Manifesto Games was an

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retailer of downloadable computer games, specializing in independently developed games aimed at hardcore gamers. It was founded in October 2005 by

Greg Costikyan Greg Costikyan (born July 22, 1959, in New York City), sometimes known under the pseudonym "Designer X", is an American game designer and science fiction writer. Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including: hex-based ...

and Dr. Johnny L. Wilson, former editor of ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through t ...

'', and is based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. The company was announced September 29, 2005. Costikyan was the company's CEO while Wilson was Executive Vice President for Community and Content. On June 23, 2009, Costikyan announced that Manifesto was closing its doors, citing the 2008-2009 economic downturn, a lack of venture capital, and problems successfully marketing the company as a destination for independent games. According to Manifesto Games' manifesto, the company aims to avoid the narrowness of conventional retail channels by selling a large number of games (taking advantage of

The Long Tail In statistics and business, a long tail of some distributions of numbers is the portion of the distribution having many occurrences far from the "head" or central part of the distribution. The distribution could involve popularities, random ...

), and allow developers to experiment technically and artistically. An example of Manifesto Games' willingness to take risks is its support of ''

Super Columbine Massacre RPG! ''Super Columbine Massacre RPG!'' is a role-playing video game created by Danny Ledonne and released in April 2005. The game recreates the 1999 Columbine High School shootings near Littleton, Colorado. Players assume the roles of gunmen Eric H ...

''. Review and free download link for ''

''. The Manifesto Games website was originally designed in ironic imitation of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

in its early years; some of its content still reflects this choice.

Play This Thing

Initially, Manifesto Games also provided reviews of indie games, including games it does not sell, and

discussion forums An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...

. In September 2007, Manifesto Games created a new game review website, Play This Thing. A team of reviewers including

and

Emily Short Emily Short is an interactive fiction (IF) writer. She is perhaps best known for her debut game '' Galatea'' and her use of psychologically complex non-player characters (NPCs). Short has been called "a visionary in the world of text-based gam ...

posted one review per day at the website, covering independent, alternative reality and 'big urban' games, interactive fiction, and mods. Most of the games reviewed had no relation to Manifesto Games. The site carried reviews of non-computer games on "Tabletop Tuesdays". The site was shut down in 2014.

References

External links

ManifestoGames.com
Video game companies of the United States Online-only retailers of video games Video game companies established in 2005 Companies based in New York City {{US-videogame-company-stub