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Soren Johnson joins Stardock, 'at least for a while' [Update]
Soren Johnson, who you may remember as Civilization 4's lead designer, has joined Stardock to oversee the design of the developer's entire line of upcoming titles."We've brought on board someone many of you know – Soren Johnson (designer of Civilization IV) who has come to Stardock, at least for awhile, to oversee the design of all our games," Stardock CEO Brad Wardell said on his company's official forums. "I think his impact on our upcoming (think 2014/2015/2016) will be pretty obvious."Up until now, Johnson (not pictured above) had maintained his post at Zynga as design director, after joining the company in September of 2011. Prior to that, Johnson spent over four years as a lead designer and programmer at Electronic Arts, working on such games as Spore. We've reached out to Stardock for more information about Johnson's role in the company, and what the temporary qualifier in the announcement may signify, if anything.Update: A Stardock representative has clarified to Joystiq that Soren Johnson is only working as a consultant at the developer, and is not on staff. Joystiq has contacted Johnson for clarification on his position at Zynga.
Fantasy strategy-RPGs and the limits of 'RPG elements'
This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which focuses on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity. In theory, fantasy strategy games should be my favorite kinds of games. I am certainly a fan of the fantasy genre generally, and role-playing games and strategy games are my favorite game genres. Fantasy strategy games combine all of those elements, so they should be a guaranteed success, right? And yet they're not my favorite games. I enjoy them, certainly, but if I were making a list of my all-time favorites, they wouldn't show up toward the top. Examining the subgenre as a whole makes me realize that combining RPGs and strategy games is part of the problem. Too many good things doesn't necessarily lead to great things. Elemental: War Of Magic was supposed to be the ultimate fantasy strategy game. It was supposed to combine the best of RPGs with the best of strategy games with an impressive fantasy setting. Ultimately it was crushed under the weight of its own ideas and egos, went through a disastrous development cycle and launched as a broken disappointment.
Start button utility strips even more '8' from Windows 8, has sold 'tens of thousands' of copies
When we first reported on Start8, a mod that brings the tried-and-tested Start button back to Windows 8, it was impossible to know how fiercely the fires of controversy would burn over Microsoft's new interface. Some of us adjusted to the full-screen Start "experience" pretty quickly, but it's also clear that a sizable population of users prefer things just as they were. How sizable? Well, according to one of Start8's makers, quoted by USA Today, the $5 app has now sold "tens of thousands" of copies after the "floodgates opened" on October 26th, with further tens of thousands of users picking up the free version. Whether that's a lot or a little depends entirely on your frame of reference -- after all, four million copies of the OS upgrade were sold in the first four days. Nevertheless, interest has been sufficient for Stardock to invest in an update that reinstates even more old-school flavor -- including the ability to drag and drop Start menu items, and to disable the new Start screen toggle that appears whenever you move your cursor to that hotly disputed lower-left corner.
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.
Stardock responds to sexual harassment claims by former marketing manager against CEO
Stardock's former marketing manager Alexandra Miseta is now discussing publicly a 2010 lawsuit she filed against company CEO Brad Wardell for sexual harassment. Providing documents to Kotaku, Miseta's suit claims "repeated and near-daily comments, innuendos, advances, and other offensive conduct of a sexual nature" by Wardell.The suit preceded a recent lawsuit by Stardock against Miseta for over $1 million in damages, alleging she destroyed marketing materials and stole company property just prior to Elemental: War of Magic's launch and her leaving the company."It is our opinion that Mr. Wardell's lawsuit against Ms. Miseta for allegedly deleting files, etc., is baseless and was brought solely in retaliation for her sexual harassment lawsuit. We firmly believe that Ms. Miseta's leaving Stardock had absolutely nothing to do with any failures pertaining to Stardock's release of Elemental. It is our further belief that Mr. Wardell has publicly admitted that the failures of Elemental were due solely to his actions and/or inactions," Miseta's attorney told Kotaku.Miseta's sexual harassment lawsuit notes multiple incidents (Pg. 6-11). In a prepared statement sent to Joystiq, Stardock references one incident (Pg. 16 in Stardock's counter-filing) in which Wardell touched Miseta's hair during an after-hours company outing."It is unfortunate that feelings were hurt during this after-hours, non-work-related public dinner where several people were in attendance," the company stated. "This is a frivolous case against Brad Wardell that will be litigated in a court of law. That [Miseta] would choose to try to fight this in the court of public opinion versus the court of law only further demonstrates the frivolity of her case.""However, there is no excuse for her malicious behavior when she quit without notice and used her privileged access to destroy valuable company intellectual property which contributed to the loss of millions of dollars and affected the livelihoods of Stardock employees."The company statement continues, "Alexandra Miseta has been aware of the pending charges against her for the past two years. The claims against her were filed almost two years ago. They have recently been moved to federal court due to Stardock's discovery of a federal statute which directly addresses her unlawful actions. To suggest Stardock Corporation's actions are retaliatory to her personal case against Brad Wardell is absurd."Read the full Stardock statement after the break.
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.
Stardock alleges former marketing manager impaired Elemental: War of Magic's launch, files suit [Update]
Michigan-based developer Stardock is suing its ex-marketing manager Alexandra Miseta for over $1 million in damages, alleging actions she made during her employment impaired the quality of Elemental: War of Magic.According to documents filed with a Michigan Eastern District Court on July 30, 2012, Stardock claims that when Miseta resigned her position without notice prior to the Elemental's launch, she destroyed and/or stole promotional materials, trade show information, and analytics data that the developer says was vital to supporting the game's release. The dev claims these acts occurred three weeks before the game's release. Stardock also alleges that Miseta, who is currently employed as accounts director at Chevrolet, refused to return a company-issued laptop and running undisclosed side businesses during work hours at the developer.Panned by reviewers when it launched in 2010, Elemental: War of Magic was riddled with bugs, a complicated interface, and a host of other problems. Currently the game's average review score sits at 53 on Metacritic.Following its launch, company CEO Brad Wardell said Elemental's issues stemmed from the disorganized nature of the developer. "If someone had an idea, we'd say 'Oh sure, go ahead! Throw that in!,'" Wardell explained during a GDC 2011 panel called 'Failure Workshop.' In a statement made in September 2010, Wardell placed blame for the project's failure on the entire Stardock staff, claiming a fair share of responsibility himself claiming that he lost objectivity acting as a programmer and the executive in charge of deciding when the game was ready to ship.%Gallery-94332%
The Political Machine 2012 available now
The Political Machine 2012 is available now to aspiring politicos everywhere. Stardock's staple of the presidential campaign season is back with its bobble-headed cast of politicians like Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul and the huggable Newt Gingrich.The latest edition will allow the player's candidates to handle the topics du jour on the campaign trail, like Obamacare, gun control, gay rights and mystifying topics like the national debt. At $10, it's cheaper than what we get charged for voting every four years. Wait, what do you mean you don't give the guy at the polling station $20 to cast a vote?%Gallery-161496%
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.
The Soapbox: League of Legends is the new World of Warcraft
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Every now and then, a game comes out of nowhere with such incredible financial success that it causes the games industry to completely lose perspective. All it takes is one game to start raking in the millions for developers, publishers and investors to stumble around with dollar signs in their eyes for years to come. Innovation grinds to a halt and everyone starts blindly copying whichever game just hit the jackpot. It's like some huge industry-wide superstition takes over and convinces people that if they do the same dance the same way, it'll rain again. World of Warcraft has consistently had this effect since shortly after its launch in 2004. To this day, several studios per year excitedly announce yet another fantasy MMO that lifts its entire feature set and every gameplay mechanic wholesale from World of Warcraft as if it were a model for automatic success. The same thing is happening again in online gaming today, not from MMOs but from MOBAs, a new genre based on the competitive gaming classic DotA. Developers are still chasing the massive money made by yet another hugely successful game, and this time it's League of Legends.
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!
Start8 download resurrects the start button on Windows 8, niche satiated
Some people just can't say goodbye.
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.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Elfsquad7
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, we feature a super-special (and sparkly) Christmas title from Scott Tykoski and Stardock, titled Elfsquad7. What's your game called and what's it about? Elfsquad7 is a frantic, fun, 1-4-player holiday game about wrapping toys, grabbing gifts and saving Christmas. Despite its overly saccharine holiday theme, it's designed so that even the most hardcore gamer can enjoy playing it, and it's available now on XBLIG. What's the coolest aspect of Elfsquad7? I really like that the end boss resembles Lavos from Chrono Trigger. Only his name is Kevin. I'm also really happy with how the item shop plays into gameplay, especially on the harder-difficulty levels. There are some real strategic choices that the player has to make, and the game design is considerably stronger for it. Oh, and items are delivered by a fat pink cat strapped to a hot-air balloon. I can proudly boast that is a first in the world of gaming.
Stardock sends Elfsquad7 down the Xbox Live Indie Games chimney
Michigan-based developer Stardock may be better known for strategy titles like Galactic Civilization and Sins of a Solar Empire – not to mention its one-time ownership of PC gaming service Impulse – but what would you say if we told you Stardock made "a festive retro co-op adventure side-scroller" available now on Xbox Live Indie Games for the festive price of $1? We hope you're saying "we believe you" because it's totally true. Elfsquad7 is Stardock's first time off the PC gaming reservation, and it goes a little something like this: "Join up with friends and family members in a frantic four-player co-op as you demolish freakish "un-toys", wrap presents and help Santa pack for his one-night journey delivering gifts to children around the world." This game plus a surfeit of fire log simulators truly makes Xbox Live Indie Games the most festive of all out-of-the-way digital storefronts.
Sins of a Solar Empire Trinity is $21 this weekend
The full Sins of a Solar Empire experience, known as Trinity, is on sale this weekend through Impulse. The game is 33% off, bringing the total asking price to around $21 in United States, Earth credits. Trinity includes the original Sins of a Solar Empire, along with micro-expansion packs Entrenchment and Diplomacy. It should be noted that Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, which is described as a "full-fledged expansion" to the series, will be available later this year. Brian Clair, director of publishing for Stardock, told us in early March that Rebellion will build upon the gameplay introduced in the original Sins and its micro-expansions. You'll have to make the strategic decision whether to grab Trinity now or save the credits to go toward a fuller cargo bay (at, likely, a higher cost) later. %Gallery-15134%
Star Ruler to be taken off Impulse in protest against GameStop takeover
Not everyone is happy about GameStop's acquisition of Impulse. In a post on the official site for the space RTS Star Ruler, developer Blind Mind Studios announced that it would remove Star Ruler from the service when the takeover is enacted -- "likely some time in May," Blind Mind says. "We are ending sales through Impulse due to GameStop's long, negative behavior toward the PC platform and independent games," the developer's statement reads. "We would never have signed onto distribution through GameStop, and being forced into this situation has only made it worse for us." Blind Mind notes that its history with Impulse has been positive to date, and, "We supported Brad Wardell's direction of Impulse." Wardell's absence "ruins our faith in the service's future." The developer is working to ensure that updates and patches will continue to be delivered through Impulse to anyone who bought Star Ruler from the service. Barring that, it will release an automatic updater of its own.
Stardock's Brad Wardell talks about selling Impulse to GameStop
"Not everyone's goal in life is to run a thousand person company," said Stardock founder Brad Wardell, who just today announced that he's sold the growing digital distribution arm of his company, Impulse, to GameStop for an undisclosed sum. "Certainly the path of least resistance would have been to just grow with Impulse and become a digital retailer, but that's not what I signed up for." Impulse was originally started as a way for Stardock to distribute its own games and software digitally, and was opened up three years ago to other developers. Since then, it's grown to compete with the big player in digital distribution, Steam. Wardell, speaking with Joystiq in an interview today, said that the growth in revenue actually became a cause for concern. "When Impulse became our number one source of revenue," said Wardell, "I realized it was time for us to look at our options there."
GameStop indulges in some Impulse buying ... no seriously, it bought Impulse (and Spawn Labs)
Love 'em or hate 'em, you can't say the people of GameStop are taking the challenge of "digital" lying down. The massive Texas-based retailer (everything's bigger in Texas) just announced the acquisition of streaming tech outfit Spawn Labs – you'll recall the HD-720 box we brought on the Engadget Show – and digital distribution portal, Impulse. Whoa, whoa, whoa ... so GameStop purchased Stardock, Impulse's owner? Nope! "GameStop has acquired Impulse, Inc.," the official Stardock FAQ on the deal reads. "Impulse is a separate business unit from Stardock Entertainment." No layoffs are anticipated, staff stays with Impulse, customer service is still handled by Impulse (for now!), and the group is actually hiring. The press release says that Impulse will offer "three specific components." First is the client, dubbed "Impulse::Client" here, which users can use to download games. Duh. Next is Impulse::Reactor, which "provides content publishers customer friendly DRM and copy protection tools. It also allows developers to enable achievements, account management, friend lists, chat, multiplayer lobbies, and cloud storage within their games." Last is Impulse::Publisher which gives pubs "real-time reporting and management tools." GameStop's interest in Impulse – one of the industry's biggest competitors to market leader Steam – is obvious. What's not so obvious is its interest in Spawn Labs. "Once the Spawn Labs integration and testing on a new consumer interface is complete, users will have immediate access to a wide selection of high-definition video games on demand on any Internet-enabled device," the press release reads. That sounds to us like GameStop is getting into the cloud-based gaming arena (ie: OnLive). We're following up with GameStop, Stardock, and all the other concerned parties and we'll let you know what we uncover.
