In an earlier post, we examined how Nine Inch Nails achieved greater success by giving their albums away. Last week, indie developer 2D Boy tried something similar, allowing customers to name their own price to download the studio’s popular PC game, World of Goo. This week, 2D Boy announced the results, calling it “a huge success.” As a result, 2D Boy extended to promotion through to the end of the week, as the company’s servers try to cope with the demand. As of today, many customers are being greeted with the following message:
The Birthday Sale has made our poor little server VERY busy. Try loading this page again in a few minutes, or even a few hours later if you want to be extra nice while we scramble to get more mirrors up. Thank you, from both the 2DBOYS!
According to our rough estimate, 2D Boy pulled in more than $100,000 in a week that also saw sales rise by as much as 40% through official retail channels, such as Steam. World of Goo is offered free of DRM, although the download site includes a message politely asking customers to not share the game through file sharing sites.
Prof. 
