Stardock announced today that its PC strategy titles are hitting Steam starting with the real-time strategy hit Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity ($19.95, http://store.steampowered.com/app/201290) The Sins of a Solar Empire series has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide and swept many of the top gaming media awards, including IGN’s overall PC Game of the Year award. Steam and Gamestop PC Downloads are featuring Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity at a 25 percent off discount this week.
“With the sale of our former PC digital download technology to GameStop earlier this year, we no longer have any conflicts of interest in offering our titles to other digital distribution channels,” said Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock. “We are starting with Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity with other titles being made available over the coming weeks.”
More distribution platform announcements are planned for Stardock titles in the coming weeks in order to give fans the opportunity to play on the platform of their choice.
Find more information about Sins of a Solar Empire at www.sinsofasolarempire.com.
I don't quite get what is missing from not being able to transfer keys over to Steam? I can launch Sins as a non-Steam game and access the Steam overlay, screenshots show up in the library, just like actual Steam games.
Is the problem the inability to download Sins via Steam?
Also: Very happy to see this. I have no intention of purchasing further games via GameStop (Impulse) for various reasons, and I am glad Stardock games will be available through Steam.
quote="Gamestop"
This varies by publisher and product. Some products can be installed on only one PC while others can be installed on an unlimited number of PCs. See specific product pages for installation/activation limits.
I don't see the problem here. Sins has an unlimited number of installation so what's everybody complaining about? I'm staying with impulse. The one i know and have gotten use to. Ill play all my other shooters on steam.
Try deleting that .bin file and run Sins again. Go through the activation process again, it may just have not worked the first time. If you still have trouble, send us an email with the above, and everything you've tried at support@stardock.com and we'll try to figure out what's happening.
Hi there!
Thought I should add my two cents to the discussion. A friend of mine and I like to play Sins a lot. We both bought the game retail (Sins Trinity edition, 29 € at that time) and registered at Impulse. Personally I have no problems with that platform, no matter the owner, as long as I can update and play my games.I won't pay again just to get the same game on steam either. I do understand the feeling of people who want to switch platforms, though. I have four different platforms for my games as well, all games that are available on steam as well (most of them force me to their platforms because they were bought retail). They all want to start with my computer clogging up my system, which is why I deactivated autostart on most of them. Whenever I want to play the few games registered on another platform I have to start up that platform manually, even though I see the very same games available on steam. It's just a tad annoying. Luckily Sins doesn't need Impulse/Gamestop to start, on the other hand I usually miss the updates thanks to that.
Personally I would suggest that any player prepurchasing Rebellion on Steam gets a copy of Sins Trinity. It's not an unusual promotion and those who want to switch could get their copy ported this way. Not the ideal solution, but this way seems more reasonable to me than fumbling around with the gamestop licenses...
THIS .. is a great idea .. games on Steam have done this a ton ... buy the new game and get the old game free ... It's a great promotion and I think will get a LOT of us who have Sins already via Impulse to buy Rebellion ... allowing us to get a Steam copy of Sins for "free".
Rebellion is not for pre-order on Steam, only on the Stardock store.
https://www.sinsofasolarempire.com/store
Out of curiosity, if I purchase Rebellion through the Stardock store do I get to associate it with either Steam or Impulse? If I own Trinity on either Steam or Impulse but no physical copy, Rebellion will still work fine? Just want to be clear as to how it will work.
There's no information right now about Rebellion aside that the pre-order is only via the Stardock store. There's no association with Rebellion with Steam or Impulse at this time, we are focused on our store right now.
Rebellion is also a stand-alone expansion, so you don't need any previous Sins games to enjoy it.
Let me remind you that companies don't very often get the same deals as others. Just because Company A agrees to something fully and everything goes one way, Company B might have a slight issue with something else and problems thus ensue. Here is the thing. Stardock, while owning impuse said they would never sell on steam. This we all know. They've now sold it to gamestop and thus are no longer in competition with steam and have made arrangements to sell their games. Again, this we all know. The details of that arrangement we do not know. The details of the sale to gamestop, we do not know. It's very possible that part of the deal to gamestop was that all current keys stay exclusive to them, thus retaining the customers along with the sale. It makes sense as part of the deal does it not? This would clearly block stardock from giving us all new keys to switch to steam should we want to go that route. BUT! WE DO NOT KNOW. And that is my point.
I don't have to offer evidence, I'm not the accuser. I'm the one asking for evidence and proof. I'm just asking where he get's his information from that he's absolutely confident that its Stardock screwing everyone and not, as I presented, possibly a previous deal with another company that's preventing them. I've delivered reasonable doubt for you to see even though I don't have to. So I'll ask again, how is it you know its Stardock's fault?
Tridus... Please tell me you're not one of those complete and total idiots who when presented with the argument if God exists and is asked to prove that he does, your answer back is prove that he doesn't... Its just plain stupid. Don't be like that. Because... That's what you just did by stepping in. I have faith that people here really aren't that dumb. Please don't prove me wrong.
This is you making assumptions like that other guy is about the deal in place. Only this time, I actually do know the details because I am intimate with them. Your assumption is incorrect. I know far more people who have never even registered on the forums, much less have any reason to. They play the games and use the software, they don't care about your banter or anyone else's. Some play Sins, some play Elemental, some GalCiv2, some only use the WinCustomize stuff, some use a mixture of all of them. I bought Sins because I was pointed to the game by someone else who used Stardock's software and thought I'd be interested in it. If I wasn't already aware of it when I saw the box on Best Buy's shelf, I would have never bought it. There were plenty of other more appealing games out at the time. So when I say I know a lot of people who are happy to see SDC is coming back (I've never used it, I got here after Impulse, but I've only heard good things) so they can ditch GameStop and that they refuse to go to Steam just like me, yes, I am referring to forum people that I've had the pleasure of getting to know over the past few years, but I'm also referring to people I know personally who do not use the forums who are a part of Stardock's wider world of customers. Don't make stupid assumptions like that. None of us, will ever go to steam. All of us are waiting to ditch GameStop. I'm not testifying to the entirety of the customer base, just to whom I know. Read it again on the last page. You will see that. Here, let me quote it for you to help you out, because I'm a nice guy like that.
You see that part at the beginning where I said everyone I know? Yeah that part. That's not edited, go look for yourself if you want proof. That nullifies your assumption right there before you even had it. If Lothrik wants to come back and dispute that, its his choice. I'd probably concede since I made a blind assumption of my own right there. But that's for him to do, not you. Come back with a reasonable argument if you want to continue this. For now, I'll patiently wait for Lothrik's proof of his personal involvement, and thus personal knowledge to the details of the deal with steam so that he can come here and confidently put Stardock on blast for it.
Thank you and have a nice day.
Sorry, if it sounds like I'm being a jerk... but this *does* beg the question. Why would I buy a game from your store when you just sold your LAST store to GameStop? The last thing I want is for another batch of my games to end up in the clutches of that slimy organization.
I'm happy to support Stardock's *GAMES*. But I won't purchase a digitally distributed game directly from you again. Personally, I'd gladly buy this from Steam, Green Man Gaming, GoG.com, or Amazon.
This store is only going to sell Stardock products, unlike Impulse, which was meant to be a full fledged digital distribution platform. Selling it would be like Apple selling the Apple Store to Microsoft, which makes sense for neither the seller nor the buyer.
Steam? Excellent. Now I can Rebellion without feeling tremors of impending doom! Love Steam. Never any problems.
GoaFan77 pretty much nailed it. Stardock was the original developers who started distribution of games/software via digital distribution. That started with Stardock Central, which is making a comeback of sorts soon.
SDC and the Stardock store are only selling and distributing Stardock products whether it's games like Sins, or apps like Object Desktop.
Does that kinda answer your question?
Just wanted to post this again so people see it.
Thanks for the news Island Dog! It's much appreciated!
I do find it rather funny and amusing on the new stance with sharing Rebellion keys with Steam.
Considering this gem of a thread: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/344467
Where Frogboy was pitching how awesome it would be for digital games to be "vendor neutral" to put the power back into the hands of the players and prevent scenarios where a vendor goes out of business, since the player could just download from another platform. Of course, back then he wanted other publishers to share their keys with Impulse, but now that it comes to sharing SD keys with Steam, the tune is reversed
Food for thought.
It is also a method for trolling as it has been answered multiple times. Can we move on yet?
Keep in mind that for Rebellion no one has likely looked seriously into distribution as they haven't even had a beta yet. If a company has not yet made a decision, then the only thing they likely will say for sure is that it will be available on their service (and that's all that they likely CAN say because that is ALL there likely is at this point in time).
'Beta' versions of the game have traditionally been given access to those that pre-order through a StarDock controlled service. As much as it might piss some people off, they will likely stick to a StarDock controlled service once again just for the beta. Exactly the same way they have stuck to a Stardock controlled service for the two expansion betas.
Is everyone better now or are we going to go round and round with the same arguments and counter arguments? I can watch Stant do this all day!
I would rephrase my suggestion to "You could give away Sins Trinity with the new Add-on Rebellion when it launches on Steam as special sale", which is basically the same thing.
Meh, Steam can blow.
I would like non-digital Rebellion release because I'm one of those oddballs who don't use credit cards.
Thats my opinion, too. The only reason i got an impulse account was to play those old little strategy gems. The whole management of Stardock AND impulse failed, they refused to sell SOASE because the idee was to compete steam. now they sold the whole store to gamestop and sell their game via steam as well, but its dated now, had they done this in the first place SOASE would have been much more successful and maybe there would have been more money to make elemtal and demigod better games then the crappy pieces of sowftware they are (expecially elemental).
I won't purchase anything else from stardockshop/gamestop/impulse in the future, this whole misconception annoyed me enough already. Whats the point in beeing independent and making wrong decisions all along the way? Maybe i will purchase rebellion when it is on sale at steam, something like the complete pack for 10 dollars, trinity including rebellion.
There isn't even language support for the games which have been translated, soase, gc2...
And now we can't even activate the games on steam we have already paid for. they already got my money for the game, so why can't i choose on what platform i play it. i bought gemini rue, nice little independent adventure game, oldschool. it just got released at steam 2 weeks ago and the developers where more than happy to send me a free steam key because i bought the game when it came out 1 year ago.
its all about support of the independent game developers and the good stuff, but what about the support of the gamers?
It does to some extent, but I remember how Stardock's digital distribution service started. The thing is... Stardock Central *became* Impulse, so my GalCiv and GalCiv 2 copies got transferred to that service.
Now if I want to play/download GalCiv, GalCiv2, Demigod, or Sins I have to use Impulse, which was fine when Stardock owned it. However, Stardock doesn't own it any more. My games didn't transfer back to Stardock, which is my main complaint. For now, I'm only purchasing games on services that I feel are going to be around for the long haul and are not GameStop.
I'm sure it was a great business move for Stardock to make. I can respect that, after all you guys aren't in this for charity. However, certainly you understand if people are skeptical of purchasing from you this soon after you just sold our accounts and all our Impulse purchased games to GameStop. A company that many gamers revile, with good reason.
If Rebellion comes out on other services, great. If not, well... there is never a shortage of new games.
If I own SoaSE on Impulse, and a friend buys it on Steam, can I play with them?
If so, I have no problems
Impulse did indeed start as Stardock central. But Stardock sold it because they didn't want to get in the business of selling other people's stuff more than making software. I'm convinced they won't go the same route again, not the least because actually entering the entire digital software market again after already selling Impulse gives them two rivals with more money than they do to compete with, rather than the one they had before.
Yes, all versions of the game use Iron Clad Online for multiplayer.
Yeah I would like my pre-order rebellion on steam too if possible.
QUESTION: If not transfer from Impulse to STEAM (which would be my preferable way), can we at least get rid of Impulse and use SoaSE stand-alone? (AND UPDATE it)
Yes, this is how it's always been.
No. But you can always uninstall impulse after you update and play your game just fine.
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