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.

Stardock, Gas Powered Games Partner For Upcoming Demigod

- Demigod to Feature No On-Disc Copy Protection; Set to Launch February 2009 -

PLYMOUTH, MI - April 7, 2008 - Stardock and Gas Powered Games announced today that they have reached a publishing agreement for Gas Powered Games' upcoming PC game, Demigod.

Demigod is a team-based action game with RTS and RPG elements. Players take control of a massive Demigod with the goal of annihilating their opponent's position in a given arena while preventing the opponent's Demigod from doing the same to them. Although the game supports superb one-on-one duels, the title will truly shine in team play either with other human-controlled Demigods or with ones controlled by a sophisticated computer AI. As the game progresses, the player's Demigod will acquire items, attributes and experience.

Gas Powered Games, having become one of the leading PC game developers with hit titles such as Dungeon Siege and Supreme Commander chose Stardock as its exclusive worldwide PC publisher in part because of Stardock's tremendous success with the award-winning Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Civilizations.

"Forging our new partnership with Stardock is a big deal for all of us at GPG, and we couldn't be more excited about it," said Chris Taylor, founder and CEO of Gas Powered Games. "Not only do we have a proven retail publisher, but we get to partner with a pioneer in the digital distribution space... a company that totally understands what kind of experience our customer wants and the quality game they demand. The whole proposition is truly refreshing."

Stardock's most recent release, Sins of a Solar Empire was the top selling PC strategy game at retail according to NPD, and the second highest selling PC game overall despite selling immense numbers of copies digitally which are not counted in sales rankings. The game has received universally high reviews in the media and many have noted how seamlessly Stardock and developer Ironclad worked together.

"We're very excited at the opportunity to work with Gas Powered Games," said Brad Wardell, president and CEO of Stardock. "By integrating our teams and working together, we will be able to create something that represents the best of both teams."

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. Like Stardock's other games, Demigod will be released without any on-disc copy protection and has been budgeted to receive many months of free post-release feature updates.

The official website for Demigod is in the works, but users who want to begin discussing the game can visit http://www.demigodthegame.com.

There are some solid real-world figures here that show how much developers actually make on each sale, with and without going through a publisher. It's also refreshing to read about Stardock's perspective on copy protection (there isn't any), how to improve on your previous game, and future proofing their software (the game was built to scale well for future PCs).

Postmortem: Stardock's Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords

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.

Well, Starforce is still sleazy, but we have to give them props: they have apologized to Stardock for the entire "Everyone warez this game!" fiasco. But it's too little, too late — what else can you say when an anti-warez company squanders its credibility by openly endorsing warez?

Starforce apologizes to Stardock for torrent link [GalCiv2 Forums]

That said, it's an intriguing look at the problems facing both customers and game makers. While customers grow increasingly frustrated with their systems being compromised by draconian copy protection schemes, game makers have a definite need to protect their software from piracy. What's becoming more and more apparent to game makers, though, is how Starforce-style copy protection is not the answer to their question, and that they can garner more goodwill by less intrusive copy protection systems... or no copy protection at all. ArsTechnica quotes Greg Vederman, the editor of PC Gamer, who believes the way forward is a greater reliance on online delivery models like Steam.

Kotakuites, what do you think the way forward for copy protection is? Let us know in the comments.

Do copy protection firms encourage piracy? [Ars Technica]

Look, we don't need to tell you why we hate Starforce — we're all members of the pasty, slightly-irradiated gaming elite here. If you really need to know why Starforce is a perennial force of evil (gobbling babies while striding through Russia on a Baba-Yaga-like house balanced upon gigantic chicken legs) our Gawker brethren over at The Consumerist have a decent summary. And David S. himself recaps a lot of Starforce's most egregious sins in his email as well, including their latest good-will gesture of pirating Galactic Civilization 2 and then posting a lit of torrent sites where their site visitors could download it for themselves. Proving... what exactly? That a game without DRM can be pirated? Amazingly, so can games with DRM. What idiots.

But just in case you aren't convinced not to avoid games that use Starforce as DRM, we're going to post David's email in full, including his exchange with some truly obnoxious Starforce CSRs. As The Consumerist says, "it s like reading an infinite recursion of idiocy." You don't want to give companies like this your money.

David's email after the jump:

Dear Kotaku and the Consumerist,

I'm a regular reader of both your blogs (websites? purveyors of fine news?), and though I'm not usually the type to weight in, I feel strongly about the good and the bad (oh so bad) headlines recently circulating about copy protection.

You've probably heard the news about StarDock's excellent sales for GalCiv 2, despite- or because of- its lax copy-protection scheme, and about StarForce's rather unprofessional (illegal?) response to their success (http://forums.galciv2.com/?ForumID=161&AID=106741). I won't rant about how every pirated copy is not equivalent to a lost sale, or rave about how pirated copies actually introduce people to game and induce some to buy it. There's argument enough for both points but not enough conclusive evidence for either.

The new and interesting point here is that a serial number is not required to activate the game, though it is necessary for updates and patches. Normally a serial key provides both activation and updates, but in this case Stardock has seperated the pirate monkeys who quickly grow bored of the game from the pirate monkeys who may actually want to pay for the added value to the basic game.

Pirates crack games for fun (sticking it to the Man) or profit. Stardock's garnered a lot of goodwill for what they've done so the former is unlikely (although the fine folk at StarForce have stopped one step short of that). Second- where's the profit in cracking a game that doesn't need to be cracked? A lot of warez is dodgy in the first place; who's gonna risk sending their credit card info to the Russian Mafia just for some patches?

Speaking of the Russian Mafia, StarForce is a prefect example of how to a) prevent legitimate paying customers from running the game, b) imply they're pirates, and c) have them swear off buying any game with StarForce (such as the upcoming HoMM V). By "legitimate paying customers," I mean "me." (I added a copy of the whole sordid exchange below, if you're morbidly curious, but would appreciate if you removed any identifying info before using it.) I bought an import copy of Space Rangers 2 from gogamer, registered the game, and StarForce kept me from running it on my computer. It worked fine on my dad's laptop, and I don't appreciate being called a pirate when StarForce can't figure out what the problem was. Maybe that's how they can claim legitimate users have no problems- imply everyone else is a piriate (http://www.firingsquad.com/features/starforce_interview/page4.asp). The really Kafkaesque thing is, I could've just downloaded a pirated version to begin with, or downloaded a crack to run my copy of it...

Anyway, it seems Stardock has struck the right balance in their bold new experiment (treating the end-users decently! gasp!), and I wish them success. Instead of clinging to their IP and living in the past like music companies, they've accepted reality and found a working solution for it.

Cheers,
David

The Whole Sordid Exchange (from the bottom up)


Hi Yvonne,

Can you generate a new rescue key since the old one didn't work? I'm not sure what he means by "licensed CD is not inserted into customer's drive"- the DVD is in my external drive when I run the program, and I purchased the game from gogamer.com, which I assume sells licensed copies of your game. The order number is 058-0220973-0406151; their number is 888-948-9661 or 949-609-1680. You can confirm my purchase with them, and check your records to see that I have registered my product. I appreciate all your efforts so far, but this is becoming frustrating- all I want to do is use the product I purchased weeks ago!

Thank you,
David

Yvonne Williams wrote:



Yvonne Williams
Contact Sales Ltd
Customer Services Manager
01869 338428

For product information: www.contact-simulations.com

From: StarForce Support - Abramov Anton [mailto:support@star-force.com]
Sent: 16 February 2006 11:46
To: yvonnew
Subject: RE: [TRACK-0000007640] RE: Space Rangers Customer

Hello Edward,
This error takes a place when registered profile for entered rescue key was not found.
You can solve this problem by generate a new rescue key.
By the way, licensed CD is not inserted into customers drive.

Best regards,
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
Anton Abramov
Customer Support Group
StarForce Technologies
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—
+7 495 967 14 53
ICQ# 303596863
MSN: anton.abramov@star-force.com
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
The information of this letter is confidential and must not be disclosed to third persons

—-— Original Message —-—
From: Excalibur
To:
Sent: 16 February 2006
Subject: [TRACK-0000007640] RE: Space Rangers Customer

Hi Kirill

Thanks for helping us. Unfortunately the customer is still having a problem, as the old rescue key I generated seems not to work if I generate a new rescue key would this solve the problem or do you have any suggestions?

Thanks.

Best regards

Edward

From: David S [mailto:blah@blah.com]
Sent: 15 February 2006 23:46
To: Yvonne Williams
Subject: Re: FW: [TRACK-0000007640] RE: Space Rangers Customer

Thank you for your reply. Holding down the shift key does allow me to enter the key. However, reentering the original key changes nothing, while entering the rescue key generates this message:

ERROR: Failed locating the product authorization information in the system registry. Verify the Disc Key or press the "Information" button to obtain a new Activation Key.

The information should be in the registry as I've reinstalled it several times... I'm really not sure what else I can do. I've run "Information" again and have attached the data. Any further guidance would be appreciated.

Yvonne Williams wrote:

From:< /B> StarForce Support - Kirill Lazarev [mailto:support@star-force.com]
Sent: 15 February 2006 11:15
To: yvonnew
Subject: [TRACK-0000007640] RE: Space Rangers Customer

Hello ,
For some reasons we didn't receive this email from you. In order to enter the rescue key, the user should run the game holding down the key Shift pressed.
—
Best regards,
Kirill Lazarev
Customer Support Group
StarForce Technologies

ICQ#135762596
MSN: shumba@inbox.ru
Tel: +7 495 967 14 53

The information of this letter is confidential and must not be disclosed to third persons!

—-— Original Message —-—
From: Excalibur To:
Sent: 15 February 2006
Subject: Space Rangers Customer

Hi

I sent this email las t week, I've been away on business and wonder if I missed your reply...

Best regards


>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I wonder if you can help us. We are using StarForce Professional to protect Space Rangers 2. A customer is having problems with his key. Basically we generated a recovery key but he is not getting the opportunity to enter it.

The Story...

===============================================
However, after installing it and entering the registry key correctly, Star Force w ould not let me launch the game! StarForce tells me to "insert the Space Rangers disk into another drive and retry"- but this is impossible, as the DVD drive on my laptop is broken. The external drive I used to install SpaceRangers is apparently forbidden to launch Space Rangers. I tried reinstalling the game but I am still locked out of playing it.

Any help would be appreciated. Below is the information Star Force generated.

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—- Information —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

[Error Information]
Code: Z7KBX-E6QP8-PC4AJ-NNE7Y-56QN6
Key: N8MF6-86QVE-ENMNH-E542E-YHXJ2
3.4.76.0; 3120; ES: 10003, F, C, 1002E, 183, 1002D, 10028, 1000A, 10006, 10005, 10004, 10002, 1, 10003, F, C, 1002E, 183, 1002D, 10028, 1000A, 10006, 10005, 10004, 10002, 1, 10003, 0

[Protected Product Information]
CompanyName = Contact Sales
ProductName = Space Rangers
BuildSignature = 3.04.076.000, 16.05.05
ProductGuid = {CE8622B9ABE0DFA54B2600197D0723C8}
BuildGuid = {586cb0ec-c7d0-412d-a242-de513518f5dd}

[Report Information]
ReportDateTime = Wednesday, Februa ry 01, 2006 16:55 PM
ClientTimeZone = Pacific Standard Time
ClientTimeBias = 480

[System Information]
System Information was not obtained because of "msinfo32" execution error.
===============================================

From this I generated a recovery key...

G55C5-J5SVH-D587T-ST6D4-R7H8U

Unfortunately he is not able to enter it...

===============================================
Hi

Thank you for your prompt response. Unfortunately, I can't get to your step 4.. Here is a rundown of what happens:

1. I insert the disk into the external drive
2. The autorun menu appears (install SR 2 or 1 or exit); I select SR 2
3. I select "Run" from the SR 2 menu
4. StarForce protection appears, and it checks the disc
5. I get a message saying "Insert the Space Rangers disc into another drive then press 'Retry' "; menu options are Retry, Information, and Exit
6. I hit Retry, which leads to a loop of 4. and 5. Information just gathers my system information, and Exit exits.

So I can't get the window with the old key to appear to enter the rescue key, your step 4. I have tried to uninstall and reinstall the game a few times, in addition to using the program sfdrvrem to remove the StarForce system and hopefully create a fresh install. The really strange thing is, after each install there is no chance to enter any key, just the situation above.

Any further help would be appreciated.

===============================================

Any suggestions?

Best regards

What are the most popular cars? Find out at Yahoo! Autos

We apologise for the delay. We are chasing Starforce for a reply


Yvonne Williams
Contact Sales Ltd
Customer Services Manager
01869 338428

For product information: www.contact-simulations.com

From: David S [mailto:blah@blah.com]
Sent: 14 February 2006 23:31
To: Yvonne Williams
Subject: Re: FW: FW: Follow up

Hello Yvonne,

Sorry to seem impatient, but have you any word from your contact? I hope your company will reconsider using StarForce in the future. If I had known all of this would have happened, I certainly wouldn't haven't purchased this product. Who ever heard of a copy protection system locking out legitimate users?

Yvonne Williams wrote:



Hi

We've sent your info over to our contact at StarForce to see if they have a solution. Will write to you once we hear from them.

Sorry for the hassle.

From: David S [mailto:blah@blah.com]
Sent: 03 February 2006 20:31
To: Yvonne Williams
Subject: Re: FW: Follow up

Hi Yvonne,

Thank you for your prompt response. Unfortunately, I can't get to your step 4. Here is a rundown of what happens:

1. I insert the disk into the external drive
2. The autorun menu appears (install SR 2 or 1 or exit); I select SR 2
3. I select "Run" from the SR 2 menu
4. StarForce protection appears, and it checks the disc
5. I get a message saying "Insert the Space Rangers disc into another drive then press 'Retry' "; menu options are Retry, Information, and Exit
6. I hit Retry, which leads to a loop of 4. and 5. Information just gathers my system information, and Exit exits.

So I can't get the window with the old key to appear to enter the rescue key, your step 4. I have tried to uninstall and reinstall the game a few times, in addition to using the program sfdrvrem to remove the StarForce system and hopefully create a fresh install. The really strange thing is, after each install there is no chance to enter any key, just the situation above.

Any further help would be appreciated.

Sincerely,
David Siao

Yvonne Williams wrote:
Hi

Sorry you are having problems with the StarForce protection system that is used on Space Rangers 2. Thanks for sending us the error report, for some reason StarForce is having problems reading the DVD in your external drive, however by sending us your error report we have generated a Rescue Key for StarForce.

G55C5-J5SVH-D587T-ST6D4-R7H8U

So...

1. Place the Space Rangers DVD into your DVD drive and try and run the game again.
2. If the DVD disc check doesn t pass and the error message appears.
3. Hit the "Retry" button.
4. The window with the old key appears.
5. Input the Rescue Key instead of the normal disc key and hit "Check".

Note: The Rescue Key is unique for each computer. If the Rescue Key generated for one computer is used to run the application on another computer, an error message about the wrong key will appear.
Hopefully this will resolve the problem.

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—--

From: David S [mailto:blah@blah.com]
Sent: 02 February 2006 02:00
To: yvonnew
Subject: Follow up

More specifically, StarForce tells me to "insert the Space Rangers disk into another drive and retry"- but this is impossible, as the DVD drive on my laptop is broken. The external drive I used to install SpaceRangers is apparently forbidden to launch Space Rangers. I tried reinstalling the game but I am still locked out of playing it. Right now it appears I have paid $40 for nothing except frustration.

It angers me that I cannot use the product that I've paid for. Attached is the full "system information" scan that StarForce collected. I hope you can help me solve the problem, or at least refund my purchase. Thanks.



Dear Support,

I was very excited about Space Rangers after reading reviews about it and immediately ordered an UK Import copy from gogamer.com. However, after installing it and entering the registry key correctly, Star Force would not let me launch the game! Any help would be appreciated. Below is the information Star Force generated.



Dear User!

This file contains detailed information on the problem occurred.
Save the file and forward it to your product Customer Support.
E-mail: support@excalibur-publishing.com
Web page: http://www.excalibur-publishing.com
Phone: 01869 345928