Gangsters

Gangsters: Organized Crime
Developer(s)	Hothouse Creations
Publisher(s)	Eidos Interactive
Designer(s)	Martin Capel
Composer(s)	David Punshon & Richard Wells Allister Brimble
Platform(s)	Windows
Release	EU: December 4, 1998[2] NA: December 7, 1998[1]
Genre(s)	Strategy
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Gangsters: Organized Crime, also known as Gangsters, is a strategy game by Eidos Interactive for Windows, first released in 1998, and re-released in 2012 on GOG.com. It is set in the fictional Chicago suburb of New Temperance during the era of Prohibition. A sequel, Gangsters 2: Vendetta, was released by Eidos in 2001.

Gangsters is played by alternating between turn-based and real-time gameplay. The player must first give orders to the gangsters (referred to as "hoods") under their control, which are then played out during the real-time aspect of the game (referred to as the working week).

To have any chance of winning the game, the player must begin expanding their territory by giving hoods orders to extort local businesses into paying protection money to the gang each week and making sure it's collected on time. The player must also begin recruiting more hoods to increase the strength of their gang by giving the appropriate orders. Additional hoods can be recruited from gyms, pool halls, cafés, the docks, and the unemployment office.

The hoods have many different attributes, such as intelligence, fists, and knives, which make them suitable for different missions. A hood with high knife skill and low fists skill may inadvertently kill someone he was merely sent to beat up, for instance. Hoods can be promoted to the rank of "lieutenant", which gives them the ability to lead a crew of hoods. It is also possible to hire a lawyer and an accountant. There are different automobiles and weapons that can be purchased so the gang can carry out orders more effectively.

To support the mob's activities, the player will need to handle administrative responsibilities to ensure a steady flow of cash. This can be done through the purchase of both legal and illegal businesses, maintaining protection rackets, raiding businesses, and bribing or employing the appropriate people to keep the gang out of trouble with the law. A lawyer can ensure that arrested hoods are bailed out or acquitted of criminal charges, while an accountant can launder the mob's finances, commit tax evasion without getting caught, and audit the player's businesses in case the hoods running them are stealing from the mob (in which case they must be dealt with promptly). The FBI can start investigating the player's businesses if they aren't run well enough to avoid attention, resulting in costly shutdowns and "heat" towards the player which can eventually result in their downfall.

The game has three victory conditions with varying degrees of difficulty, from easiest to hardest:

• Go Straight: This requires the player to pull in a good sum of purely legal money from legitimate businesses, ensure that none of their hoods are wanted by the police, and avoid "heat" entirely. Eventually, the player can choose to retire from the life of crime that paved their way to success and convert their criminal enterprises into a legitimate business empire. Rival gangs are the main threat to this goal as their attacks on the player's territory can force the player to make difficult choices that can ruin their chances of going straight.
• Get Elected Mayor: This requires the player to win the upcoming mayoral election, requiring a good lawyer to manage their campaign, a lot of money for campaign expenses, a sizable amount of territory, and enough votes. The player needs to keep their potential voters happy by not collecting too much protection money, efficiently protecting the neighborhood from rival gangs while staying out of trouble themselves, and setting up charitable enterprises such as soup kitchens. Owning certain illegal businesses can give a substantial boost to votes as well.
• Domination: This is the hardest yet least complex way to win, requiring the player to destroy all rival gangs through force until only their gang remains. The difficulty comes from the huge amount of "heat" that will inevitably be generated by wars with the other gangs, the large number of hood casualties that will make it difficult for the player to protect their territory, and the risk of their properties and businesses being attacked, torched, or blown up. Although a war can sometimes be ended in a single blow by assassinating the boss of a rival gang, it is not a perfect solution as one of their hoods can simply take over as a replacement boss and continue the war.

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score GameRankings 72%[3] Review scores Publication Score CGSP [5] CGW [6] Game Informer 7/10[7] GameRevolution B−[8] GameSpot 5.5/10[9] IGN 8.5/10[10] Next Generation [11] PC Gamer (US) 82%[13] PC Zone 58%[14]

The game received above-average reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings.^[3] Next Generation said, "While there are some interface problems, a few design holes, and a sketchy manual, Gangsters becomes exactly what fans of this genre look for – something that keeps them up late at night."^[11]

The game was commercially successful.^[15][16] In the German market, it debuted in ninth place on Media Control's computer game sales rankings for the latter half of December 1998.^[17] The game proceeded to secure positions 8 and 11 for the first and second halves of January, respectively.^[18] Worldwide, the game sold 350,000 units by June 1999. This performance led Hothouse to begin production of a sequel, Gangsters 2.^[15] Sales of the game rose to 500,000 units by November. Hothouse attributed the majority of its sales to Germany, the UK and the U.S.^[16]

• MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.^[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".^[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.^[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.^[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.^[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.^[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.^[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.^[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.^[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.^[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).^[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,^[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.^[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.^[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.^[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.^[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.^[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.^[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.^[17]

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