They actually specifically stated it'll still be tied to Impulse for the foreseeable future.

But who exactly will fall for that? Don't you think that's way too high a price just to be able to sell your game on a third-level digital distribution system that won't even sell many games to many parts of the world? After all, I don't think there's THAT many people who use Impulse but refuse to go anywhere near Steam, D2D or any other DD services. Tying yourself to Steam is fine for the moment because, well, it has the lion's share of the market. But to a system that has under 10% of exclusive users? I'll consider it when I decide to aim for bankruptcy.

And the issue with this is, the "foreseeable future" might as well be until may or June. I've read enough times of companies, gaming companies even, stating things won't change in said time only to announce the very changes that were rumoured three months later. Stardock, obviously, can't start immediately saying they'll go to other systems, simply because Impulse minus Stardock is a good way of saying it'll go bankrupt, which wouldn't really make the gestapo (ehh gamestop) people happy. That, however, doesn't mean they don't want to expand -- they just can't make such an idea public yet.

People who fall for retailer exclusive DLC will fall for it. I didn't mean exclusive games, I meant exclusive bonuses with Impulse games.

Since Steam already does this from time to time and it's a common Gamestop tactic on boxed copies I would FULLY expect this to happen in the future on a regular basis, which really sucks.

What I meant was, what developer/publisher in their right mind would give Impulse/Gestapo (Sorry, gamestop) exclusivity on selling their game? Because that's the only thing that could actually make Impulse properly relevant nowadays, specially considering they're likely to lose the Stardock exclusivity. And as it stands, Impulse offers nothing at all over other DD systems like Steam.

Gamestop can and will exert their power over publishers to make Impulse a requirement no matter where you buy the game on certain titles, just like Steamworks is for many titles. That's pretty much the same as an exclusive, no matter where you buy X game you get Impulse.

There is no way Steam is in any way unbeatable. People have made the mistake of calling tons of companies unbeatable before and competition always comes around. In the game business alone look at Nintendo dominance followed by Sony dominance and now followed by Nintendo dominance again (with Xbox dominance in shooters).

Steam is the kind now, but strong competition from dedicated parties can easily knock them down. Microsoft didn't have their hearts in with Games for Windows Live... let's see if Gamestop does.

But there's the point, Steam isn't famous only for Steamworks games. Steam is the most used system because it reaches far and wide, and only a few games happen to be region-locked (Unless you live in Japan). Impulse is the opposite, most high profile games are US only, prices are too fluctuating/hard to understand (They insist on showing them on your country's currency rather than USD), no proper community system implemented, catalog is actually VERY lackluster when setting aside stardock games, finding what you want in the store is a pain and the system to manage your games isn't good at all. I love stardock, but Impulse, as it stands, is horribly weak, meaning that Gamestop, a company that isn't exactly known for being nice and open to sales (They won't sell anything to anyone outside the US) would need to heavily change how it works and invest a huge amount of money on top of what they already must've paid to acquire Impulse. I just can't see it working, I think it'd be much more likely for D2D to finally rise (and that'd be quite horrible) than for gamestop, out of all companies, to manage to obtain the lion's share of the market.

Also, the console dominance has been marked by generations, but PC gaming doesn't have generations on itself, just as retailers don't either. Nintendo lost dominance after SNES because of N64cards and gamecube fiasco. Sony lost dominance after PS2 because of ridiculously expensive PS3 and very few worthwhile exclusives. However, this doesn't happen on PC gaming. In consoles, the console that sells more is automatically the winner. However, that doesn't translate to any digital distribution methods. Forcing people to use your system won't make them love you (I've seen many, many people complain of steam after being forced to use it on steamworks games, and some even refusing to buy said games), a good system people can relate to makes them love you.

And as it stands, not many people can relate to Gamestop. Specially PC gamers.

I'm also wondering how they'll manage to turn a profit without a secondary market, considering their retail strategy consists on selling literally the same game 4 to 5 times, rebuying cheap and reselling expensive over and over.

You seem to be assuming Impulse will not change under Gamestop. I think you are very wrong in assuming that. The Impulse you see today will never topple Steam, but I am talking about the Impulse Gamestop could build over the next few years.

From what I can tell so far Impulse is going to take quite a hit over this initially.

Gamestop seems to be the antithesis of why a lot of people used Impulse in the first place. (Support the little guy (stardock)), and no/little DRM ( I think)

GameStop even when combined with Impulse still have only fraction of marketshare of PC games compared to Steam (if current estimates are true, Steam has 80% marketshare of PC digital distribution and PC digital distribution is responsible for 60% of PC game sales). Add to this fact that developer/publisher get on average 30-35% of final price when game is sold via retail - on Steam (and other ESDs) developer/publisher get 70% of final price.

Also, many developers hate that retailers try to push their customers toward "used" games (from which developer/publisher dont get any money).

If GS demand making games tied to Impulse, they can easily get response "In that case no more games for you". Another problem for GS is that if GS try such thing Valve/Steam can easily kill such threat by refusing to sell games tied to Impulse (just like Impulse refuse to sell Steamworks games).

First, where did you get those figures from? Link or they're just another guesstimate.

Second, while Gamestop isn't big on the PC market, it is a major player in the US console market, which is one of the most profitable markets for many publishers.
They could perfectly well leverage that power into getting some advantages for Impulse.

Excuse me , but who cares about the US console market ?

The publishers who make a lot of their money on it?

While YOU may not care about consoles, most big publishers do care about consoles a lot more than about the PC, as is obvious every time someone from EA or Activision opens their mouth.
And like it or not, those publishers are the same ones who produce most of the big games on the PC, and Gamestop does have some power over them.

It doesn't really matter how much power they have though. Demanding that the PC version of a game is tied to Impulse or else the game won't be sold at all by Gestapo is about the same as demanding that there be no PC version of it. At the end of the day, Gamestop is only a retailer, and they don't have such a huge power over publishers. EA, Microsoft and 2K might as well tell gamestop to go to hell and stop selling their games there, and guess what? That'd spell bankruptcy for Gamestop. Which would actually be a rather good thing in the end. From there on, publishers would simply need to look for another retailer to advertise -- helping it become big, and that'd be it. No gamestop and no impulse.

Point is, Gamestop, big as it is, is only ONE retailer. I don't think the whole industry will change its practices because a single retailer demanded something. And before anyone says it, there is a huge difference between asking for some exclusive items (that are generally created for Gamestop, Walmart, Amazon...) than demanding to be the only retailer you can get something from.

So wait, are they buying Stardock or just Impulse. I hope they stick with Stardock's stance on DRM either way. At least their own games don't have any.