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If you can sell more than a million dollars of digital goods twice, I like your chances at finding a scalable model. The solution space is multidimensional but I think lots of the options in it win. (e.g. Dump the tip, charge developers 30%, do it weekly, optimize aggressively, etc.)

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I disagree, this is more milliondollarhomepage than anything else. Sure, they could make money like the way Steam do (http://store.steampowered.com) but not with this specific model. There is legs in the bundle model, but I don't think it requires any investment... it's a 0 capital start up, they've made their name so when they approach other indie developers they can work based on their name alone.

I would however seriously hope they don't do what you're suggesting (weekly) the idea has very limited usage, there are a finite number of games out there and a finite amount of interest, this works based on the publicity ("Viral marketing") and not just the idea. Take a look at appsumo for an idea, their bundles are crap now (compared to what I as an "early adopter" got accustomed to) and most lost interest.

This is not an idea to milk.

Time will tell either way. I suspect the end result of this will be different then either of you have envisioned. All that can be said today is that the experiment is by any measure reasonably successful and there is potential there to go bigger in some capacity.

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