Here's a good article that goes into some detail on the Gamestop / Impulse / Stardock team up.
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/31/stardocks-brad-wardell-talks-about-selling-impulse-to-gamestop/
They got pissed once when the WWE did a storyline about an acquisition, so the SEC part is legit.
That said, this should have waited until Monday to avoid the April Fools suspicions.
Wow.
Guess it's time to give in and just install Steam.
Separately: As part of the acquisition, did GameStop agree to support the Gamer's Bill of Rights? Or have we been completely sold out?
If this gets more games released into UK's region I'll be happy (fed up of the 'not available in your region' let down)
If it doesn't I still aren't too bothered. I use Steam, i have no problem with Steam. So if Steam gets more competition this means i am more likely to see prices of games i want slashed more often, therefore i get cheaper games.
Some people just look for the bad in everything
@Brillig: "Separately: As part of the acquisition, did GameStop agree to support the Gamer's Bill of Rights? Or have we been completely sold out?"
Brad: As for how GameStop will treat the Gamers Bill of Rights, I can’t really speak to. Generally speaking, GameStop has always seemed pretty progressive in their sales policies such as with their handling of game trade-ins and such.
Translation: They both fear the success of Steam.
I'm wondering if Gamestop is going to sell Steamworks titles on Impulse, or, on the contrary, ban Steamworks games in their retail stores too, like Wardell demanded for a long time now.
Thanks, I missed that.
In other words, "trust me and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." Riiiiiight. Time to start archiving everything - hope Brad paid the CDN bill.
I will not deal with Gamestop -- I've only ordered from them twice before, and both times they screwed up my order. And when I complained I could get no help, just misinformation. When I got upset, they told me I could cancel my order, only the order would not show up in my order history. I had to contact support to cancel it. Then after cancelling it, it was still screwed up.
I have never had as many problems buying games from any other company as I've had with Gamestop on just two orders, I was treated rudely and it was clear both times that they felt I was inconveniencing THEM.
They are just terrible. Maybe their console business is better, but I still wouldn't buy from them even if I did own a game console.
Gamestop has an investors conference call on Monday, and they've got both this deal and another deal at the same time. It makes no sense for them to wait to announce it until right before that call when they knew about it beforehand, particularly for a something like April Fools that the investment world completely ignores.
People need to put april fools out of their heads here. It's completely irrelevant. Anybody confused by that simply doesn't understand how business deals work.
Now that the news has settled in my head, I don't really feel that negative about this. This is a good thing since Brad & Co. can focus more on Elemental and what they know best. I just wish that GameStop will indeed follow on the same path as Stardock did with Impulse.
The deal Brad got for Impulse had to be pretty damn sweet, too. The man knows how to run a business, make money and still live his life the way he wants. Quite a damn impressive character.
Its actually the only smart move for Gamestop. Why are thier staff so poorly treated, and poorly paid, and margins so high - because they can't make the business work any other way. In the UK we have both Waterstones (book seller) and HMV (music and computer games retailer) that are under constant pressure to reform. Why? because everyone goes to Amazon for these types of items these days. The costs for bricks and mortar stores staff etc are huge compared with the value that they add for the customer. If you don't even have to post the stuff.. well then why not do it all on line - its not as if PC gamers won't have a computer!
Brick and mortar stores could adapt to be more of a cultural gathering place. That is one way to add value to their image. Instead of turning over employees like rolls of toilet paper because they didn't meet high end quotas for magazine subscriptions and pre-orders, for example, Gamestop could try to integrate some social stuff into their store. Host tournaments for popular games, foster the creation of local game leagues and allow them to play on-site on the weekends, stuff like that. Immerse their customers into gaming and let people's natural competitive natures play out and bolster sales.
I know right. Imagine if Stardock became a company that had a hugely successful store to rival that of Valves which allowed you guys to work on whatever projects you wanted. Instead you do a deal with the devil.
But that wont generate sufficient revenue to pay for the bricks and mortar (or for the hardware which need upgrading every 12 months, even better staff required to set up networks, patch games etc). If it did you would see more internet gaming cafe's or that same set up in PC World's (in an attempt to sell the latest hardware - how well does this game run on spec A or spec B machine - well lets fire it up on multiplayer on both and have a look).
Sounds like all the right reasons. Staying small enough to maintain focus on what your core abilities are.
And imagine how much more staff they'd have had to hire. How much more distracted they would get from the things they would prefer to be doing. Which they can do right now instead of in another three to six years! How awesome is that?
Way too obvious AF guys. Gamestop already has their own store with digital downloads, though you'd have to brain damage to support them and their $5-10 markups on everything.
Lol, I just remembered my sins of a solar empire was bought from gamestop
I think people have a tough time understanding how much of a "Brad Wardell's olde software shoppe" Stardock is. It's really very understandable that he doesn't want it to transform into a retail giant, because the massive competition and the amount of money involved in the business and the work required to keep things growing would inevitably lead to having to have a bigger corporate strutcure. When you are the end user, it is easy to forget that there are actual people behind the business, and the business actually affects their lives. Being someone who would never work at a big corporation (I love working at companies that employ less than 20 people), I can absolutely understand how Brad doesn't want to see his hard work building up Stardock to be a company he and so many other admire transform into just another retail giant.
I'm sure that if he could have it both ways - keep things small and nice, focus on making the games he loves, enjoing life and at the same time running Impulse - he would do that. But that's not possible, and it's not our place to say how Brad should spend his life or run his business. I'm very glad that he has done what he has done already for the PC community and in part I'm also happy for this, because I want him to be able to focus on making Elemental all it can be.
I hope you don't get too much flak for this, Frogboy. Thanks for doing the interview about it, helped a lot understanding and accepting what's going on.
This AF nonsense needs to die. It was posted on Gamestop's investor relations website. Publically traded companies, the stock markets, and the SEC do not have a sense of humor about making up fake acquisitions.
Eh, it's Brad's company. So, meh, his decision.
Let's just be glad, he didn't sell the gaming part of the company to EA. That would have been bad news.
LOL! Awesome April Fools!
I'm very hopeful that this is a really clever but cruel April Fool's joke. I detest Gamestop and their business practices. If they own Impulse I will uninstall it.
If it's a joke. . . good one, you got me.
Oh don't worry, that will be next year. Since SD is interested in progressing Technology(tm), it's hard for them to focus on making video games. The press release will go something like this: "We built video games to ensure multiple channels for our cool new Technology(tm). In order to take it to the next step we would either have to commit to becoming a video game company, or to find a partner who shared our vision of where we think this whole "game" thing is going. He he. Oops did I snicker out loud?"
While I understand the reasoning and I'm hoping for the best, I think it's far more likely Gamestop will screw up Impulse rather than improve it. I haven't found that Gamestop has the same ethics or concern for their customers that Stardock has.
How will existing accounts be handled? Stardock and Impulse has earned my trust, Gamestop has not. I for one would rather create a new account with Gamestop rather than have my personal info and current account passed on as part of some sale. I'll create an account with Gamestop when they've earned my trust. (I suspect the answer to this question will reveal a major drawback to any digital distribution system).
Same here.
I trust Stardock, Gamestop, not so much.
I don't harbor as much ill will towards Gamestop as some, but I am very leery of them. I also don't like what they have done to PC games in their store. To a certain extent, I understand why they have done it, but I don't like it.
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