So they went to the popular crowd- funding site Kickstarter and appealed to their followers to donate funds so they could launch a print magazine.
“Gamers don’t read. You’ve probably thought that. Or read it maybe. Or overheard it,” wrote the KillScreen team. “Well, if not, then we’re telling this to you now. What we hear is that people who ‘play games’ are too immature, too uneducated, and too short-attentioned to focus on anything other than the killing, robbing, and leveling up. Feelings? Reflection? Discourse? No, thank you. “We can do better,” the KillScreen team insisted.
“We want to be what early Rolling Stone
was to rock n’ roll orWired was to tech. We want to look like the Fader and walk like the Believer. We’re talking about the long format read on the creative minds behind (top rated) AAA and indie game titles.
approach to a beloved medium led by folks who’ve written for the New Yorker, GQ, the Daily Show, Christian Science Monitor, LA Times, the Colbert Report, the Onion, Paste, alongside some lovely photos and even a poster or two! We promise to keep explosions to a bare minimum and limit fawning praise for Modern Warfare 2 to a giggle.”
The Kill Screen Kickstarter goal was just $3,500; they raised almost $6,000. They launched in March of 2010 and now quarterly produce 100-plus pages of gaming-related pieces. Most issues sell out. With a print run of less than 10,000, a subscription is almost the only way to guarantee getting a copy.
And, they proved their point. Even among the demographic that
is ridiculed as non-readers or, at best, digital-only readers, Kill Screen has found enthusiastic backers and print subscribers.