The market for games is just radically different than it was in 2008. Braid had very high production values and a reasonably low price tag at a time where "quirky indie 2D puzzle platformer with interesting aesthetic and a mystery" wasn't yet a cliche. An indie game that got some traction could be hugely profitable. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore, although that might change if the position of the big studios continues to erode.
Braid is from the long bygone era where indie games were few and far between, steam was a closed platform, and you had to smooch up to journalists, the clique, IGF judges, attend conventions and grind your way up to being noticed by the closed platforms of the time.
Now your just a dude like the rest of them. Puzzle games are not known for the replay value. And replaying a puzzle game when theres so many amazing spanking new and not so new unplayed games... nah
Braid is sort of an evergreen game that new people are going to continuously discover for decades, and periodic refreshes are probably a good idea, but I would not expect it to ever be a big seller again.
Yeah. I can't help thinking that Braid 2 (maybe including a HD upgrade for Braid in the bundle) would have sold much better. Puzzle games are notoriously non-re-playable.
a similar thing happened to some flash games a couple years before that… I remember playing a tower defense game that the dev claimed was pulling in 6 figures a month with just a banner ad. People saw that and started making their own TD games.
