What If Indie Games Got Collector's Editions, Too?

Ah, the Collector's Edition – a publisher's attempt at extracting even more money out of your unsuspecting wallet. There's always been something ever so slightly insidious about the extortionate box sets that almost all AAA titles command, but what if they were crowdfunded, reasonably priced – and designed to tie in with critically acclaimed indie games? That's where Gamer's Editions come in.

A new initiative from our overlords at the Gamer Network – there's your disclaimer, you demanding lot – we actually think that this sounds pretty cool, and not because we've been paid to say so. Starting out on PC for Papers, Please and Hotline Miami, the idea is that you'll be able to place a deposit on some nifty, one-of-a-kind merchandise for your favourite digital games.

Production will only commence when enough money to cover the manufacturing process has been raised, so it's a pretty risk-free endeavour all around; small studios will be able to ensure that they can actually afford to fund the goodies, while fans will never find themselves out of pocket like on Kickstarter or other similar donations-based websites.

There's nothing for PlayStation just yet, but we could certainly see Sony getting onboard. The aforementioned Hotline Miami set, for example – which includes both games, a C90 soundtrack mixtape, a comic, trading cards, and spray paint stencils – includes Steam codes for both entries in Dennaton's murder-'em-up, but there's no reason why they couldn't be replaced with PSN vouchers.

"Gamer's Edition was set up to create awesome Collector's Editions for games that previously couldn't deliver them," beamed Jon Hicks, who's heading up the project. "We realised that digitally-distributed indie games were taking up almost as much of our gaming time as the megabucks AAA stuff, but they didn't have much in the way of cooler toys or accessories because the developers don't have the time or the resources to create them."

Now there's an avenue for those smaller developers to take, and the Gamer's Edition team will be scouting for new titles at EGX Rezzed later this week. You can find out more about the whole initiative through here, so do have a browse if you're interested. Are there any digital games that you reckon deserve a Collector's Edition? Bring on the Gang Beasts goodies in the comments section below.