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Sins of a Solar Empire dev discusses 'Rebellion' lawsuit
Following two years of legal battles, Ironclad Studios has been granted the right to use the word "Rebellion" in the title of its latest space exploration epic, a decision it hopes will set a precedent for the increasingly litigious gaming industry. "Rebellion Developments [developer of Alien vs Predator] and its founders (Chris and Jason Kingsley) have aggressively opposed or petitioned to cancel trademarks containing the word 'Rebellion' and have been very successful in preventing third party use of the word 'Rebellion' in conjunction with video-games in the U.S. and Europe," Ironclad stated in a recent blog entry. In court, Rebellion attempted to argue that the title Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion was an attempt by Ironclad to trade on Rebellion's success as a developer, but Judge Victoria Roberts saw things differently. "...Defendants' use of REBELLION is expressive speech and is protected under the First Amendment," Roberts stated in her judgement. "Plaintiffs cannot satisfy the Rogers test; they cannot establish that REBELLION has no artistic relevance to Defendants' computer game, or that it is explicitly misleading as to source or content. Defendants' Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED." Though this is good news, Ironclad isn't out of the woods just yet. The studio recently learned that Rebellion has filed to oppose Ironclad's trademark in Canada, and there have been "unconfirmed reports that [Rebellion] issued a cease and desist order to our partner in the United Kingdom." [Image: Stardock]
Sins of a Solar Empire 'Forbidden Worlds' DLC sets out June 5
The first DLC pack for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, a standalone expansion in Stardock's 4X strategy series revolving around space colonization, will launch on June 5. "Forbidden Worlds" adds four new planet types to colonize, a new planet specialization system where you classify your worlds as either beacons of industry or society, 15 new research subjects, 40 new planetary bonuses and a handful of new achievements, all for $5. Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion's "Forbidden Worlds" DLC will be available either directly through Stardock, or through other popular digital distribution channels such as Steam, GameStop, GamersGate and GameFly. CEO Brad Wardell confirmed last month, during the announcement of an investment fund to aid budding game developers, that Rebellion has been "immensely successful" for Stardock and that we should expect to see more Sins of a Solar Empire in the future.
Stardock announces dev investment fund, showing two new games this year
Developer Stardock has announced the beginning of an investment fund to support up-and-coming developers. When Stardock sold distribution service Impulse to GameStop, it earned "some unprecedented opportunities," says CEO Brad Wardell. The fiscal boon will help "to keep Stardock small and invest in start-ups."These spinoffs, says Wardell, "should produce things that will help future start-ups in the technology industry." Some of the partnerships are already underway, though "not far enough along in what they're working on to publicize anything." Wardell's plan is to reveal more about the fund this summer, with news about the companies involved coming later.Elsewhere in Stardock's customer report, Wardell says the company's internal teams are toward two new games to be revealed this year. One or both games may be the result of Stardock's work with consultant Soren Johnson, the former lead designer on Civilization 4.Wardell also says Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion was "immensely successful," and that we can expect more from that series in the future.
Steam Holiday Sale, day 9: Assassin's Creed, Prototype, Left 4 Dead franchises and more
The majority of mainstream shopping holidays have now reached a complete stop, but the sales live on – especially in the case of Valve's annual Steam Holiday Sale, which today enters its ninth day of dealing out discounted digital sundries.PC gamers can save 25 to 75 percent on every game in the Assassin's Creed series, 75/50 percent off Prototype and Prototype 2 respectively, get Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 for a cold dead $7.49, Limbo for a spooky $2.49, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion for an astronomically low $13.59 and Just Cause 2 for a justified $3.74.Yesterday's deals also remain active for another 20 hours or so, including LA Noire for $4.99, FTL for $4.99 and 33 percent off XCOM: Enemy Unknown. As always, flash sales and community choice sales change throughout the day.
Fanmade mod combines Sins of a Solar Empire chocolate with Mass Effect peanut butter
Sins of a Solar Empire is an award-winning RTS space battle game, and Mass Effect is an epic action RPG universe with enough lore to fill a library. What happens when you smash the two together in the particle accelerator chamber that is a fan-created mod? You get Mass Effect: Dawn of the Reapers, a full conversion for Sins that lets you command ships like the Normandy against various Mass Effect-inspired units, including those of the Geth, Volus, and Cerberus' ships as well.There's lots more planned for the mod, including even more races and ships designed straight from Bioware's epic series. Unfortunately, the mod itself isn't available to the public just yet, and the release of Mass Effect 3 pushed it back for some more lore and spec tweaks. Still, when it's available it will work with both Sins' Diplomacy expansion and the standalone Rebellion version as well.
Rebellion sues Stardock for its use of the word 'Rebellion'
It's a strange day for Stardock when we say this is the second-weirdest lawsuit involving the company that we've seen today, but it's true. UK developer Rebellion (makers of the 2010 Aliens vs. Predator game) has decided to sue developer Stardock (publisher of Sins of a Solar Empire) because of the name of the latest Sins of the Solar Empire expansion, Rebellion. The court documents say that Rebellion (the studio) has a trademark on that word, and accuse Rebellion (the game), of causing customers "to mistakenly believe that the developer of the game Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion is in fact plaintiff Rebellion."The developer of the expansion is actually Ironclad Games. But the lawsuit claims that from the logo and game name to a YouTube description for the game (mentioning "the developers over at 'Rebellion'"), Stardock knowingly profited off of the "Rebellion" trademark.The litigation asks for Stardock to be enjoined from selling the game any further, to turn over any infringing materials, and for both damages in the case as well as the court and attorney's fees. Presumably, the complaint will next go in front of a Michigan judge, who will then decide on whether or not the issue can move forward.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion sells 100K, breaks Stardock records
Stardock has announced that Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, the latest stand-alone expansion of the acclaimed RTS hit, has broken company records and become its fastest-selling release to date. The game has sold over 100,000 units since its launch last month, which is not only a solid number for any indie game but also beats the first 30 days of the original Sins of a Solar Empire.Though the original Sins was also released at retail, Rebellion was not, and the digital plan ended up working better than any of the company's PC retail releases. Stardock's CEO, Brad Wardell, said he believed that selling the game on Steam would take sales away from other channels, but Steam sales of the expansion "didn't cannibalize its GameStop or direct sales."Releasing digitally had other benefits as well, like letting Stardock announce the release at the last minute. Wardell says both of Stardock's other games this year, Elemental: Fallen Enchantress and Political Machine 2012, will follow the same launch plan.
Steam Summer Sale, Day 7: Super Meat Boy, LA Noire, Total War, Indie Bundle 7 and more
We're gonna let the "Ouch, my wallet!" jokes simmer for a couple days (or until we can think of a good one, whichever comes first) and instead we'll just give you all the straight poop on today's Steam Summer Sale offerings.Amongst today's Most Discounted Things™ is the Carpe Fulgur series, which includes Chantelise - A Tale of Two Sisters, Fortune Summoners and Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale. Today's offering also boasts a heavily discounted Total War mega pack, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion and Super Meat Boy. In addition, there's a new Indie Bundle that features Q.U.B.E. and Dungeons of Dredmor, among other titles.Oh! Here's one: What's the difference between a second mortgage and the Steam Summer Sale? With a second mortgage, at least you get to keep the house!... No? Okay, maybe next time.
Sins of a Solar Empire engages digital distribution systems June 12
Intercepted communiques reveal Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion will be strategically deployed on June 12 for PC on Steam and Impulse. Those who pre-order will gain access to the second beta, which is currently active and all set to teach galactic generals across the galaxy how to control vast space armadas.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion transmits intro cinematic
Standalone expansion Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion is quite the odd space duck. As this clip reveals, there is a backstory explaining why the factions in the universe are dealing with insurrection, but none of this actually plays out in the game (which has no campaign). It does deliver a hefty amount of space battles, though!
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion warps in first screens
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, expected to launch sometime this run around the sun, splits the existing factions of the epic real-time strategy series into loyalist and rebel groups. Today, publisher Stardock released the first screens of the intergalactic game's standalone expansion.
Sins of a Solar Empire added to Steam, more Stardock titles coming soon
Stardock and Ironclad Games' Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity, the bundled collection of the epic space armada RTS and its mini-expansions, is available now on Steam. After selling over 2 million units, mostly through Stardock's Impulse digital distribution system, the game is finally warping over to Valve's service. "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." Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, a "full-fledged expansion" of the series and not a sequel, is expected to launch next spring. Stardock plans to add more of its catalog in "the coming weeks." [Thanks, Daniel] %Gallery-15134%
Stardock announces Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, 'free to play' dev tools for Impulse SDK
Stardock announced a new Sins of a Solar Empire expansion today, subtitled Rebellion. In a separate press release, the company revealed a major update to its game development platform, Impulse Reactor, which will allow developers to implement "free to play" gaming through the Impulse digital distribution network. The Impulse Reactor update is expected to go live this month and will add features to the SDK enabling "free to play" elements for games running on the Impulse platform. If you're one of the millions of players that has dropped coin on Riot Games' League of Legends or Turbine's DDO or Lord of the Rings Online, you've probably got a good idea of the potential here. As for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, it's described as a "full-fledged expansion" of the 4X RTS space series -- not a sequel. Brian Clair, director of publishing for Stardock, told us that, like the original, Rebellion will not feature a single-player campaign, but will build upon the gameplay introduced in the original Sins and its micro-expansions. Given the timing of the Rebellion announcement alongside news of the upcoming "free to play" options added to Impulse Reactor, we asked if this next Sins would be a free-to-play title. "Definitely not," Clair said, though pricing has not been set. Rebellion will support achievements, multiplayer leagues and other features. Speaking to concerns voiced by players that don't have the hours to set aside for a standstard multiplayer match in Sins, Clair said, "We're going to continue looking at ways to address that for folks who want to get a game in under an hour." Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion is expected to be released in late 2011; however a Stardock representative told us the company is taking the "done when it's done" approach to development.
