I want to see Brad now... :D Wonder what he'll say about his games being released on Steam. :D

Important sure, but not enough that a couple failed games would require the sale of a whole division.

Stardock has always had most of their income from sale of software such as Windows Blinds. I kind of wonder if Aero is finally eating into their profits now that Windows has finally caught up to where the rest of the UI world has been for 8 years or so. I get the feeling that a lot of their ability to do the whole risky game publishing thing was a direct result of having a stable, financial backer, themselves.

Impulse surely must be a money sink and its uselessness outside the US must hurt them a ton. "Their" games which have blown lately haven't even been theirs, they've been games they've underwritten as exclusives. I kind of wonder wtf the people at Stardock who actually make games have been doing lately.

Stardock seems better at the whole singleplayer experience and has usually delivered a solid product in said context. I'd like to see them give that one more go, I've bought everything they've done through Sins except maybe some odd expac.
I didn't track Elemental, but I know Demigod was not their project. I think Elemental was someone else too.

You never know. It seems they were putting a lot of hopes in Elemental in particular. Companies can be fragile when they're mismanaged, and Brad Wardell, considering his failures at communication, didn't strike me as a very good businessman.

Of course, I could definitely be wrong and it could just be a strategic decision to refocus on their core activities. Or maybe just taking advantage of a really juicy offer.

Either way, we'll see what comes of it in the coming months. I hope it will result in improvements on both sides, but I'm not holding my breath, especially for Impulse, knowing what I know about I Gamestop.

It'll be worse, I can almost guarantee that. It's a good thing I don't care if I ever play Demigod again because it won't be long before that client turns into ad ridden/borderline spyware crap. I hope Stardock will start offering their game patches and updates for our boxed copies via an alternate channel again.

Meh...maybe it'll work out for the better. Honestly cant say i like Impulse in general. Only reason ive ever bought from them is if they amazingly have something cheaper then either Steam, GG or GoG, which is not very often. On a whole ive never really been impressed with Impulse but that mostly because i have to go through Paypal to buy anything of their site. Hopefully the three games i have there (Darkstar One, Space Hack and Chosen: Well of Souls) will be fine. But i believe i can buy Darkstar One here anyway, so im not too worried about it.

They should, unless their agreement with Gamestop includes an exclusivity clause, which would be bad.
I was interested in buying Elemental when the expansion came out provided it wasn't buggy. I just hope it won't remain tied to Impulse.

So Stardock are quitting the Direct Download business. Excuse me while I have a little laugh.

I would assume they wanted to re-brand it and will eventually merge the two, if the IGN store is successful.

Mind if I join? :D

EDIT: Stardock lost me as a customer when they turned their back on us Europeans.

IGN is NewCorp, you can't assume that anything Rupert Murdoch's company does will make any kind of sense.

I'm having some fun on twitter. I gloated about them leaving DD and sure enough the employees are are getting involved and twisting my words. Fun.

Damn, I hate social media but I might make an exception this time, link?

Personally I welcome our new Gamestop overlords. I've got no experience with the company but I don't see how they could be worse. When it comes down to it there's a fair chance that they'll be a lot less outright xenophobic than Stardock and perhaps a bit more interested in stopping publishers doing whatever the fuck they like to their customers.

Possibly. But like I said it's not about to get a lot worse for non-US customers. They're keeping their games but not Impulse. Paradox games started appearing elsewhere once they separated from Gamersgate. Some even use Steamworks now.

@curtHendzell on obviously twitter.com.