Picciu ... I think that one user's impression of Impulse doesn't qualify the statement that "Impulse was a failure".
Don't confuse your personal experience as the determinator of a program's worth.
It is historical fact that each and every permutation of Stardock's product delivery systems has met with disdain and resistance, only to have it's being replaced lamented subsequently.
Yet each systemic replacement has been better than the previous, in spite of the vocal minority.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing...
As for region pricing and/or exclusion ... that applies to ALL product distribution. Everywhere. It is only more apparent with online distribution systems....
Stardock's User Base can be counted in the millions. Vocal animosity towards Impulse can be measured in the dozens, and even allowing for perhaps 'thousands' of silent negativity it's overall acceptance is arguably several orders of magnitude to the PLUS...
I apologize if my thought came out in a way that may seems too harsh, sometimes writing late at night and not being too proficient in the language is a bad combination.
I still counting myself as part of Stardock's User Base, but I think is right to express my opinion, that indeed could be shared with few.
My point was that Impulse start was great, with many ideas and feature in the coming that was never seen and really good. Even Valve had to react to that. But then at a certain point I felt a sense of giving up. And maybe that's because simply two thing can hardly be done both good than doing one thing alone. And fact could state that that jeopardized both Impulse and Stardock software developement.
I feel more sorry for what Impulse could have been, and was in part promised along the way. I think that was more interesting about Impulse was not the platform itself but the ideas behind it, even if most of them never saw the light.
So I'm good with the fact that Impulse is gone and Stardock can go back doing its things in the way it always have, using a minimal download manager which developement shouldn't impact its works.
Impulse was definitely the most profitable part of Stardock. And if my goal was to get up each day to sell other people's stuff, we would have stuck with it.
If we hadn't sold Impulse, by this Christmas, it would have likely represented over 75% of Stardock's revenue and roughly an equal share of its profits. But I didn't start a company so I could be a retailer. I started a company to WRITE software.
We developed Impulse so that we could continue to be able to sell our software independently and allow others to make use of what we built. I believed, wrongly, that every significant developer would have their own digital client.
As a result of my error, Impulse, being one of the few options, grew massively in business very quickly. That quick growth resulted in my time being increasingly spent running Impulse with less and less time spent on our software and games (which I would think our customers would be the first to attest to -- look at Demigod and Elemental's launch on the games and the relative slowness of Object Desktop updates since Impulse came out).
At that point, I could either spend the time and effort to try to recruit the right talent to run Impulse for us OR find an experienced retailer to acquire it. We chose the latter and I'm glad we did.
Gamestop's Impulse steam are good people -- I would know, I hired a lot of them. They're talented, dedicated, and honorable. The biggest difference people are seeing in terms of cultures is that Gamestop doesn't release lots of incremental updates but rather fewer major ones. They've got some major plans for the Impulse technology coming up which you'll see more of at GDC.
But in the meantime, not having Impulse allows us to get back to selling OUR stuff on our own channel plus being able to sell our stuff anywhere else we'd like without any conflict of interest. This is a win-win for everyone I'd think.
I think I partly explained myself in the above reply, but I would comment here.
Maybe Impulse was profitable, I won't argue that. But I don't think that could be the only way to measure success.
But you admit that doing both things (selling and developing) somehow impacted both of them in negative way and the situation became out of control. So I'm truly happy that you could go back at doing things the way you did before and I believe that's the reason Stardock earned its success and it is know for.
I was one of the many who was unhappy about Demigod and Elemental, who believed in them but turned down by how the things come out and how the situation was handled. So I think I understand.
So again, I'm sorry for the way I explained myself earlier.
I would ask another question, without the intention of complain.
What's about the Gamers Bill of Right, at least from Stardock perspective, now? I would like to know you position about that, if I may ask.
