[casual_games] Manifesto Games to shut down. ;(

[oscar is oscar]

^_^

Thank you for your well wishes... but Manifesto Games isn't mine... its Greg
Costikyan's company... All lamentations should be directed to him and his
team.

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 11:23 AM, Aaron Murray <aaron at tandemgames.com>wrote:


> 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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