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.
Well, Rebellion is a stand alone who will have everything make before in it ( sins + ent + dip + reb )...
So, if Rebellion ( sins + ent + dip + reb ) hit the steam store, you don't need Trinity ( sins + ent + dip )...
In some way, Rebellion can be called "Quadrinity"
Well, you speak of little Indie game where a few thousand copy was released...
Remember that SOASE have already sell over 2 million copy... transfer so much on Steam will cost a lot to Steam... Specially with the high patching rate of SOASE... only in the last few week, 2 patch was released... one was around 30mb... 2 million customer mean at least 60TB download... do you think that Steam will accept huge internet cost for please people who have not buy the game by them?
It have happen in the past that Steam allow to redeem a successful game buy somewhere else with steam serial key sell at lower price... but it is a Steam choice...
By the way, SOASE buy on Impulse are now Gamestop responsability... so, it is Gamestop and Steam who need to negociate... pretty sure that since Gamestop have buy Impulse, Stardock have not anymore access to the Impulse customer database... if you wish your Impulse/Gamestop game serial become valid on Steam, ask Gamestop or/and Steam, not Stardock...
The only serial that Stardock is in full control are serial from game/software buy on https://store.stardock.com/browse ... for the few who have buy via these channel, maybe Stardock and Steam can negociate something ( both side need to be willing )...
Quote from Ashenkhar
"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."
He's got the right idea...Many of the complaints I see is that we had no choice in the selling of our digital copies to Gamestop. You guys can call it good business if you like, but that really means nothing to the end user. I bought your games through Impulse because it was Stardock. I didn't buy them from Gamestop. Only now I have no choice in the matter.
This is why people are complaining about the no transfer to steam policy. We simply do not want to deal with gamestop, but Stardock took that choice away from us. All there is from Stardock is a shrug of the shoulders and a "sorry, too bad". We chose to use Impulse (when it was Impulse) because we love your games and trusted your company. We do not trust Gamestop.
Do you see the difference there?
Many of the users here feel abandoned by Stardock with no real explanation.
Go to https://store.stardock.com , log-in, click "my account", click "view your product download" ... you will have a screen like these :
If you have multiple account like me, check them all... any Stardock product that you have buy can be found there... for copy that you have donate as gift, check the "print invoices ( view past orders )"...
Galciv II Ultimate have a direct download link because i have buy it via the Stardock store ( cheaper that on impulse/Gamestop )...
For buy, there was always a choice... Stardock store or Impulse... as for download, i will explain a little more below...
Well, i don't like gamestop too... so, i have recently buy Gal Civ II ultimate directly on the Stardock store... serial from the Stardock store work on Impulse too...
Stardock have not abandon us, they are already working on a new stardock central for download and patch... will work with any Stardock product that you have register... same the new Steam Trinity version need to be register on Stardock, so the game will be listed in your Stardock account...
Once the new Stardock central will be running, you will be able to use it ( hope with the Steam version too )... because of your registration... It is how Stardock central have always work before the creation of Impulse...
Don't loose your trust in Stardock... be patient... Stardock know all the owner of Stardock product and soon there will be SDC for download/update/patch/etc...
If someday, Impulse/Gamestop and/or Steam die, you will always have your Stardock product register with you Stardock account and you will always be able to download/update/patch it via the new Stardock central...
PS for Stardock Team : try to have the new Stardock central ready soon... it will extinguish a lot of the complain in these topic... best is to the new SDC is working BEFORE the release of any new product... i am thinking about rebellion now... maybe a new post in the topic with the screenshoot of the future Stardock central is needed, a post who explain deeply what is SDC... a lot of your newer customer don't know about it... and try to keep the "chat" in the new SDC, useful for setup multiplayer game
EDIT : Steam ( http://store.steampowered.com/app/201290 ) miss something... a demo ( http://storage.stardock.com/files/Sins_of_a_Solar_Empire_Demo.exe ) for convince new potential customer to buy sins...
But what happen if someday internet die? Will i get refund? Will Jesus save us all?
And what happen with my old CD-ROM and floppy disk games which not work anymore because they too old and the companies not exist anymore? Can i buy insurance from you for when it die? HAAAAAAA
I would suggest contacting support, as your Stardock games should be on your Stardock account.
https://store.stardock.com/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=/myaccount/products
For all we know preorders will done be done on Steam, so if you value having it on steam more then getting access to the beta you might not want preorder/cancel your preorder unless they say that it will be transferable. As Island Dog said, for now the only place where you'll be able to download/patch the Rebellion is the Stardock store.
Edit: It would be nice to be able to use the Stardock store or website to download and update Sins instead of Impulse, but it seems that isn't an option for whatever reason.
Sorry my tone might have been too harsh.
Here is my point: I bought my Stardock games through impulse when it was a Stardock company (I do understand that it is a separate company, but it was still the same group). Stardock sells the company to Gamestop and now I have to deal with a company I didn't want to deal with. For various reasons that I'm not getting into here, I simply do not trust Gamestop.
Because of this sale I have no choice but to continue using a service I don't want to use if I want to play/download/update my games.
I'm sure people will have similar complaints about Steam or Origin etc. but my beef is with Gamestop. I wanted to deal with Stardock, but now they made it impossible for me to do so.
I hope that is a more clear statement.
In other news, the release on Steam seems to have boosted the ICO online player counts for Diplomacy. I don't know if the increase is due to brand new players or older players who have renewed interest. It also increased membership in the Steam group I created to promote ICO and online multiplayer:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SinsOnline
Bombeross - You can download the latest full version directly from us and in the very near future will be able to get patches that way too.
It's not silly at all, in fact, that's been the recommendation from Stardock from the very beginning. If you don't like Impulse, you can always uninstall it and it will have no adverse effects on your game. As I noted though, if you want the patches, you'll need to hang onto it. (At least until the new SDC is released to the general public.)
If you don't want those types of answers, don't ask those types of questions.
They are in my account, but most of them say: Please use Impulse to register your serial number and download this software.
Are there plans to allow us to download these directly from Stardock? If so, that would be awesome.
OK after reading and trying different things and deleting and reinstalling the game I finally got it to run.
The problem was the instructions on the stardock activation page dont tell you to change the name of the file you have to plug into the stardock folder. (duh)
In case anyone else is having the same problem as me (basically you arent really computer savvy and didnt notice this because you followed the instructions to the letter) here is how I got the game running:
1. After you download and install the game from steam, when you launch it, the startdock activation window will pop up asking you for your email, stardock acct password and the serial number from the game you are trying to register. ( you can get the serial number by right clicking on the game app in your steam library)
2. If you dont already have a stardock account make one. (I already had one since I bought Sins vanilla back when it came out)
After I did this the activation program gives an error message and says it cant communicate with the server. On my computer it gave a message, opened up the folder with the file you need to upload and then tells you to goto this website:
http://activate.stardock.com/
3. Once there, goto this section:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Website Activation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. You dont need to take the file to a computer without internet access like it says in #2, I did it from my pc I was trying to activate the game on. Just find the XX.txt file in the folder it opens for you and submit it in the form.
5. Once you submit the file underneath the submit button you will see a link where it says 'Click here to Download'. Save this file to your computer some where.
6. *Here* is what was causing my problem. The next instructions above say to copy & paste the file into this directory:
C:\ProgramData\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\License\trinity.bin
The problem is the downloaded file is actually named 'sig.bin' not 'trinity.bin'.
I know its an easy mistake and most of you probably already knew this but like I said I'm not computer savvy and following the instructions to the letter it doesnt tell you to rename the file.
So basically rename the file you download before you pop it into the directory and the game will launch.
Sorry for wasting a lot of people's time but I know I'm not the only computer Jerry's kid out there and I want more people to actually play and enjoy this game.
Good Luck!
That is great news. I just really wanted to use your service to begin with. I can accept that my other non-Stardock game purchases are lost to Gamestop, as long as I didn't lose Sins. (it was only a couple of games anyways)
Please forgive my rants, but I really had the impression that because my purchases of Sins were through Impulse, that I couldn't transfer them to you guys.
Too bad about the other games, I'll miss my copy of Mass Effect 2 (maybe steam will put it on for cheap soon...)
that is acceptable. now where do i find a page to download the full game and possibly patches manually.
As far as I know all patches are still managed through Impulse (GameStop now) and will be managed in the future through the new StarDock Central. This is a methodology that I fully support as well.
As now, you can already add sins buy on Stardock store or Impulse to Steam : https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2219-YDJV-5557
This is possible because sins don't require Impulse for launch the game, thank to the no DRM policy of Stardock... It is not a transfer but it will allow your to use the Steam interface for sins...
Once the new Stardock central is done and released, simply use the same method for add it on Steam... The SDC will be the way to update all the Stardock games/application...
I have plenty of game buy on GOG that i have add to steam... for usual use, a single interface for everything... since a lot of these games are old ( and DRM free ), the update problem don't exist...
In the case of sins, add it to Steam... use only Impulse when update/patch is released... soon, for people who don't like Gamestop, there will be a new SDC...
I'm good with not having my Sins from impulse transfer over... in fact I just purchased trinity on Steam because it was worth it for me to do so.
What I am concerned about is my pre-order for Rebellion. I got the discount for owning the other Sins titles, but is that key going to work on Steam since the game is being released when Sins is already on Impulse and Steam? If not, how do I cancel my pre-order, because I am willing to give up said discount to avoid purchasing Rebellion twice.
We've not yet announced our plans for Rebellion yet, but we'll be doing so before pre-orders are charged in order to give customers a chance to make changes.
That's all I need to hear, however an email reminder when the decision is made would be extremely handy as I don't often check these forums
Well, it seem that the number of Sins Steam player is growing... have just check now and sins is already in the top 100 of the most player game on Steam ( rank 64 )... with 711 people playing it now... most player today being 729...
I have a hate-love-hate relationship with Steam. Back when Half-Life 2 first came out, I was ready to strangle them over how many hoops they made you jump through to play your single-player game. Years later, I gave them a second chance and grudgingly had to admit their service and constant sales were reasonable. Then my friend and I picked up a game that had horrendous loading time and server downtime that the company stated was related to Steam, not them (could be BS, but previous versions of the game that were not Steamworks did not have said problems). It was basically intolerable and we had to abandon it. Then I bought another game that simply would not download (kept getting 'stuck' and 92% download), and got no help at all from their support to resolve it. I have gone back to refusing to support Steam or any Steamworks title, and only run the one game I still have installed from it on offline mode.
Of course, I can't stand Gamestop either and haven't bought anything from them since they took over Impulse. I'm not shocked Stardock wants to distance themselves from them, knowing full well the amount of bile most PC gamers have for Gamestop and their practices.
I'm a little concerned about the expansion now though. If my copy of Sins is tied to Gamestop, does that mean I'm going to have to register the expansion through them to get updates? I don't like Steam, but I suspect the multiplayer experience is going to simply be easier with the Steam interface.
Rebellion is a stand alone title and for now (they are expected to give more details soon, as mentioned a few posts above) is only through Stardock directly, not Gamestop or Valve. Also since Sins has its own multiplayer system I doubt having it on Steam is going to really improve that (of course I don't really use it so I might be missing something).
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