[casual_games] Manifesto Games to shut down. ;(

[Aaron Murray]

Wow - sorry to hear about that Oscar. I wish you the best in your
next endeavor. I know how we entrepreneurs can take business closures like
this as personal failures, so take a break, keep your head up for lasting 4
years, and hit the next one hard.
-Aaron

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 8:25 AM, oscar is oscar <oscar.oscar.oscar at gmail.com

> wrote:



> Sad day for people trying to create a viable independent channel for games.

>

>

>

> http://www.manifestogames.com/node/5151

>

> So as of today, I'm shutting down Manifesto Games.

>

> We started in September 05 because we thought that a combination of trends

> made it feasible to create a market for independently developed games

> outside conventional retail. The spread of broadband makes digital

> distribution even of quite large games feasible; growing disenchantment on

> the part of developers with the conditions of the mainstream industry mean

> many are looking for *any* possible alternative path to market; and the

> casual game market had already shown that substantial businesses could be

> built around selling games online -- games with characteristics quite

> different from those offered by the traditional industry.

>

> Clearly, we haven't succeeded in realizing that vision. There are a host of

> possible reasons why; perhaps we launched with an excess of naïve optimism,

> through of course a surfeit of optimism is an entrepreneurial necessity. We

> did not achieve the critical mass of support by independent developers that

> we had initially envisioned (some of whom, bizarrely, viewed us as a

> competitor), though we appreciate the strong and enduring support we

> received from some. We always knew that the essential problem we were trying

> to solve was a marketing one, but we never figured out how to crack the

> marketing nut, at least with the minimal financial resources we had

> available. We failed to raise substantial venture money, despite engaging

> with many VCs over time. And of course, the recession doesn't help.

>

> In the years since we started the company, there have been hopeful change

> in the independent games market; Steam has become a profitable and viable

> channel for some developers, XBLA and WiiWare for others, and the iPhone for

> still others. In addition, the casual game market has started to experiment

> with a small handful of titles that break the inordinately restrictive genre

> mold of that form. Attention paid to independent games by the games media

> has grown (though why is it that the Independent Film Channel covers the

> AIAS awards, and not the IGF awards?)

>

> These are all positive signs, but they are dangerous ones, too; Apple,

> Microsoft, and Nintendo have complete, monopolistic control over

> distribution through their proprietary channels, and while they may, today,

> generously grant a high revenue share to developers who sell through them,

> developers are in the final analysis utterly at their mercy. There's no

> question in my mind that ultimately the channel owners will someday use

> their total control to demand an increasingly onerous share of revenues -- a

> pattern we've already seen in the casual game market, and through channels

> like IPlay/Oberon. The same is true, perhaps to a somewhat lesser degree, of

> Steam.

>

> In short, if a viable business ecosystem for independent games is to be

> established, it needs to be established on the basis of open systems and

> open markets, not proprietary channels. And that, I think, is inevitable;

> the whole history of the Internet shows that open systems and open channels

> rule.

>

> Perhaps we didn't figure out the right way to crack this nut; and perhaps

> we were simply too early. "Being too early" is, in fact, much of the story

> of my career; I designed the single most successful online game for its time

> -- in 1989; and founded one of the first North American mobile game

> companies -- in 2000. In both cases, four years later would have made a

> world of difference.

>

> I suspect (and hope) that this will be true of independent games as well --

> that within four years, it will be a large, fast-growing, and highly

> successful segment of the game industry. In other words, Manifesto may be

> dead, but in many ways this is an excellent time to be an independent game

> developer, and the potential we saw when we founded the company remains.

>

> I am grateful to all of the many people who helped us over the tumultuous

> years of our existence, but in particular to the people who worked directly

> with me -- Bill Folsom, Nathan Solomon, Eleanor Lang, and Johnny Wilson,

> each of whom contributed literally thousands of hours, almost all of then

> unpaid, to the venture. And also to Eric Goldberg and Kathy Schoback, both

> of whom were generous in sharing contacts and advice; and to our lawyer, Don

> Karl at Perkins Coie, who took us on knowing we were an unfunded and highly

> chancy venture and stood by us stalwartly.

>

> To those who cheered for us and shared our vision of a thriving game market

> that rewards creative vision instead of licensed drivel and repetitive

> 'franchise' remakes, a place for exploratory design to uncover the true

> capabilities of the *ars ludorum*, a commercial channel where imaginative

> game creators can make a reasonable living on a far smaller scale than the

> conventional market, a future for more than the handful of genres the major

> publishers deem worth funding -- don't give up the faith. It will happen.

> One company's loss won't change that. The creative heritage of games will

> endure.

>

> *N.B.:* Play This Thing! <http://playthisthing.com/> will continue; and at

> least for now, the Manifesto site will remain up. Payment functionality has

> been turned off, however, and all demo download and buy now links lead to

> the developers or other places the games on the site can be found.

>

>

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>



-- 
Aaron Murray
Technical Director, Founder
Tandem Games
www.TandemGames.com
www.DomainOfHeroes.com
"Fun for All. All for Fun."
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