

[cimerians]

I tried it for a little while. I figured I just don't have the room even though I think its a very cool idea.

 

For CD fans, this is really good for making your own covers:

 

http://www.steamgamecovers.com/

[bretthorror]

What?!? I didn't hear about that. That sucks! They had just implemented those USB sticks with the cool designs, that was one of my favorite things about the recent boxes and now they're backing off that.

 

Damn it. I took part in that survey they sent out and got a bad vibe from it that they were either going to start charging more or delivering less. I have a bad feeling about this. My renewal is this month but if they really start to slip on other extras I might consider canceling.

 

I did the survey as well. Had hoped money that went into stickers and soundtracks could go into other things. I just don't know if a CD soundtrack is necessary today to anyone, but obviously that survey told them people wanted them.

 

I got the vibe that they were just wanting to be re-assured the people liked the figures being put in the boxes, since now so much of the box is completely reliant on that one item. I still think they do a great job for the value, it just is kind of strange to go through the trouble to (maybe) make a pristine CD jewel case copy and put it in a big cardboard style box that retro gamers enjoy. It's like they're putting effort into the same idea twice. If they merely included a nice cardboard sleeve to be cheap and had the money go into other items, I'd be ok with it. The USB drive doubles as art, a figure/display piece and "cartridge", so I thought it worked well.

[Noah98]

Just curious, where did they confirm that they are not using USB anymore? I was interested in subscribing until I saw this thread. I really don't "collect" disc based games anymore.

[bretthorror]

It was in their latest update on YouTube.

[TPA5]

I think it's a really cool idea, especially since I don't do much triple-A gaming anymore, but the bum Canadian dollar makes it really expensive. By the time shipping is considered it would cost $250 for a 6-month subscription. Love the idea of a physical box though.

[Flojomojo]

What are your thoughts about having a "surprise" in your subscription "crate" every month? Personally, I don't like this kind of surprise anymore. I have more indie games than time or attention nowadays, so I prefer to choose what I spend my time and money on. I no longer enjoy the fun of seeing what this month might bring.

[bretthorror]

I noticed recent boxes are limited to 5000 whereas a few prior were all limited to 6500. Maybe that played a role in the switch to discs as well?

 

I'm less keen on the trinkets in IndieBox now since they've decided to mainly do figures. I know the majority of the people like this, but I'd rather have stuff someone can kind of use. Even the Freedom Planet wallet, albeit way, way too loud and childlike, it was a cool idea. It's kind of tough to appreciate figures and whatnot before you actually play the game. Since I subbed, of course, they haven't included controllers like they used to and I thought that was great. I'd rather have 12 custom themed controllers than most of the other stuff they have in the boxes. I also liked they had a lot of Metroidvania style games when they started, now everything seems to be rogue shooter styles or just plain weird games that don't have much mainstream appeal ala Armello or Hand of Fate.

 

I'd prefer fridge magnets, shot glasses, ash trays, coasters, tins, coozies, breath mint containers, candies, etc. I'm more practical, but I realize most people would rather get a giggle out of the heart necklace from Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime rather than have something you could actually use. I'm not really of the nerd culture toys/cute bullshit demographic.

 

I'm mostly in it for the box, game and manual. All the other stuff is a bonus.

[bretthorror]

Another wee update, I just noticed that IndieBox is changing their subscription models making you pay for 12 months in advance to get the $19.99 + shipping price point. Even with my grandfathering discount (if that still applies), with the terrible Canadian exchange rate and higher shipping, I'm looking at $320 Canadian to get my package shipped to a US address. I was thinking of switching it to Canada shipping so less hassle, and that'd be $400 to drop at one time for 12 months of indie games. I don't think I'll be re-subscribing. I'm a lot more comfortable now at purchasing the 2 games I really want at full price than tagging along month to month now. If I'm gonna drop that big of an amount of money at once, I could get some seriously cool items. I think they are pricing themselves out of subscribers the desperately need for the service to give the most to everyone now for the much, much safer monthly pick.

 

To me, getting two boxes per year "free" in comparison to buying the 10 I want most isn't really enticing to me. And that's IF I even wanted 10. One of the boxes this year won't even run on my PC and another, Armello... I just would never play. So, to me, that already says to buy them as they come along now. The only thing that has me contemplating is if they honor their word on making old subs pay the old price (they likely will, just sayin'). But I'm still thinking monthly is the better way to go, even throwing my discount aside.

 

It's still an OK deal for Americans, but this Canuck has just been priced out of the equation. I will always support them with legit releases I want, but I think they're putting the price on these a little high.

[StopDrop&Retro]

That sucks, but I have to agree with you, the price hike after the exchange diminishes the value there.

[bretthorror]

That sucks, but I have to agree with you, the price hike after the exchange diminishes the value there.

 

I'm worried about less guaranteed monthly subscribers at yet another price hike in the last six months meaning the quality of the boxes go down because of less wholesale price per item deals.

 

I could be overreacting or completely wrong, but I find it hard that people into indie games will have the standard $285 USD sitting around for a yearly subscription. It's a lot of dough to put up in advance to any small company.

[Mord]

 

I'm worried about less guaranteed monthly subscribers at yet another price hike in the last six months meaning the quality of the boxes go down because of less wholesale price per item deals.

 

I could be overreacting or completely wrong, but I find it hard that people into indie games will have the standard $285 USD sitting around for a yearly subscription. It's a lot of dough to put up in advance to any small company.

 

I'd agree that it's a lot of money to put in -advance- although I suppose if you started saving a bit for a year first you'd be sitting pretty. Per monthly cost it ends up far more reasonable, but then again that also depends entirely on what games they're boxing up over the year. Ultimately I hope they plan for the likely shift of a chunk of their yearly subscribers doing the same as yourself - just buying the couple of games that actually interest you during the year. Then again they could probably mediate a portion of the damage if they do like what gaijin works does when they go releasing limited run physical editions - include a coupon code for a digital download as well. (No idea if they already do this or not mind you - I haven't actually ordered a box before. They've only had a couple I'm aware of that I was interested in anyway, and was always either too late or too poor to order them at the time.)

 

While the people buying from them are doing it for the physical box, having increased chances of playing the actual game anyway (especially if dvd-drives aren't standard equipment on new computers these days) would help keep some of the displeasure with the change to discs in check.

[bretthorror]

 

I'd agree that it's a lot of money to put in -advance- although I suppose if you started saving a bit for a year first you'd be sitting pretty. Per monthly cost it ends up far more reasonable, but then again that also depends entirely on what games they're boxing up over the year. Ultimately I hope they plan for the likely shift of a chunk of their yearly subscribers doing the same as yourself - just buying the couple of games that actually interest you during the year. Then again they could probably mediate a portion of the damage if they do like what gaijin works does when they go releasing limited run physical editions - include a coupon code for a digital download as well. (No idea if they already do this or not mind you - I haven't actually ordered a box before. They've only had a couple I'm aware of that I was interested in anyway, and was always either too late or too poor to order them at the time.)

 

While the people buying from them are doing it for the physical box, having increased chances of playing the actual game anyway (especially if dvd-drives aren't standard equipment on new computers these days) would help keep some of the displeasure with the change to discs in check.

 

I have nothing to believe Indie Box would ever go out of business or they don't know what they're doing, but there's also still a chance you lose that dough paying up front.

 

All games do come with a Steam key. In theory, the value is still there for Americans, but I just dunno if a blind game subscription service should hit that high. And, I get I'm a Canadian and I gotta deal with exchange, but I still wonder how many will put that kind of dough up in advance. Or, they could just stick with the 6 month deal, I suppose, as the most popular, getting another couple bucks from subscribers. The purpose of paying a year in advance is to get a good deal in comparison to the monthly rate. This really doesn't do that, in my opinion, to take the good with the bad when you could just get all the aces from them and save cash. it's no surprise they didn't raise the one off price because $28.99 shipped is perfectly acceptable for a game you know you want and any more than that... you're teetering into the "meh, I'll just get it digital for $11.99 instead" territory . They're kinda raking their most loyal over the coals the way they're doing it. Not to mention, in the case of Dust that they released... I literally already owned the game. I started my sub because the price was barely more than the digital copy. Now they're going to the realm where it's costing more than double.

 

It's no big deal, I found the games they released before I subbed we a lot more interesting than the ones they've released lately. The ones since Axiom Verge/Freedom Planet have all been weird games or rogue shooters. Not bad, but they had so many great Metroidvania style games before and I like the more retro flair.

[bretthorror]

So I finally opened four IndieBoxes that I had here and the Moon Hunters one was really cool because of the amazing USB drive, but Hand of Fate was a total embarrassment. It was a shitty paper sleeve case with a custom designed deck of cards and a little pouch... and that was it. What the fuck are they doing? How did they release better boxes when they charged less for the service?

 

I'm not gonna spoil what's in Stanley as I know StopDrop frequents this thread and makes videos of them, but it's the same shit. There's next to nothing in the box. What's in the box is... ok, I guess. I mean, I dunno? I just don't see how they lose the custom USB drive which has to cost more than disc based games and have less in the box? Or maybe these items cost more, but really don't add much if you don't like the item. The Moon Hunters USB drive was so fucking dope, that's what they should have done all along. Combined USB drive and figure piece in one. Thankfully, they have a better presentation for the disc based games this time around. They've also lost the individually numbered packaging, too.

 

The forthcoming box will be my last. If a great game is released, I'll buy it on the monthly deal.

[StopDrop&Retro]

Did you guys hear the news?

 

https://www.theindiebox.com/

 

Today, with a heavy heart, we are announcing the end of an incredible journey of creating collector’s edition PC games through our IndieBox subscription service. Concluding with the shipping of Torchlight II: The Collector’s Edition, IndieBox will be shutting down its subscription service. While IndieBox isn’t going away, we are changing direction from what you primarily know as “IndieBox.”

IndieBox started in November of 2013 as the brainchild of three guys with a vision of creating a company that helped to bolster indie developers in an innovative way while they navigated the saturated market of digital distribution. Over the course of four years, IndieBox has produced over 40 collector’s edition indie PC games for its subscribers. We’ve been very fortunate to work with developers that love their games (and their fans) and have had great success at creating some truly fascinating works of art.

Together, each month, IndieBox has created a full retail product complete with custom pack-ins for 3000+ people. Every component was carefully designed in-house, sent to manufacturers, and then completely assembled here at our office. The end result is a numbered, fully shrink-wrapped, boxed edition of some of your (and our!) favorite indie games of all time. The work that is accomplished every month by each person on the IndieBox team is astonishing. Please take great care of your boxes, we put a lot of love into them.

Never fear! IndieBox is not shutting down; we are simply changing direction as a business. You may not know, but IndieBox has already been powering some of your favorite online stores for game developers (with a lot more coming!). Of course, we are saddened that the subscription model did not work out for us, but we are excited about the projects (including more collector’s editions) that are currently in production and can’t wait to share them with you!

If you are an active subscriber, we will automatically cancel your subscription and you will not be charged again. For those IndieBox family members that have additional months remaining on your plan, we will be taking care of you as well. Check your email as we’ll will be sending steps to conclude your account. Please note, if you ordered any of the monthly Banner Saga or Invisible Inc. add-ons, those are still going to ship and there are no actions needed on your part.

To our subscribers, from one-month’ers to those that have been subscribed since the first box. To our affiliates and partners. To every game developer featured in our service. To our friends and family. To past and present employees, contractors, and volunteers. To our phenomenal Chairman and investors. To James, Jason, and Hex – Thank you. Thank you for all of your support and your contributions to the service. Truly. You’ve inspired us every step of the way to constantly improve, question, revamp, and celebrate. You made this subscription service possible. It has been an absolute pleasure serving you and our community of subscribers and we are looking forward to the road ahead.

Thank you.

The IndieBox Team