The Humble Indie Bundle, a pay-what-you-want pack of indie games whose proceeds go entirely to charity, is truly an amazing deal. It's unsurprising that it continues to make money hand over fist with its every inception. The recent Humble Indie Bundle 7, featuring The Binding of Isaac with Wrath of the Lamb DLC, Closure, Shank 2, Snapshot, and Indie Game: The Movie, will likely be no exception. While the games are available across PC, Mac OS X, and Linux, one platform could not be secured across them all. In a new Formspring question, creator of The Binding of Isaac Edmund McMillen reveals why.
As it turns out, the folks at Ubuntu are a bit lacking in the business ethics department. When asked by a fan why he "declined to make [Binding of Isaac] available" on Ubuntu (as they put it), McMillen says he made the decision for good reason: theft. In the past, Ubuntu sold Super Meat Boy for a full year without permission and without compensation:
we didnt find this out till a few months ago and had to contact them directly about it in order to get our payment…. i dont trust or respect their actions and wont be working with them ever again.
Hilariously, he also notes that The Binding of Isaac was originally rejected by Ubuntu as "not a good fit" for their store, a decision they later reversed when the inclusion of Binding of Isaac on the Humble Indie Bundle forced them to realize how popular it is. I don't blame McMillen for wanting to clear the air.
