I keep checking this Thread looking for the "April Fool's" post from Brad. The more time that passes the sadder i get.

I have completely stopped doing business with Gamestop because of how opposed I am to their business practices and the way they treat not only their customers, but their employees, as I have many friends that used to work for them.

This really makes me sad, because I don't want to ever support Gamestop, but I want to support Brad.

It probably still does, I think every digital download store has a provision to this effect, so GameSpot would be stupid to get rid of it. And for Stardock games even if GameSpot/Impulse somehow went bankrupt I'm sure they would find someway for us to get them.

Alright, I'll bite... Saying that "Steam is hated by PC gamers" is an outrageous exaggeration. Steam is actually really popular with PC gamers, aside from forums like this which for obvious reasons attract people that don't like Steam. In the wider world of PC gaming, people like Steam.

I guess there isn't a service now that I can really invest my full confidence into. It used to be Impulse, but that's halved now, given my lack of experience with Gamestop and the anxiety that follows that uncertainty. GOG would have been my fallback, if it's Greek bank wasn't so artsy-fartsy with purchases coming from SE Asia.

As for the "Steam is loved/hated by more PC gamers" ish, I wouldn't be too quick about concluding the idea. My entire neighborhood here uses Steam because they aren't given much choice when it comes to buying their favored genuine software. Games they want either come as Steam-only or they're only available from Steam. You should, instead, say, "In the wider world of PC gaming, people use Steam." 

I use Steam. I have tons of games on Steam. I don't necessarily have to like it. I imagine in the near future fate's going to have at my so-far-in-good-standing account by some floozy Valve would come up with out of thin air. I log on everyday half-expecting that I'd see a dialog exclaiming that my account's been frozen for God-knows-what.

If you look at sales data you will find the existence of localized buying patterns for all types of goods and services.  People in New York City have a different buying pattern than the people in Oklahoma City.  If Oklahoma shop keepers base their stock on NYC buying patterns; it stands to reason that people in Oklahoma will not have access to some of the merchandise they seek.  So put this in perspective of an international, publicly traded, fortune 500 corporation.  Gamestop stocks their shelves based on conglomerate data.  They look at total sales across the entire breadth of their international base.  The local shop on the other hand, buys based on local buying patterns.  

Theres more can be said of all this; but jumping ahead to the logical conclusion of a national economy dominated by publicly traded mega-chain stores.... quality and selection drops in favor of products that yield the greatest profit margin, opportunities for locally owned businesses diminish, the budgets for local civil services grow increasingly inadequate to service the people with emergency services, the rate of innovation drops as the number of small businesses decrease, and much more.  We are already seeing this.  There is a real world, quantifiable human suffering which results.  Yet mega-chaining is on the rise.  We are doing ourselves harm here.  It's not their fault its ours.  The power is ours the consumer.  As is the responsibility for the social ills that result.  If people were better aware of the consequences of their consumption, I think they'd make better use of the enormous power found in their own meager billfolds.      

I'm Very interested in supporting my local economies.  When I spend money at local or regional chain stores, that money finds its way to more people.  When I spend money at publicly traded mega-chains, much of my money leaves my locale and finds its way into a few hands that are already quite well to do.  I look around my communities and see economies in need of stimulation.  Every dollar which I can spend locally makes a difference.  That dollar gets to stick around for a time at least.  Circulating around until eventually it heads offshore or lands in Manhattans financial district were it doesn't any of us any good and may even do us harm.  But while it circulates locally, it generates tax revenue to pay for local civil services, it funds local business expansions, it supports athletic clubs and other positive activities for our youth, it help puts my neighbors kids through college, and on and on.  My dollar gets better SHPD mileage (Souls Helped Per Dollar) locally than it does nationally.  

I've been amateurishly working on an idea to present to Stardock which I thought might be a way for Impulse to compete with steam; while at the same time providing an opportunity for mom and pop shops to compete with Gamestop, Walmart and the like.  Kill two beasts with one stone as it were.  Now I am very concerned that Gamestop is going to use this to strengthen their position over competition. 

The idea simply being that brick and mortar shops consign with Impulse in order to download software which is then burned to a physical media to be sold to the customer.  Customer gets a hard copy of the game, as well as access to Impulse::Reactor, and maintains the ability to install via download at a future date.  The mom and pop shop has a massive inventory for which to service their customers.  The hold that Gamestop has over the brick and mortar shops is shattered.  Opportunity abounds.  Indie developers and amateur game makers have access to a world market which is not just limited to where Gamestop drops a shop.  All sorts of wacky and brilliant games hit the market that would not otherwise.  The manufacturers of physical media won't be impacted as severely as they otherwise will be as we transition to an ESD marketplace. The ESD transition occurs more rapidly as those gamers who distrust not having physical media as backup, can now participate in the ESD marketplace with nothing to lose. Opportunities arise for the leasing and manufacturing of the burning equipment.  IT people are employed in local shops to service the network of terminals which customers use to browse the Impulse catalog.  Game shops with individual personality pop up all over the place.  Gone is the red and white cookie cutter decor of gamestop.  Some shopkeeps host LAN parties and develop communal activities.  Have you ever played DnD or Magic the Gathering in a local shop?  I have.  It was great fun.  

If Gamestop should use Impulse to sell hard copies of downloaded games exclusive to their own stores, mom and pop shops stand no chance.  Stardock has helped in their demise.  My worst fear is that gamestop partners with steam.  gamestop becomes steams physical storefront.  steam handles the digital.  gamestop the physical.  All your base are belong to us/

Wow.  I've been traveling so I just saw this news and read through the thread.  Frankly, I'm stunned.  I have a lot of games on Impulse, and have made it almost my exclusive platform for digital distribution purchases.  That decision was largely because of my trust in Stardock as a company.  However, I don't trust GameStop at all, and I'm a little worried about what this will mean for my digital games library a couple years down the line.

It's ironic, really.  I came to Stardock because of their game development, and I get that Brad's passions are in that area, but Elemental has made me at least somewhat skeptical about their capacity in that area.  I've stuck around, however, mainly because I like Impulse so much, and because a company capable of such good work in the distribution and retail end, would be able to bring the money and the high-level management lessons over to the development side of the organization as the company continued to grow.  Now, I'm not so sure.

I get that no business really cares what we lowly customers think about these things, especially when there's dough to be made.  I also get why this is a good move for Stardock (or at least why Brad thinks it is) and certainly a good move for GameStop.  But man, that doesn't mean I'm not surprised and saddened by this news.  Needless to say, I won't be purchasing anything else on Impulse.  Oh well, back to GoG, GamersGate, and direct purchases from developers (when possible) for me.

There had actually been some hints from Frogboy for a little while that something really big was going to happen that would add a lot of additional competition to the digital download market. I didn't quite take that to mean that they were selling Impulse though.

How, exactly, are the hardcore anti-steam/pro-impulse crowd taking it? I've always been as skeptical of Impulse as I am of any digital service (that is to say, only very mildly), but some people on these forums have a fanatical drive to support Impulse and demonize the competition. I'd think they might be more shell-shocked than the rest of us. The faith they had in Brad's ethics no longer plays a roll, as Brad's ethics no longer play a roll in Impulse...

Eh.

I think that may be the core crux of the issue right there...if I bought a product or chose a service entirely on the basis of principle, I guess I'd be kind of ticked right now too...

In the grand scheme of things though steam is not the evil it's made out to be...bitching about steam being evil and a violation of gamer rights and blah blah blah is like living in the middle of Alaska because you think property tax is a moral atrocity...maybe on some higher plane of moral thinking you're right, but really?  Get over it...

In my own little world Elemental does not exist, retail wasn't a big part of SD to begin with, and their next release title is going to be great no matter what...if you want to be the jerk that bursts my bubble of ignorant bliss well I suppose I can't stop you...but honestly, we can't do anything about this trade and most of the dissent here is based on high-minded philosophy and anecdotal evidence...I'm more worried about Hillary Clinton vs. Sarah Palin when the world ends in 2012 than the Evil Gamestop spewing forth from the depths of hell with the sole mission of destroying the PC market...

I am not a business expert...but, I'm going to make a jump here and assume that impulse was starting to negatively effective the developing side...without fundamentally changing the company, SD simply couldn't do both at the same time and do them well...SD choose to sell instead of to change...