The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth experienced a large volume of pre-sales in its first three days of availability on Steam, according to a post made on bindingofisaac.com Monday. The post goes on to describe the sales volume of Rebirth to be triple the release day sales volume of a recent AAA PC release. Monday's post gives a side-by-side comparison of graphics between 2011's The Binding of Isaac and Rebirth as well as a brief description of filtering features available when Rebirth hits Steam on November 4.
The Binding of Isaac is a 2D roguelike action shooter game that is equal parts The Legend of Zelda dungeon running and Robotron 2084 bullet hell. The floor layouts, rooms, enemies, bosses, and items are all randomly generated. BoI was developed by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl in Flash and released on Steam in September 2011. An expansion to BoI released in May 2012, Wrath of the Lamb, expanded on the content of the original by adding more items, bosses, enemies, levels, playable characters, and secrets. Rebirth is BoI reimagined. Flash and the technical limitations that come with it are out. Nicalis, Inc, developer and publisher of 1001 Spikes, is in as co-developer and publisher for Rebirth.
Isaac has small but active speed running and racing communities. Binding of Isaac League Racing (BoILeR) and the Balls of Steel (BoS) tournament are organized, competitive events among hardcore Isaac players. Speed runners can be found on Twitch and Speed Runs Live broadcasting races and daily attempts at breaking the 7 character speed run world record, currently held by Ognos at 2:09:42.
The strong sales news for The Binding of Issac: Rebirth is a shot in the arm for an independent games development scene that's come under fire recently due to information revealed related to allegations of corruption in games media known on social media as #Gamergate.
The Binding of Issac and Wrath of the Lamb are currently available on Steam for $4.99 and $2.99, respectively. Rebirth is available for pre-order on Steam for $15. Players who own the original Binding of Isaac on Steam and pre-order Rebirth receive a 33% discount. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth will also be available on Playstation 4 and Vita on November 4th. You can check out the entire bindingofisaac.com blog post by following this link.