ANN: Stardock to publish Demigod from Gas Powered Games

The ultimate strategy team-up

from Sins Forums

PLYMOUTH, MI- April 7, 2008- Stardock and Gas Powered Games announced today that they have reached a publishing agreement for Gas Powered Games' upcoming PC game, Demigod.

Demigod is a team-based action game with RTS and RPG elements. Players take control of a massive Demigod with the goal of annihilating their opponent's position in a given arena while preventing the opponent's Demigod from doing the same to them. Although the game supports superb one-on-one duels, the title will truly shine in team play either with other human-controlled Demigods or with ones controlled by a sophisticated computer AI. As the game progresses, the player's Demigod will acquire items, attributes and experience.

Gas Powered Games, having become one of the leading PC game developers with hit titles such as Dungeon Siege and Supreme Commander chose Stardock as its exclusive worldwide PC publisher in part because of Stardock's tremendous success with the award-winning Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Civilizations.

"Forging our new partnership with Stardock is a big deal for all of us at GPG, and we couldn't be more excited about it," said Chris Taylor, founder and CEO of Gas Powered Games. "Not only do we have a proven retail publisher, but we get to partner with a pioneer in the digital distribution space a company that totally understands what kind of experience our customer wants and the quality game they demand. The whole proposition is truly refreshing."

Stardock's most recent release, Sins of a Solar Empire was the top selling PC strategy game at retail according to NPD, and the second highest selling PC game overall despite selling immense numbers of copies digitally which are not counted in sales rankings. The game has received universally high reviews in the media and many have noted how seamlessly Stardock and developer Ironclad worked together.

"Were very excited at the opportunity to work with Gas Powered Games," said Brad Wardell, president and CEO of Stardock. "By integrating our teams and working together, we will be able to create something that represents the best of both teams."

To fully support a public beta that will launch this summer, the launch date for Demigod has been moved to February 2009. This will give the development team sufficient time to incorporate feedback from the beta players while polishing the game. Like Stardock's other games, Demigod will be released without any on-disc copy protection and has been budgeted to receive many months of free post-release feature updates.

The official website for Demigod is in the works, but users who want to begin discussing the game can visit http://www.demigodthegame.com.

About Gas Powered Games
Gas Powered Games was founded in May 1998 by acclaimed game designer, Chris Taylor.The company's first project, Dungeon Siege, was released in April 2002 and its sequel, Dungeon Siege II was released in August 2005. Both games were critical and commercial successes. GPG's recent releases include the award-winning and genre-defining Supreme Commander and Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance.

About Stardock
Stardock is one of the world's leading developers and publisher of PC games and desktop software.Its PC games include Sins of a Solar Empire, the highest rated and best selling PC strategy game of 2008 as well as the critically acclaimed Galactic Civilizations series. Its desktop software includes Object Desktop, WindowBlinds, and a host of other programs for customizing the Windows experience.

51,545 views 49 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

 :HOT:  very nice!
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
I concur with Monk's assessment of the news :)

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Game looks amazing :D . I am so happy there will be a public beta in the summer, I assume it will be open to all those that preorder just like the stardock's other games and hopefully not a release on fileplanet beta(those attract kiddies and those not serious about the game).
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
I wish Stardock all the best, and I'm looking forward to trying Demigod. In the gaming market you've gone from being burned by bad publishers, to now become one of the best publishers and developers around. Kudos :CONGRAT:
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
Nice but...Is Demigod going to be as resource consuming as SupCom, or will I be able to run it on my laptop? Because I read somewhere that Demigod will use SupCom graphic engine...
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
Like I said before I love both companies and I hope this cooperation will be very long and very prolific in excellent games.:CONGRAT:
Demigod is on my top-list for 2009.

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
Some people compare Demigod to Dota.


Demigod is basically a spiffier, standalone Dota. Looks good, but I need to read up more and see what the game offers that can't already be found in Dota.
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
I think it is going to be based on the basics of DOTA but have alot more to offer. I just started playing DOTA because I wanted to get an idea of what Demigod is about. I love DOTA but want more variety. Looks like Demigod has variety as well as looks awesome.

BTW I am crossing my fingers that it will be the usual beta process were you pre-order and you are in the beta. :D
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top
This should be fun!

./travels to the future to sign up for the beta
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
Interesting, I suppose - too bad it has NOTHING to do with this game... It was not even posted first here, so why did it take so long?

Sit here waiting for news on Sins and instead get news for a game I am prob not even going to get (Other priorities, maybe will get it some other time, but I have other games to get first)...

Don't get me wrong, I am sure it will be a great game, and I hope it sells good - but yea...
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top
[style=Borat]
Very nice! Great success!
[/style]
Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
As exciting as this is, I have to point out my ardent hope that Stardock can keep Demigod from being an insane resource hog.

Because, well, Supreme Commander (and Forged Alliance) sure as hell are, and if its the same engine . . . bad feelings abound.

Still, this is very exciting. I read the interview on Gamasutra the other day, and Impulse and the (new?) business model look very promising as well. I'm surprised to see Chris Taylor working with Stardock after his recent statements on piracy.

With that in mind, he is certainly a stellar designer.
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top
I agree with CoreInsanity. I was looking for something about Sins...since this is the Sins website. Top of the list would have been final mod tools or expansion. This is kind of a let down. Still, I wish it the best of luck.
Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top

I agree with CoreInsanity. I was looking for something about Sins...since this is the Sins website. Top of the list would have been final mod tools or expansion. This is kind of a let down. Still, I wish it the best of luck.

When Sins was first getting into beta, there was a lot of news items and promotion of Sins on our other sites.

We help each other. 

Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top
Eh, if this game is like dota than I wonder what it's community will be like...


And it will probably run like supcom; the jass in Dota is horrid!!
Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top
When Sins was first getting into beta, there was a lot of news items and promotion of Sins on our other sites.

We help each other.


Ah..I see. Makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up.

Has there been any word on the release date for the final mod tools? I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on those.
Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top
GPG hooking up with Stardock?
In the words of Supreme Commander's Crusader Riza: Glorious!
Reply #24 from Sins Forums Top
It should be interesting to see what it's like, because even though it is using the SupCom engine, it's not designed by Taylor.

More info in a chat with designer John Comes here.

-HM