Stardock to expand its games business

Elemental: Fallen Enchantress producer Derek Paxton has said Stardock's games business is set to grow in the wake of the Impulse sale, and has waxed lyrical on the experience of working for the software developer slash games studio.

"Previously Stardock's games team was a small but successful part of Stardock's total business. Although Stardock had excellent management of the business side, the games side was less defined," Paxton told told Gaming Nexus.

The designer, who was a driving force behind epic Civilization IV mod Fall From Heaven, said he was attracted to Stardock because of its commitment to ongoing support - such as the promise of a free copy of his own game, Fallen Enchantress, to those who purchased the first, bug-ridden release of the first Elemental title.

"I love working at Stardock," he said. "There are great and talented people here, and we get to make the games we want to play.

"We don't have to hit specific timeframes in order to meet quarterly revenue goals. We don't have to make a game that will appeal to everyone.

That capacity is set to grow with the company's offloading of digital distribution service Impulse.

"The biggest impact of the [Impulse] sale is yet to come and I'm excited that Stardock's focus will be more on the games team. We are growing the games team, we have the budget to do so and it allows us to take the time to make great games.," Paxton explained.

That doesn't mean it's all sunshine and unicorns in the Stardock offices though - CEO Brad Wardell doesn't hold employees to low standards.

"The highest expectations I have to deal with are from Brad," Paxton said.

"At GDC he was targeting an 82 metacritic score for Fallen Enchantress. Every day that number went up one. Last I heard Brad talking about it he was somewhere in the 90's."

Elemental: Fallen Enchantress is a stand-alone follow up to Elemental: War of Magic, and will be available free or at a discount to owners of that title, depending on purchase date. It's due on PC in the third quarter.

Thanks, Blue.