Category Archives: Stardock

Stardock’s offering up two free expansion packs to its fantasy-TBS Elemental: War of Magic, providing customers purchase the Impluse-exclusive before October 31.

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PC Gamer has issued a warning to those looking to pick up Stardock-published turn-based strategy game Elemental that the game has been the subject of a “disastrous launch” and punters should “stay well away”.

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Stardock has announced that Elemental: War of Magic, which releases today via its digital distribution site Impulse, will not include any form of DRM.

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Gas Powered Games head Chris Taylor has made first mention of a sequel to PC action-RTS Demigod, speaking at gamescom last week.

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Stardock’s patched weirdy RTS Demigod up to 1.2, adding a new playable demigod in the Demon Assassin.

There are tons of other additions to both single-player and multiplayer modes, all of which you can read about here.

Stardock’s opened pre-orders for Sins of a Solar Empire micro-expansion, Diplomacy. See here.

The add-on will bring a new tech tree, new ships and “deadlier pirates” to the space-based RTS.

Yours for $10. It’s out February 9. Buy it here.

Sins of a Solar Empire’s latest micro-expansion, Diplomacy, will not only be released during winter 2010 but it will also be getting a Beta sometime this fall.

Diplomacy will increase the number of options players can use to take over the galaxy with ambassadorial methods.

A third expansion has also been promised for the title, but there’s no word on when it will be released.

More over on Joystiq.

Stardock boss Brad Wardell has told those still playing pirated copies of Demigod to accept they’re thieves.

The game debuted at number three in the US PC charts, but Wardell said that doesn’t make playing hooky versions of the game acceptable.

“Demigod is heavily pirated,” said the exec on his blog. “And make no mistake, piracy pisses me off.

“If you’re playing a pirated copy right now, if you’re one of those people on Hamachi or GameRanger playing a pirated copy and have been for more than a few days, then you should either buy it or accept that you’re a thief and quit rationalizing it any other way.”

Demigod was pirated over 100,000 times in its opening weekend.

Stardock boss Brad Wardell has promised that Demigod’s multiplayer connectivity is to be fixed this week.

There’s a bunch of information on Wardell’s blog on ports, opening them, why they can’t be opened right now and how you’ll be dancing with Stardock’s proxy server if your NAT fails.

For the win. Hit the link.

This is genuinely depressing. Stardock’s updated its site to claim that over 120,000 users have tried to play Demigod online since the game launched last weekend, and that only 18,000 have actually paid for it.

Seriously, sort it out. It’s not even that expensive. How do you expect people to keep making these games if you can’t be bothered to shell out fourty fucking dollars to support developers? This is how people go bust, you idiots.

Read the full thing through the link. JUST BUY IT. Thanks, Kotaku.

IGN’s posted a video of Stardock’s Brad Wardell talking through imminent fixes to Demigod’s multiplayer.

Changes on the way include the ability for hosts to drop out people having trouble connecting, “more servers” and code optimisation.

The game was forced out by Gamestop putting it on shelves early at the weekend.

Take a look.

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Stardock’s Brad Wardell has promised a multiplayer fix for Demigod, speaking on the game’s forum.

Wardell said that connectivity issues with custom games or skirmish problems is due to server overload, and the issue’s being addressed.

To make it up to players, Wardell said that many of the staffers who worked on Demigod will be online to play with gamers this week. Not only for fun, but to also give out tips and provide general help in playing the game.

Most of the online issues were to be addressed before release, but thanks to the GameStop snafu, the team had to come in during Easter vacation and do a quick release to combat piracy.

Stardock’s released Demigod’s digital version early thanks to Gamestop going live with the game early.

You can buy it here, now, for $39.95 (£26.89).

“Many of us had just finished a good solid 8 weeks of massive crunch and were looking forward to the weekend to recover. Instead, we found ourselves back at work having to turn on and configure the multiplayer matchmaking servers…[because of the early release by GameStop] piracy on this title will, in theory, be maximized,” said Stardock boss Brad Wardell.

Whoops. More on Examiner. Help Brad out and get busy with the credit card.

Gas Powered Games has released a demonstration video for Demigod, featuring pointers and a bit of tutorial from the game’s lead designer, Matt Marr.

Shows a stone giant, called the Rook, swing his hammer and smash all in its path.

Watch it below.

Game’s out April 14 for PC.

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The second micro-expansion for Sins of a Solar Empire is going to be late, says Ironclad.

Entrenchment, the first out of three planned expansions, has been out for a bit, but Ironcald’s Blair Fraser says that the next part will be “done when it’s done”.

Sounded like Blizzard talking there for a minute.

Untitled at this point, the second update expands on diplomacy features.

After the break. The whole thing’s a game being played with a developer talking over the top, and it actually does look awesome.

Fighting and gods, RTS and action, cats and dogs living in harmony. For the win.

Gas Powered Games is developing. It’s out in April.

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Offworld’s reporting that the PC version of Braid will release on March 31 for $20.

It’ll appear on Stardock’s Impulse distribution platform for definite, but don’t be too shocked if Steam gets a look in as well.

Thanks, IndieGames.

PCGA head Randy Stude – don’t forget the “e”, for God’s sake – has told BigDownload that PC game piracy has benefitted companies like Stardock, Valve and id by simply allowing users to play their games for free.

The full quote:

The PC Gaming Industry’s history is littered with examples of start-ups (including Stardock and Valve) that actually benefitted from widespread piracy to grow a market for their future titles. Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating piracy… However, how would Quake, Doom, StarCraft, Counter-Strike, or Half-Life have been able to grow widespread brand recognition without a widespread network of gamers openly sharing these games. These titles (and many more) defined the industry. Personally, my first experience with a first person shooter was with Doom (back in the day) and I did not pay for it. Id Software turned the corner and has a very successful business built on the back of the early free/open source exchange of their games…

Randy’s a pirate! Thanks, Blue.

StarDock and Gas Powered Games announced today that Beta 3 of Demigod will be released on February 19.

Beta 3 is being launched so the devs can “nail down balance and begin trying out the Pantheon – the persistent multiplayer universe,” and fix any balance issues before moving onto the final phase: getting the multiplayer matchmaking system to work.

If you want in on it, sign up now. The beta window will close in a week.

The game is expected to land on PC April 14.

More through here.

Stardock announced today that Entrenchment, the first micro-expansion to Sins of a Solar Empire, will now available February 25 from Impluse, Stardock’s digital distribution site.

Entrenchment was originally slated for a November release, but is currently undergoing further testing after beta feedback.

Ironclad’s Blair Fraser aid, “It’s of paramount importance to everyone that what we’re releasing is the best and most robust content we can.”

There’s going to be extra testing after tweaks are made. Let’s hope the “robust” stuff doesn’t go out the window with this round of changes.