A couple of months ago, I pointed you towards Greg C.’s rant about the necessity for destroying the current game publishing paradigm. At the time, it seemed like one of those very sensible ideas that, because they are very sensible, are never implemented or heard from again.
But then Costikyan put his money where his mouth was, resigning his job to launch Manifesto Games and hopefully fulfill the plan outlined in his Free Play keynote address. The new company is intended to be (or become) “a viable path to market for independent developers, and a more effective way of marketing and distributing niche PC game styles to gamers.”
I’m hoping he can branch out into cross-platform stuff at some point, especially given the promise of the new Xbox Live system for distributing content for micropayments, etc. In any case, it’s a bold move, and one that’s long overdue in the games industry. I hope like hell it works out for him and anybody else that gets involved. As a bonus, he intends to blog the process, to give gamers (and his potential customers) insight and input into how things go. This, too, is a bold move and one I look forward to seeing in action.
So keep your eyes on Costikyan’s blog…things could get very interesting in the world of game publishing, and it appears now that it could be sooner rather than later.
Image: Found at Independent Gaming Source.
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