They do like it

"Installed Sins of a Solar Empire on the Night Engine yesterday, to see if it would be something we'd consider advertising. Uh... yes. Yes. Yes a thousand times over. This is why it's nice to work with a smaller company, because if they want to advertise something on your site, they're not pulling from some budget a year in advance of the game's release. Stardock sent a full, boxed retail copy of the title and asked if we'd be willing to promote that, as opposed to some theoretical game they might be making in the future. I'll talk more about it on Friday, but I am kind of bowled over by this thing. That someone would pay me to recommend a game as entertaining as Sins of a Solar Empire is really the most ridiculous kind of crap."

The game is top, the distribution in Europe is worser then worst. Get the game in Europe and you guys will realy be IT!    Untill that, I'll have my doubts...

This is awesome news. Congrats on a job well done Stardock!

For the record I'm a hardcore PC only guy. I also happen to share the view about the state-of-gaming as Frogboy does.

Not for lack of trying Lennaert But i hope that with rave reviews and good seller scores Euro-distributors will come to Stardock.

Congratulations

I am happy with my purchase as well (And I recently figured out that cranking all the settings to high like speed, research and so on makes for a completely different game experience).

Again guys if you have Amazon accounts review the game and tag it well. Amazon has lots of juice and when something is hot on it that product tends to be in big demand on the storefront side of things since most people dont want to wait a few days for shipping when they want to get something.

Sure they are right from the game, but you have to admit screen shots are generally specifically chosen. I have seen many player made videos of SupCom, and they are absolutely amazing. Some of them practically play like a movie. Every single frame is an actual shot of the game but it in no way accurately reflects what happens in the game or regular game play. I sympathize with Danosh30 here.

I don't think brainwashed is the correct term here. I think many people do really like the game. But I think many that many that are buying the game, before reviews are out, are doing so primarily based on the claim that Sins provides an in depth 4X real time experience. I also think many will be sorely disappointed when they actually play it. I am one of those people. It is no more 4X than another other RTS in my view.

The jist of the original post though, I completely support. I think people are looking for a good in depth game which just can't be done on a console. Saying Sins is that game though I think is being somewhat presumptuous.

I don't want to dishearten the work that the team has put into Sins either. It is an excellent accomplishment. I do hope you guys do have success. If you ever plan on making a title that puts a greater emphasis on realism, then I would be the first to sign on .

Well, in my case, I really didn't know much about the game until literally a few days ago. I knew it was being developed, but beyond that, I was ignorant. So how are you going to explain away my enthusiasm for it?

I would like to say that i had a massive 3 paragraph speech blasting praise at the people of SD and IC but in truth i can only think of two little words that sum up how i feel about this game... thank you.

This game is great, I also like Stardock's no-DRM policy - especially since this game is still not available in retail at my location (Slovenia).

I have started buying original games becouse of Steam and Stardock. Well done!!

You mean you pirated it?

Yeah, I'm jumping back into this thread to add more to the conversation (which is a great one at that) and that is to say I'm happy and thankful for SD and IC and enjoying being a gamer in general.

Honestly, I don't understand the "fanboi" mentality. I know it exists and people are passionate about some of the games they play or some of the systems they enjoy games on, but for me I'm just happy to be a gamer in this day and age and have so many options!

I was talking about gaming the end of last year with some close friends and threw out the idea that 2007 was one of the best years in gaming I could ever remember - and trust me, I've been around for many of those years, including the early ones. BOTH consoles and the PC market had great successes and set records or made some great games. It was the first time I really felt having all 3 next gen consoles and the PC were worth every penny. I might not have all the time in the world now because of it or no life to boot, but to be able to have the option to get CoD4 for my PC or 360, to enjoy The Orange Box (i.e. Portal), to live in the moment and story of Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed or Bioshock, to get lost in the wonder and ingenuity of Super Mario Galaxy or Rockband, to behold the beauty of Crysis or the or excitement of Halo3 - I could go on but if you don't get my point it is this - I don't think any one console or any one game is the be-all-end-all, I think it is just great to be a GAMER.

So yes, I disagree with some of the naysayers about critically acclaimed games that just want to bash it for whatever reason, but in the end what they think really doesn't affect what I think as long as I'm having fun with the game and enjoying whatever outlet it brings to my life.

That's what Sins is doing for me for the start of 2008 - its allowing me to live out my space exploration/strategy fantasy, in a very different, but equally effective way as Mass Effect did late last year. Its reminding me that no matter what platform or genre you prefer, in the end its all about having fun!

Thanks Stardock and Ironclad - keep up the good work (and great support)!

Later,
~JO

Rest assured: the owner of SD has been declining buy-out offers for a long while, and will continue to do so... or so he says! (Dum dum duummmmmmm!)



Blame Europe -- none of the distributors there would touch it because there "wasn't a market" for it or any other space strategy game.

Not so much. A lot of the last groups of shots were just Zoomba pausing mid-game and taking pictures. Certainly he positioned the camera to make it look nice, but they're not specially staged in any way.

Probably the first game I bought in a long time without looking at reviews. You guys rock!

This is my first Stardock game, and I've been really impressed with the developer and the quality of the product, so I'm definitely considering giving them more of my support with a purchase of GalCiv2.

the game would be great if i could play multi =p

You guys will love GC especailly with what the TA x-pack brings to it if you like Sins and are a turn based player at heart.

I was considering dropping PC gaming altogether because of steep system requirements on every game that comes out every 6 months. I've got a single core AMD system with a GeForce 6800 GT, built 3 years ago. Everything is maxed out and Sins runs and looks fantastic.

I'm glad that Ironclad isn't the only one who thinks this way, either. Check out DICE's approach to the *free* Battlefield Heroes game. It's ad-supported only in interface screens, not in-game, and should scale to all hardware without sacrificing looks thanks to the less resource demanding stylistic look.

PC gaming should be made accessible to all levels of budget and technology. I, and most gamers I've talked to, wouldn't mind upgrading my PC every 4-5 years or so for a few hundred bucks, but we absolutely won't spend upwards of $700 every year. More developers need to take note of this fact.

This is exactly the reason why I haven't played Supreme Commander -- I dig the game but my system screams in misery when I get into even a medium sized battle. I'm not going to buy a new CPU just to play one game.

Sins of a Solar Empire is a perfect example of what the PC needs to keep it alive as a gaming platform. Developers need to learn from Ironclad. Crazy good looking games with steep technical requirements are all well and good but they should be kept to consoles to ensure a consistent gameplay experience from one gamer to the next. More PC games should be less expensive, less technically demanding, and just as entertaining as console games in order to succeed.

What Ironclad has done is nothing short of a revolution. Sins of a Solar Empire is an awakening to the development community and a comforting hand on the gamer's shoulder: "It's going to be okay. We're here for you."

Ironclad games, have always lived up to expectations. ON THE OTHER HAND, i seriously doubt the wisdom of choosing stardock as a publisher. I've been looking for an in store copy of Sins ever since release day, and have heard the same story repeated dozens of times. one copy per store, sold as soon as it got out of the shipping crate. ONE COPY per store. that strikes me as an overwhelmingly amateur mistake, and one that ironclad should seriously take into consideration in their future releases.

The only reason most game stores exist is to rip people off with trade in prices. The only reason they carry new product is so people can trade in their games for it. If nobody shows interest in pre-ordering a title then they won't get extra copies.

Go with digital distribution and help bury those miserable money whoring companies in the dirt.

Stardock is one of the single best publishers out on the market today, and you're confusing a couple of things. First off, Stardock has based its marketing on word of mouth, and far more importantly, by the quality of its products rather than pumping $$$$$$$ into an ad campaign (lol @ kane & lynch) when the product sucks. You're also confusing the publisher's distribution with the game stores' ordering methods. Gamestop and EB Games (actually both owned by the same company) both do their titles on preorder status, meaning they will not usually carry extra stock. This is ESPECIALLY true of their PC gaming section, which is a joke, and has been a joke for a couple of years now. Blame the game stores, and yourself for going to a game store. SDC > gamestores. End of story.

Congrats, hopefully this will be quite the windfall for both IC and SD.

This game has been a blast even without modding it (which means a LOT coming from me)... I've been very impressed to say the least.

It seems like you just re-worded what I said . "Position the camera to look nice" is one example of specifically choosing a screen shot.

We seem to in fact agree, yet come to different conclusions .