Stardock gets Impulse-ive

string

I just found this. I tried search and found nothing mentioning this so I figured I'd broach the topic!

At first glance, it appears Impulse is a digital distribution competitor to Steam. Download Stardock and select other publishers' games AND applications. For example, all the Stardock apps are available through Impulse. Here's a link to it:

http://www.impulsedriven.com/

Now the big questions are, does it allow multiple downloads of the content like Steam? I'm still perusing the site. Anyone got the skinny on this?

Trevor

I don't mean to be super pessimistic, and competition drives innovation and all that jazz. But really, at this point wouldn't it be easier and more profitable to just put their games on Steam instead of trying to compete with it? The only benefit I can see from it is the inclusion of things like applications and it seems to have a more robust organization feature for outside applications than Steam.

Stormwatcher

I've downloaded it, and it's kinda nice.
No Steam, though.

Dashui

Trevor wrote: »

I don't mean to be super pessimistic, and competition drives innovation and all that jazz. But really, at this point wouldn't it be easier and more profitable to just put their games on Steam instead of trying to compete with it? The only benefit I can see from it is the inclusion of things like applications and it seems to have a more robust organization feature for outside applications than Steam.

I'd rather Stardock stick around, unless Steam will eventually let me download a digital copy AND send me a CD/DVD version at the same time for little to no extra cost. Stardock doesn't have the great integrated community features like Steam, but it has a fantastic number of services that no others do.

randombattle

Yeah I don't see too much of a point.

Htown

It's nice that they're giving Steam some competition at least. Don't think I'll be using it myself, though.

The Listener

Trevor wrote: »

I don't mean to be super pessimistic, and competition drives innovation and all that jazz. But really, at this point wouldn't it be easier and more profitable to just put their games on Steam instead of trying to compete with it? The only benefit I can see from it is the inclusion of things like applications and it seems to have a more robust organization feature for outside applications than Steam.

I think there is plenty of room in the marketplace for more than one digital distribution program. I don't think the client itself takes up much resources, and I don't really see Steam as being a good source for non-game applications.

My only fear for this one is if they have any sort of exit plan for their applications; when they abandon support of Impulse, will your application your company relies on dissapear?

zhen_rogue

So I have GalCiv2 installed, with all the expansions.
I typically check Stardock Central for updates and patches.
Once I download Impulse, is Stardock Central now useless?

JerikTelorian

The Listener wrote: »

Trevor wrote: »

I don't mean to be super pessimistic, and competition drives innovation and all that jazz. But really, at this point wouldn't it be easier and more profitable to just put their games on Steam instead of trying to compete with it? The only benefit I can see from it is the inclusion of things like applications and it seems to have a more robust organization feature for outside applications than Steam.

I think there is plenty of room in the marketplace for more than one digital distribution program. I don't think the client itself takes up much resources, and I don't really see Steam as being a good source for non-game applications.

My only fear for this one is if they have any sort of exit plan for their applications; when they abandon support of Impulse, will your application your company relies on dissapear?

We already have a number of Digital Distribution programs though -- D2D and Gametap are two fairly popular examples.

Regarding the destruction of companies, Steam has commented that if they were to ever disappear, they can turn off Authentication for their games. Evidently this is something they've already done to test it.

Re: D2D, I have Silent Hunter 4: U Boat Missions from them, and you can actually burn the install file it gives you, and as long as you save the auth codes they send you for the game, you never need to talk to them about it again. Not sure about anyone else, though.

string

Yeah, it apparently "seamlessly" (their word, not mine) replaces Stardock Central. Reading some of the comments about over a Blue's and on VE it seems like it works. I too am disappointed they did work out a deal with Valve to provide the same service using Steam.

Maybe competition is good but, personally, I think a unified platform is going to benefit PC gaming a whole lot more then all these disparate digital distribution platforms. (DDDP? Catchy!:P)

Trevor

Perhaps I'm a little selfish, but something else that I just thought of is that I don't relish the idea of a bunch of companies deciding they all need their own distribution platform so I have four or five different Steam-like programs to juggle to keep track of all my games.

subedii

Yeah I read about this earlier. It's good that they're trying to offer up some competition. I've already downloaded it, but there doesn't seem to be anything I want that I haven't already got. Shadowgrounds, GalCiv and Sins, might've gotten them if this platform had come out beforehand

What surprised me was that not only did they have Epic's Unreal series on there, they also had Penny Arcade Adventures on there too. I don't remember seeing it mentioned anywhere on the front page, but I guess they must have figured that if they're going with Steam, why not Impulse as well?

Most of the games on there are pretty indie. I might pick up Space Rangers since I've heard a lot of good things about that series. Hopefully they'll start to expand over time.

As for the "it's no steam" comment, well sure, it's going to take time to develop. Heck even Brad Wardell said so on his blog, you couldn't pry Steam off his hard drive. But the existing and proposed feature sets all seem to be good, so I'm hopeful for the platform. As far as I'm concerned a good competitor to Steam is a good thing.

It'll be interesting to see how this goes with Chris Taylor's next game, he's going to be publishing it on Impulse. There's a good interview with the two over at Joystiq:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/24/joystiq-interview-demigod-sins-and-the-death-of-pc-gaming/

Brad and Chris, Demigod won't have copy protection and the assumption is that it'll be supported the same way as Sins is currently. Can you talk a little bit about the decision not to copy-protect?

BW - Our "copy protection" is to give players more of a reason to buy the game. As was recently reported, Sins is still at the top of the PC retail sales charts (according to NPD) here months later with no sign of slowing down. That kind of kills the argument that you need to put CD copy protection on your games to sell in quantity. I don't like piracy, I work hard on this stuff and it is frustrating to see our hard work pirated. But at the same time, my emotional satisfaction at trying to thwart pirates can't come at the expense of the people who pay my salary – my customers. The best system in my opinion is one where my intellectual property is protected but is invisible to my legitimate customers.

That's why I think platforms like Impulse are the future. A user buys a game at the store, doesn't need the CD, doesn't need an Internet connection to install the game and the game is great out of the box. But when they get free, meaningful updates that add new content and features, those updates belong to the specific user who gets their own free account. Moreover, by doing that, a user, even five years later, can come on and re-download the entire game they bought from Wal-Mart, or Best Buy, or EB, or whatever, so their purchase is protected.

What's your response to the belief that PC gaming is dying?

BW - Oh absolutely. It's not just dying, it's already dead. Totally. In fact...all game developers that feel that way should quickly flee to the, um ... console market, right now. Don't worry about us, we'll guard you're back while you retreat. Nothing to see here. We'll shut the lights off when you're all gone. No, no, no need to thank us at all. We just want to make sure the developers who think PC gaming is dying are safe to flee to greener pastures. We're just that selfless.

CT – (Laughs) Okay, so I'll give a slightly more "serious" answer. I've said that PC Gaming "as we know it" is dying, but there is a new kind of PC gaming being born out the ashes. Brad is definitely leading this charge with his innovative approach, and I am 100% in support of this. It's like what Sam Walton once said when asked how to succeed, he said, "Do what everyone else isn't doing." And this is exactly the case here. Remove this awful copy protection, and give your customers the great experience they deserve. Brad has a model which bucks the old system, and it's time to buck the old system, because the old system wasn't working ... it is, in fact, dead.

I'm genuinely interested in seeing how this pans out.

There was also another interview with Brad Wardell on this over at Gamespy.

VoodooV

Trevor wrote: »

Perhaps I'm a little selfish, but something else that I just thought of is that I don't relish the idea of a bunch of companies deciding they all need their own distribution platform so I have four or five different Steam-like programs to juggle to keep track of all my games.

Well that's the thing though. Steam isn't just a distribution platform, it's a complete online service. So yeah, if you were forced to have each companies steam-like program installed, I agree that it would be a pain in the ass.

I haven't tried Impulse yet, but that's what I really liked about Stardock, that once you got the game, you simply didn't need it anymore except maybe for updates. Stardock is digital delivery and a patch delivery system, nothing more and IMO, that's all it needs to be.

That's my only real beef with Steam is that it's TOO integrated. It's one thing to require steam for online gaming, but for single player gaming, I shouldn't need steam. Yes I know about offline mode, that's not what I'm talking about, steam and it's games are one integrated program, you can't play your games without steam being installed.

not trying to start a steam flame war btw. I have steam and I like steam, but I don't do multiplayer gaming often so for me, steam is nothing but a launchpad.

Endomatic

You've got to love their outlook.

This is one thing I'll definitely be supporting.

Threepio

Do we need to be reminded that Steam wasn't "Steam" for nearly the first year of its life? It's come a long way, baby - and expecting that other services won't have to go through the same growing pains is naive.

Drool

string wrote: »

. I too am disappointed they did work out a deal with Valve to provide the same service using Steam.

I don't think they ever tried to work anything out with Valve to put their games on Steam. Stardock doesn't really need to give a cut to anyone. Thier games are profitable and they have a pretty big cult following, not to mention their non-game applications.

I think they have plenty of potential as they expand the community features. It seems like they're aiming for something less intrusive, but just as functional if you want it as Steam.

aunsoph

Steam has DRM built-in. It'd be pretty hypocritical of them to adhere to a distribution system that forces that mechanism into every purchase.

So yeah, there are several reasons to not just jump into Steam.

One Thousand Cables

This is gonna turn into a DRM thread, isn't it.

Anyway, I downloaded this last night while buying the new Political Machine game--had no idea it was a new thing. Seems pretty good, but I doubt that I'll go out of my way to use it.

aunsoph

One Thousand Dicks wrote: »

This is gonna turn into a DRM thread, isn't it.

Anyway, I downloaded this last night while buying the new Political Machine game--had no idea it was a new thing. Seems pretty good, but I doubt that I'll go out of my way to use it.

It doesn't have to. I was just pointing out that is probably one of the factors.

string

Drool wrote: »

I don't think they ever tried to work anything out with Valve to put their games on Steam. Stardock doesn't really need to give a cut to anyone. Thier games are profitable and they have a pretty big cult following, not to mention their non-game applications.

I think they have plenty of potential as they expand the community features. It seems like they're aiming for something less intrusive, but just as functional if you want it as Steam.

My point isn't so much that they shouldn't compete with Steam. It is more that I really don't think another digital distribution application needs to be running in my system tray 24x7. Having said that, I could be speaking out of my ass since I haven't actually installed and tried Impulse yet.

Steam's DRM is also something I didn't really think of and is definitely a good point. Do you not need to be logged into Impulse to play their games once downloaded? I know stardock central was simply download and patch, no restrictions. Is Impulse the same?

really, it basically comes down to me being lazy and wanting a single harmonious system. What can I say, I'm a lazy bastard.

Drool

string wrote: »

Drool wrote: »

I don't think they ever tried to work anything out with Valve to put their games on Steam. Stardock doesn't really need to give a cut to anyone. Thier games are profitable and they have a pretty big cult following, not to mention their non-game applications.

I think they have plenty of potential as they expand the community features. It seems like they're aiming for something less intrusive, but just as functional if you want it as Steam.

My point isn't so much that they shouldn't compete with Steam. It is more that I really don't think another digital distribution application needs to be running in my system tray 24x7. Having said that, I could be speaking out of my ass since I haven't actually installed and tried Impulse yet.

Steam's DRM is also something I didn't really think of and is definitely a good point. Do you not need to be logged into Impulse to play their games once downloaded? I know stardock central was simply download and patch, no restrictions. Is Impulse the same?

really, it basically comes down to me being lazy and wanting a single harmonious system. What can I say, I'm a lazy bastard.

You don't need to be logged in at all. It doesn't run in the system tray at all. At least it wasn't set to by default. You download your game hit the X in the corner and it goes away.

And what restricitons would you expect them to add between Stardock Central and Impluse? They don't even have copy protection other than CD keys.

string

Drool wrote: »

You don't need to be logged in at all. It doesn't run in the system tray at all. At least it wasn't set to by default. You download your game hit the X in the corner and it goes away.

And what restricitons would you expect them to add between Stardock Central and Impluse? They don't even have copy protection other than CD keys.

Fair enough. Just to be clear, I'm not anti-Impulse or anti-Stardock. Hell, I'm not even really a big Steam fanboy although I seem to be purchasing more games from Steam than any other source lately.

Drool

string wrote: »

Drool wrote: »

You don't need to be logged in at all. It doesn't run in the system tray at all. At least it wasn't set to by default. You download your game hit the X in the corner and it goes away.

And what restricitons would you expect them to add between Stardock Central and Impluse? They don't even have copy protection other than CD keys.

Fair enough. Just to be clear, I'm not anti-Impulse or anti-Stardock. Hell, I'm not even really a big Steam fanboy although I seem to be purchasing more games from Steam than any other source lately.

Steam is awesome I get most of my games there, but their is value in a less intrusive digital download service I think. Also it seems they are trying to focus on making everything happen in the program super quick which is nice.

urahonky

This + Greenhouse + Steam is already too much. Unfortunately.

Drool

urahonky wrote: »

This + Greenhouse + Steam is already too much. Unfortunately.

I don't understand that logic. Greenhouse is just a website. Is Bestbuy + Target + Walmart too much? They all offer different reasons to shop there.

Aoi

Stormwatcher wrote: »

I've downloaded it, and it's kinda nice.
No Steam, though.

You gotta admit though, to say Steam started out rather roughly would be an understatement. I don't know if I would use it, but I don't have a problem with another one of these. Best of luck to em.

urahonky

Drool wrote: »

urahonky wrote: »

This + Greenhouse + Steam is already too much. Unfortunately.

I don't understand that logic. Greenhouse is just a website. Is Bestbuy + Target + Walmart too much? They all offer different reasons to shop there.

Yes, yes they are.

Drool

OK but without all those stores you would be paying retarded prices. I mean do you have capitalism and competition?

urahonky

Drool wrote: »

OK but without all those stores you would be paying retarded prices. I mean do you have capitalism and competition?

I doubt Steam will consider this as competition. They've already grown their roots into my HDD, and will be continuing to use that program over anything else.

Unless this will somehow let me download the games I paid for on Steam, this is just a nuisance.

Aoi

I don't get it. It's not like this is some ultra high resource hogging piece of software, and it's sure as hell easier than driving from store to store to find some rare game. You want a game from one developer, you load up steam, want it from another, load up impulse. I don't see the problem here, and again, competition is always a good thing.

Drool

urahonky wrote: »

Drool wrote: »

OK but without all those stores you would be paying retarded prices. I mean do you have capitalism and competition?

I doubt Steam will consider this as competition. They've already grown their roots into my HDD, and will be continuing to use that program over anything else.

Unless this will somehow let me download the games I paid for on Steam, this is just a nuisance.

Well if you were to want to play Sins of the Solar Empire, or Demigod you would probably get it off Impulse. Also it is competition for Steam because it has a lighter footprint on your machine. Some people actually like that.

One nice feature is that they are going to allow developers to let people register their CD keys from boxed copies with Impluse and be able to download the game in the future as well as hang on to save games and settings.

urahonky

Drool wrote: »

urahonky wrote: »

Drool wrote: »

OK but without all those stores you would be paying retarded prices. I mean do you have capitalism and competition?

I doubt Steam will consider this as competition. They've already grown their roots into my HDD, and will be continuing to use that program over anything else.

Unless this will somehow let me download the games I paid for on Steam, this is just a nuisance.

Well if you were to want to play Sins of the Solar Empire, or Demigod you would probably get it off Impulse. Also it is competition for Steam because it has a lighter footprint on your machine. Some people actually like that.

One nice feature is that they are going to allow developers to let people register their CD keys from boxed copies with Impluse and be able to download the game in the future as well as hang on to save games and settings.

That is a nice feature. I didn't say that this is a terrible thing, but I just hate the fact that they could just go to Steam and pretty much do the same thing. But instead they go for making their own downloadable service.

Aoi wrote:

I don't get it. It's not like this is some ultra high resource hogging piece of software, and it's sure as hell easier than driving from store to store to find some rare game. You want a game from one developer, you load up steam, want it from another, load up impulse. I don't see the problem here, and again, competition is always a good thing.

You're right too. But what happens when ANOTHER developer does it again in the future. Like EA or something. Then I'll have one for EA games, another for Stardock games, then another for Steam games.

And then, of course, there will be another that joins the fray. It's just annoying to have multiple programs that DO THE SAME THING but have different companies backing it.

I know capitalism and competition... But still.

Aoi

EA already have one And yeah, to a point I do agree, and to be honest, I don't need any of the damned things sitting in my systray constantly, but I also don't have a big problem with having even a few loaders sitting on my machine acting as kind of a hub for things I've purchased, though in all honesty, I would still much rather have the physical disks.

urahonky

Aoi wrote: »

EA already have one And yeah, to a point I do agree, and to be honest, I don't need any of the damned things sitting in my systray constantly, but I also don't have a big problem with having even a few loaders sitting on my machine acting as kind of a hub for things I've purchased, though in all honesty, I would still much rather have the physical disks.

Oh son of a bitch. I posted EA because I thought they would be the most likely of the companies to have their own lol.

Aoi

urahonky wrote: »

Aoi wrote: »

EA already have one And yeah, to a point I do agree, and to be honest, I don't need any of the damned things sitting in my systray constantly, but I also don't have a big problem with having even a few loaders sitting on my machine acting as kind of a hub for things I've purchased, though in all honesty, I would still much rather have the physical disks.

Oh son of a bitch. I posted EA because I thought they would be the most likely of the companies to have their own lol.

Yeah, I think they've had it for a while. You can download the expansion packs for their Battlefield games from it, and I'm pretty sure the Spore Creature Creator, and I THINK some of their full retail stuff, too.

Drool

See but EA's sucks, hopefully they will go the Steam route eventually. Stardock actually put some effort into it and are making a decent service.

Htown

Yeah, you actually just kind of RENT the games from EA's service for a couple years.

Arrath

zhen_rogue wrote: »

So I have GalCiv2 installed, with all the expansions.
I typically check Stardock Central for updates and patches.
Once I download Impulse, is Stardock Central now useless?

From what I've read Impulse is SDC v2.0 with a new name, so yes.

string

I think what biased me against Impulse in the first place is that Steam has been making improvements in leaps and bounds lately. All of sudden an other player pops into the market saying they are the next "Big Thing" and when you look at the "features" for their product they are basically a Steam clone. Not too many features on the Impulse site that Steam doesn't already do or aren't planning to do in the near future. Even their planned features are the same as Steam. Example, the cloud computing stuff to store your game settings and saves. Steam literally just announced this same feature like what, a week ago?

Granted Drool makes some good points with regards to Stardock's products and maybe this is the right solution for them personally as a company. As a whole though, this is just another choice for other game developers to make with regards to distribution. Digital distribution is already the redheaded stepchild (according to NPD stats anyway) of game sales, further splitting the market is just going to confuse gamers and distributors alike.

Having said all that I will end up using it for GalCiv, Sins, and any other great game up and coming from Stardock. Having looked at Impulse's features and frankly their pricing though, I'm sure I will select a different method of acquiring 3rd party games. (Of course baring any that I am interested that are ONLY available on Impulse) There just isn't anything to Impulse that makes me want to buy into it as a platform. It needs to offer me something beneficial to get my attention. For example, EA's digital download service leave a lot to be desired. Basically means I will never buy games online from EA. Counterexample, Blizzards new service is pretty cool and allows you to register CD keys from Bliz games you own and then get them digitally, forever. Chances are I would use that service.

quarthinos

Why does everyone think Impulse is some Johnny-come-lately? As has been pointed out, Impulse is Stardock Central v2. Stardock central is a replacement for the even older totalgaming.net. As far as I can tell, Steam was initially released in 2003? Stardock Central was available for the GalCiv 1 beta in 2001. SDC replaced totalgaming.net and a few other stardock delivery vehicles which were initially released in 1999! I know that SDC doesn't have the cachet of having distributed team fortress 2 or half life (2?), but give it some credit, please. As a few others have pointed out, unlike Steam, it has zero copy protection, and you don't have to constantly have it hanging out next to your clock. Steam might have friends lists and in-game chat, but there haven't been many SDC games released that were multi-player, so it was never a design goal to have those things.

Htown

I got no problem with Impulse. There's room for more than one digital distribution service on the internet.

Just not on my hard drive.