Kotaku: Stardock

Free of Impulse, Stardock Visits the Sins of a Solar Empire on Steam

Mike Fahey — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:20:00 EST

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Now that they've offloaded that pesky digital distribution platform, Stardock is free to spread its catalog to greener pastures, starting with today's release of Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity on Steam. More »

GameStop Buys Slightly Used Impulse, Spawn Labs

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:20:00 EDT

Game retailer GameStop is buying Impulse, the video game digital distribution subsidiary of Stardock and rival to Valve's Steam. GameStop also bought game streaming outfit Spawn Labs, which will bring "immediate access to a wide selection of high-definition video games on demand on any Internet-enabled device." Sure sounds like they're taking on OnLive. More details at the official announcement. More »

Sins Of A Solar Empire Spurs A Rebellious Expansion

Mike Fahey — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:30:00 EST

The intergalactic war of Ironclad Games' real-time strategy game Sins of a Solar Empire has gone on too long, prompting the game's third expansion, Rebellion, packed with new tech and ships capable of destroying entire fleets all by their lonesome. More »

Developer Turns To Mod Maker To Fix Broken Game

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 05:30:00 EDT

When a retail game from a noted PC developer launches and is then quickly found to be broken, who do you bring in to help fix things? In Stardock's case, they hired a guy who made mods for Civilization. More »

Sins of a Solar Empire Publisher Produces Free Vuvuzela-Buster

Owen Good — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 23:30:00 EDT

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We're two weeks into the World Cup and the obnoxious drone of the vuvuzela hasn't abated. Fear not, Stardock, which published Sins of a Solar Empire, made a free app that strips the horn's noise from streaming broadcasts. More »

Random House Wants To Write Video Game Stories

Mike Fahey — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:20:00 EST

The Random House Publishing Group is taking its storytelling expertise "one step further", forming a group dedicated to crafting original story content for video games and collaborating with developers on existing IP. like Stardock's Elemental: War of Magic. More »

Stardock: Steam Has 70% Of PC Download Market

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:00:00 EST

Just about everybody involved with digital distribution is coy when it comes to sales numbers. Nobody wants to give the game away. But that doesn't stop some - like publishers/online retailers Stardock - from trying to guess! More »

Stardock Boss Hauls off on Games for Windows Live

Owen Good — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:20:00 EDT

A recent apparent full-throated defense of Glenn Beck hasn't left Stardock CEO Brad Wardell with a shortage of vehemence. He lashed out at Games for Windows Live, its certification process and the payments it requires to keep games patched and running. More »

Elemental: War of Magic Impressions: There’s More To Might Than Magic

AJ Glasser — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:30:00 EDT

Elemental: War of Magic is a PC turn-based strategy game with a sweet map and a marriage alliance system that sounds like something from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. More »

Stardock Updating Impulse, Rolling Out Ready-to-Play

AJ Glasser — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:30:00 EDT

Even if you're a Steam loyalist, PC gamers, you've got to admit it's nice to have options. But Stardock's digital distribution service, Impulse, and its latest update aim to provide more than just competition. More »

Stardock Finally Spawns Demigod Demo

Mike Fahey — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:00:00 EDT

Three and a half months after its release, Stardock has finally figured out how to give PC gamers a small taste of Demigod gameplay with a multiplayer demo. More »

Stardock: Quick Everybody, Develop For Windows 7!

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:30:00 EDT

When Vista was released, few developers really wanted to take advantage of it. Most customers preferred XP, so most developers did, too. But could Windows 7 be different? More »

Stardock Sending Out Demigod Apology Coupons

Mike Fahey — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:40:00 EDT

Stardock has begun distributing the promised apology coupons, entitling players who've purchased the previously problem-riddled real-time strategy game Demigod to a second copy at 50% off. More »

What Went Wrong With Demigod

Mike Fahey — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:00:00 EDT

Stardock CEO Brad Wardell exhaustively details the whys and hows behind Demigod's crippling networking issues in a blog post aptly titled "Demigod: So what the hell happened?" More »

Demigod Network Issues Should Clear Up This Week

Mike Fahey — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:20:00 EDT

Stardock President and CEO Brad Wardell assures the Demigod community that networking issues should be clearing up this week, and everyone who bought the game is getting a coupon for another copy half-off. More »

Demigod Review: Aspiring To Godhood

Mike Fahey — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:30:00 EDT

Supreme Commander developer Gas Powered Games seeks to take online PC strategy games to a higher plane with the release of Demigod. More »

It May Be Safe To Play Demigod Now

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:30:00 EDT

Demigod had a regrettable launch. Too many pirates, server infrastructure couldn't cope. But after a week we're sure Stardock would rather forget, things are looking up! More »

Demigod: 18,000 Customers, 100,000 Pirates [Update]

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:30:00 EDT

Poor Demigod had a rocky launch. Mainly because there were too many people trying to play the game. And why were there too many people? Because there were five pirates for every paying customer. More »

GameStop Breaks Demigod Street Date, Ruins Stardock's Easter

Mike Fahey — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:20:00 EDT

A street date broken by GameStop late last week had Demigod publisher Stardock scrambling to get enough multiplayer matchmaking servers up to handle the sudden rush of players. More »

Stardock's Answer To DRM: Goo

Mike Fahey — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:20:00 EDT

With Steamworks' new CEG technology preparing to make DRM obsolete, Stardock has unveiled their own three-letter acronym answer to digital rights management: Goo. More »

Demigod: Battling With The Vampire Lord

Mike Fahey — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:00:00 EDT

Enough screenshots, let's take a look at Gas Powered Games real-time strategy game Demigod in action, as the Vampire Lord takes the field. More »

The Millionth Stardock Impulse User Wins A Gaming PC

Mike Fahey — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:00:00 EDT

Nearly a million users have signed up for Stardock's Impulse digital download program, and they're celebrating by giving out a $4,000 gaming PC to some fresh off the internet newcomer. More »

Jonathan Blow Lowers Price On PC Braid

Mike Fahey — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:30:00 EST

A day after Stardock started accepting preorders for Jonathan Blow's Braid for the PC at $19.95, the independent developer has announced a five dollar price drop in the interest of reaching a wider audience. More »

New Demigod Screens Remind Of Us Demigod

Mike Fahey — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:20:00 EST

Since we haven't heard much about Gas Powered Games' upcoming roleplaying real-time strategy title Demigod lately, publisher Stardock sends us a fresh batch of screenshots in order to remind us the game still exists. More »

Stardock Looks to Star Control, Master Of Orion And Baldur's Gate

Stuart Houghton — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:20:00 EST

It is no secret that Stardock are big fans of Star Control - Galactic Civilizations certainly owes something to Star Control II, as does the Stardock-published Sins of a Solar Empire. No great surprise then that Stardock has announced that it is actively pursuing the keys to the Star Control kingdom with a view to making a 'proper' sequel and glossing over the rather underwhelming Star Control III. More »

Stardock Amends Bill Of Rights

Stuart Houghton — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:20:00 EDT

When Stardock unveiled the PC Gamer's Bill of Rights back in August, it seemed like a cute little publicity stunt, albeit one that made a few dead-on points about the state of PC gaming. Once the press releases had been sent out it seemed as though we would all nod sagely and then everyone would get back to business as usual. More »

Galactic Civilizations II: Endless Screens (Well, Twenty)

Stuart Houghton — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:20:00 EDT

Stardock has released twenty gleaming new screens from Galactic Civilizations II: Endless Universe. More »

Get Inside The Political Machine - For Free

Stuart Houghton — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:20:00 EDT

With less than two months to polling day the time is ripe for Stardock to try and push copies of their Presidential Election sim The Political Machine 2008 - i.e. before the entire nation becomes so heartily sick of the election process that it would sooner set fire to its collective genitals than pay cash money for anything to do with politics. More »

Sins Of A Solar Empire Sells Half A Million

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:30:00 EDT

Well played, sirs! It's been announced earlier today that Sins of a SOlar Empire - Stardock's sleeper-hit PC space strategy game - has sold over 500,000 copies. That's around 400,000 at retail, and over 100,000 via digital download. Considering it's a very PC PC game (ie there are menu buttons everywhere), and cost only $1 million to make, calling it a success story would be selling it short by several orders of magnitude. More »

Multiple Expansions Coming For Sins of a Solar Empire

Jim Reilly — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Stardock announced multiple "micro-expansions" to be available for Sins of a Solar Empire throughout the next year. The first of these expansions, Entrenchment, is currently being developed and will be available in late 2008 for $9.95. This expansion is said to add new weapon upgrades and defense platforms. Two other expansions also in the works will add new diplomacy features as well as new technologies and ships. I hope fans of the series don't mind opening their wallets! Full release after the jump. More »

The PC Gamer's Bill of Rights

Mike Fahey — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:30:00 EDT

Not a day goes by that PC gamers don't have something to complain about, whether it be misleading PC requirements for the games they buy, games being released in an unfinished state, or brutal copy protection measures that treat them as if they were all potential criminals. Indie developer and publisher Stardock feels PC gamers' pain, and has announced a Gamer's Bill of Rights, containing 10 specific rights that all PC gamers should have, as a guideline to encourage PC gaming companies to embrace better customer service policies. The list includes the right to return games that don't work on your PC, realistic minimum requirements, and single-player games that don't force players to connect to the internet. Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor wholeheartedly approves.

"This is an awesome framework for the industry to aspire to, and ultimately so that we can provide our customers with the gaming experience that they have wanted for years, and really deserve."

Hit the jump for the full list of rights. They're intelligent, well through-out, and will never be officially instituted in a million years. More »

Demigod Gets Publisher, Slips To 2009

Mike Fahey — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:20:00 EDT

Clever press release writers, knowing that the longer the release the less likely we are to read all the way to the end. I nearly missed out on the delay of Gas Powered Games' upcoming RTS RPG Demigod in this announcement concerning a publishing agreement reached with Stardock of Sins of a Solar Empire and Object Desktop fame. Stardock will be handling publishing duties and digital delivery of Demigod for the PC, originally slated for a late 2008 release. The reason for the delay?

To fully support a public beta that will launch this summer, the launch date for Demigod has been moved to February 2009. This will give the development team sufficient time to incorporate feedback from the beta players while polishing the game.

In order to play early, we must first learn to play late. Very zen. To further distract us from the delay, here's some screenshots. More »

Postmortem On Galactic Civilizations II

Michael McWhertor — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 20:38:48 EDT

Gamasutra has a postmortem report from Stardock's President & CEO, Brad Wardell, on the challenges and successes of creating a successful strategy game on a small budget with a lean team. This fascinating article touches on the highs and lows of game development and self-publishing, and is a must read for anyone who wants to know about the PC game industry. More »

Starforce to Stardock: "Sorry for warezing your game, dudes"

brownlee — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 10:40:52 EST

Starforce is sleazy, no doubt. Their first transgression was programming and marketing a highly-invasive form of copy protection to begin with. Then they began threatening their critics with frivolous lawsuits. And as icing on the cake, they decided to post torrent links to Galactic Civilization 2 on their website in response to Stardock's criticism of copy-protection in general. It's enough to make a gamer want to break a Starforce-infected cd in half and jab the shards through the vitreous humor of Starforce CEO's eyeballs. More »

Ars Technica Looks At The Future Of Copy Protection

brownlee — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 10:40:16 EST

ArsTechnica has a column up with the intriguing title "Do copy protection firms encourage piracy?" Then, rather interestingly, they don't bother asking or answering that question at all. More »

Kotaku Letters: Starforce CSR Nightmare

brownlee — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 13:20:06 EST

We recently got this thoughtful email from Kotakuite David S. about a recent Customer Service exchange he had with computer gaming's own personal Beelzebub, Starforce. More »