GameStop Buys Impulse From Stardock

Daetrin writes "It was announced Thursday that Stardock has sold Impulse, the digital game store, to GameStop. Stardock founder Brad Wardell gave an interview to Joystiq talking about the sale and the reasons behind it. GameStop also announced their acquisition of SpawnLabs, a game streaming company. It seems that GameStop is looking to challenge Steam, or at least avoid being cut out of the digital distribution business entirely."

Comments

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[Daetrin]

And here's another article from 1UP.

Re:Might Save Impulse

[Daetrin]

Impulse kind of suffers from being halfway between Steam and Good Old Games.

On average Impulse doesn't have base prices as cheap as Good Old Games.
On average Impulse doesn't have sales discounts as large as Steam
Impulse has more DRM than GOG.
Impulse doesn't have as many really old games as GOG.
Impulse doesn't have as many big new games as Steam.
Impulse doesn't have achievements or community features like the Steam client does.
But Impulse does force you to use a client, unlike GOG.

I like Impulse, and i have bought a number of games from them, but they're certainly not the ones that i've bought the most games from. For just about any single category of comparison either Steam or GOG outperforms it. If it was just a competition between Impulse and _one_ of the other two they'd probably be doing pretty well for themselves, but as things stand...

Guess you could say...

[Anonymous Coward]

It was an Impulse buy!

Re:And They'll fail

[Lord_of_the_nerf]

People like steam because it's NOT gamestop. Steam evolved as a response to everything that was wrong with gamestop. Buying a new storefront isn't going to change the problems with gamestop, it's only going to ruin the storefront.

GameStop doesn't have the same worldwide recognition as Steam either. Where I am, Steam is a positively recognised brand and GameStop is virtually unknown. Unless GameStop/Impulse are planning a massive marketing push, I don't see them as having the visibility of Steam internationally.

Steam is actually fine

[Plekto]

This is an old argument. There is a way around it.

1 - Steam doesn't ever include DRM on their end. If the application in question does install DRM as part of the setup, you can safely excise it from your system and the game will still run since the Steam application actually controls your right to access it/run the program. A typical Steam re-install is to download everything and then purge SecuRom. Thankfully virtually all of the games on Steam use this, so one brute-force purge at the end is enough to get it all at once.

When making a new system build, I generally get the firewall and other AV software running, make a backup of Documents and Settings take a physical screen shot of the applications folder, and also the system folders. Then set Steam to go overnight. Purging Securom is easy as pie - yank out all new registry changes, delete and rip out anything new on the drive that's not in the Steam folder or obviously Steam related, and do the same with the system folder. You should end up with a clean SecuRom-free system with Steam on it. That said, it's not as good as GoG. But GoG doesn't have the new games, either.

note - there are a few older games that use StarForce, so you do need to check before you buy. I "lost" a drive because of this. IDE drives brick themselves easily under windows. Get a SCIS or SATA DVD drive - something that doesn't use PIO mode at all and never will. Because once Windows has marked a drive as faulty, you'll never get it running properly again. note - the drive worked fine in an Apple afterwards and probably would in a new system. Windows needs to stop this idiocy because this is why DRM "kills" drives. The DRM generates errors and hang=ups and eventually Windows marks the drive as defective and you're done.

Steam really should crack down on the developers to only give them DRM free installers. But is is possible to have a DRM free Steam install.

2 - More importantly, all games on Steam can be run without being connected. You have to go into each and every game and turn off "keep this program up to date". You also have to turn Steam Community completely off. Then and only then can you go offline and have things run properly. The easiest way to do this is to unplug your computer(or disable steam in your firewall) from your router and reboot. Run Steam and it will complain and then give up. Reboot again and connect the internet back. You're good to go without ever hearing from Steam again.

Re:Steam is actually fine

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why Steam is successful: fanboys. It's like with Apple. Guys like you simply redefine things out of existence, even if they are as worse than elsewhere.

Steam IS DRM. It's online activation, tied to an online account, client-overhead laden, they-control-everything DRM. Sure there are some community features but first and foremost, Steam is DRM. Every single game on Steam contains one of the most restrictive DRMs.

If Ubisoft or EA do it, it's utmost evil. If Steam doesn it, hey it's not even DRM, it's rainbows, sunshine and happy fun time!

Re:Steam is actually fine

[Mascot]

Yes, technically you have to connect to download them and buy them, but remaining connected is optional.

True, but only for that computer. If the servers die, you are now forced to keep that computer running, because you have no way of activating your Steam account on a new computer. If it wasn't DRM, I would be able to do a restore of a Steam backup on an offline computer, and start playing. You can't, you need to go online at least once to log in.

Then there's all the third party DRM that's added into most major titles these days. It's a bit of a minefield. Steam offers me so much convenience I can live with the very lax DRM it incorporates. But I never buy a title that has additional DRM added.

I don't see your logic with regards to GOG. Or, more bluntly, you're wrong. You're mixing the purchase process, and the post-purchase service offering, with the product itself. What you buy and download has no DRM whatsoever. You can take that file and install it on a thousand offline computers and play until the computers burn out if you so choose. That you need to identify yourself if you want to re-download a game, so that GOG knows which games to provide you access to, is something completely different. It's a post-purchase service they offer so you're not SOL if you can't manage to keep backups of what you bought.

Re:Steam is actually fine

[Rysc]

What you just did was either deliberate or innocent but it is certainly confusing the issue. GP: "Foo is bad, we don't want foo. Bar has foo, so we don't want bar." You: "But Foo has Baz! Baz is great, why wouldn't you want baz?" Don't do this, it makes you look like a troll.

The service that Steam provides is nice: online backups of games, easy reinstallation, etc.. That's a great service that any gamer should have the ability to opt in to for any game. I'd pay good money for that!

But DRM is just plain evil and no amount of it is acceptable. Online activation? Validity checks? Today maybe it's not too bad, but one day someone *will* go all Kindle on me and delete my game from my account and then remotely wipe it from my computer, because the copyright holder said so. "Jim, we're simply not selling enough copies of Superior KillZone 7. I think too many people are still playing Superior KillZone 6! Do a remote update and replace the game with an offer to upgrade to 7. Offer a 5$ discount." This isn't just possible, it's certain.

I do not want to be 'managed' by the game publisher. You take my money, I take your game. After that I never want to hear from you again until *I* decide to contact *you*. You don't deserve any information about me or what I do with your game or whether I install it once or a hundred times.

Re:This really pisses me off.

[LatenightWithJB]

Hi Sarusa. This is Jeff, Fences' developer :) We will be making standalone-installers available for all future versions of Fences Pro (and our other desktop apps), so don't worry about the dependency on Impulse. That said, Impulse is under great direction at GameStop so I wouldn't let that damage your opinion of it; they're operating with the same mission of quality that we always were. Thanks again for your purchase and I hope you enjoy Fences!

Great. I look forward to the future.

[HalAtWork]

I look forward to the future when I have 36 different online storefront applications on my PC. Each one sending me emails, billing information, sales updates, and advertising in my face. When I turn on my computer there will be 36 different splash screens and I'll be greeted by 36 friends lists and 36 different updates will download and then I will see 36 different changelogs asking me to agree to the 36 new EULAs and I will have to click 36 different checkboxes and press 36 different OK buttons. I will enjoy looking for the best prices across 36 different apps and backing up my games and savegames in 36 different ways. In the far (but bright) future, I might even have to pay 36 different monthly fees. I will also have 36 different usernames/passwords to remember, and 36 different sets of rules for account/computer activation/deactivation, as well as how many times I can download and install my games. I will also get to pay for this in 36 different ways (Credit/PayPal/Cyclos/Ploids). Brilliant, I can't wait.