Afterfall: InSanity – An Unrealistic Goal?

 In a market where the $60 price tag is standard fare, indie studio Nicolas Games sets out to break the mold with a relatively large gamble. Afterfall: InSanity is a survival horror game with high production values that is quite worthy of a higher price tag, but is selling for the very attractive price of $1. The catch? Ten million people have to preorder it before November 25, 2011.

 Ten million purchases is a very hefty figure usually reserved mostly to AAA franchises like Call of Duty. However, when one looks at it in the context of the wildly successful Angry Birds franchise which has topped 100 million sales at the very same price, the goal becomes less impossible. Could a game with much higher production values than Angry Birds possibly succeed in such a fashion? Relying almost exclusively on word-of-mouth advertisement, Nicolas Games are quite optimistic that their product will do just that.

 You may be asking yourself what will happen to your dollar if that goal is not achieved. Nicolas Games pledges to donate every cent of pre-order earnings to charity if the preorder count is under ten million, and will still sell the game for $33.90. Your dollar is essentially going to charity, and if there’s enough dollars by November 25, you get a free game for your contributions and 10% of the proceeds will go to charity instead of 100%.

 In such a small amount of time, it is likely that Afterfall: InSanity will end up selling for its intended price. However, the gaming community has proven time and time again that it is one of the most charitable groups in the world, and perhaps this indie game will prove pessimists wrong and raise money for charity in the process.