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ANN: Stardock to publish Demigod from Gas Powered Games

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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.

51,562 views 49 replies
Reply #26 from Sins Forums Top
You should know by now that they post anything related to stardock products on all of their games news section(political machine on sins news,sins on galactic civs2 news,etc). Get over it.
Reply #27 from Sins Forums Top
This news is sooooo 'this morning' ...(well yesterday now for me at least) :P
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #28 from Sins Forums Top
Nice!
Demigod seems like it could turn out to be a interesting and different game. The trailer made me think of a battle-centric Overlord.
That said, didn't Chris Taylor recently speak out against piracy (understandably) and urged for more DRM (no!) and games hosted on secure servers (no please)? You guys (and girls?) at Stardock must be a pretty persuasive bunch of people :)
Gongrats anyway for getting a big release from a big company!
Reply #29 from Sins Forums Top
Congrats SD! The family goes stronger. So about those stock options??? ;)
Reply #30 from Sins Forums Top
cool news :)

love them in fact!

but news that followed (check out the latest update on home page) are the REAL news for us!

awesome in any and every case!

well done and keep it up :)
Reply #31 from Sins Forums Top
Ah just read the interview with Brat Wardell on Gamasutra. "Gas Powered Games has converted over to the way we're doing things."
One down, a gazillion more to go! :)
Reply #32 from Sins Forums Top
I just checked out the website for the game. I don't know enough about it yet to say whats what with it gameplay wise but the art style sure is friggin' through the dang roof!! Wow! It's a cool looking game I'll give them that right off the bat. :SURPRISED: 
Reply #34 from Sins Forums Top
Sooooo, basically a fantasy-supreme commander
Reply #35 from Sins Forums Top
Whoa sweet. GPG is a great game designer, and matching up with stardock's patch/content policy is real key. I see the days of old TA mods and unit packs coming back.
Reply #37 from Sins Forums Top
Now wait just a minute, wasn't GPG complaining about PC piracy being out of control a few months ago, or am I confusing them with someone else? I seem to recall them saying some stuff that was almost as bad as Epic's "disarray" comment about PC gamers, but I may be mistaken.

It's good that Stardock is expanding and they plus Ironclad and GPG are teaming up. I like the whole integrated online system idea.

However, the more I read about Demigod the more confused I get. It's an action game...no wait, RTS....er, now it's an RPG...hey, let's call it a cooperative game. So which is it? I see a bunch of fancy concept art, some high detail renders of game assets, and a bunch of conflicting descriptions filled with more buzzwords than substance. I know it's still early, but it would help to have examples of how it is all the things it claims to be. From what I see right now, it looks to be a clone of Black and White. Replace the animal gods with machines, supernatural creatures, or gigantic people and thus we have Demigod. Am I missing something? I'm getting the feeling that this game might wind up like Rise of Legends -- a neat idea whose fun factor takes a nose dive the moment you get the hang of things.

Btw, no fantasy product is complete without western dragons.
Reply #38 from Sins Forums Top
Demigod doesn't really fall into any of the standard definitions. Look at sins -- is it 4X? No... RTS? Not quite...
Reply #39 from Sins Forums Top
Demigod doesn't really fall into any of the standard definitions. Look at sins -- is it 4X? No... RTS? Not quite...
Yes, but it was called an RTS with epic scale, 4x elements, and real-time gameplay. Those genres and elements are related and give you a basic idea of the direction of the game regardless if you anticipate it to be more like an RTS or 4x game. When something is promoted as an action, RPG, RTS, MMO, and something else it's rather difficult to see how all those elements interact without some sort of explanation.

Let's say that I compare Sins to Command and Conquer. Ok, RTS-wise I know what to expect and I would anticipate that 4x would increase the scale dramatically while the real-time description maintains that this is primarily an RTS game. In Demigod's case, I'm immediately comparing it to something like Drakan, an action RPG where you play this hero character and go do stuff to build up your levels and accomplish things. Now wait...how do the RTS elements come into play? Maybe it's more like Warcraft 3 where you have some hero units and go around using them and allied forces to accomplish stuff. But wait...where does the action stuff fit in? Hopefully this sort of better explains what I'm getting at. The description seems like it's pulling the game in multiple directions and I can't get a cohesive idea of what it's like.

I'm not putting down the game. I just don't understand why I should be excited about it, why I'd want to play it, and what exactly you do in the game. I'm sure this will be cleared up in time.
Reply #40 from Sins Forums Top
While I don't really have much interest in Demigod, I will say that this is pretty much Stardock's "foot in the door".

They had nay-sayers because they were a little-known publisher launching an unknown title from a tiny, unheard of developer. Success aside, they now have a name behind them with some serious clout! This can only mean good things.

I'd go buy some stock but I don't think they're publically traded :(
Reply #41 from Sins Forums Top

Now wait just a minute, wasn't GPG complaining about PC piracy being out of control a few months ago, or am I confusing them with someone else?

We have made converts of them to Stardock's way of thinking. ;)

Reply #42 from Sins Forums Top
Now wait just a minute, wasn't GPG complaining about PC piracy being out of control a few months ago, or am I confusing them with someone else?
We have made converts of them to Stardock's way of thinking.


No doubt. I bet you just showed them your checkbook and said something like "Just count the zeros; that is from our way of doing business. Are you interested?" ;)
Reply #43 from Sins Forums Top
Demigod *may* be only the second game I ever preorder... must acquire more information.

Supreme Commander beside Sins - a natural pairing as I`ve said before. Thumbs up.
Reply #44 from Sins Forums Top
Man, I wish I had a better computer... Supreme Commander was too intense for my system, so I can't imagine what this will do. Damn.
Reply #45 from Sins Forums Top
No doubt. I bet you just showed them your checkbook and said something like "Just count the zeros; that is from our way of doing business. Are you interested?"


Actually, Stardock has known connections with the Advent. "Conversion" was a matter of installing Temples of Communion in the right locations.
Reply #46 from Sins Forums Top
No doubt. I bet you just showed them your checkbook and said something like "Just count the zeros; that is from our way of doing business. Are you interested?"Actually, Stardock has known connections with the Advent. "Conversion" was a matter of installing Temples of Communion in the right locations.


You are probably right. How insidious... :HOT:
Reply #47 from Sins Forums Top
Hmmm... not sure what to think of this one. I've really come to respect Stardock as a publisher, but Gas Powered Games really screwed a bunch of folks over on Supreme Commander that they were placed on my "Never buy" list. Basically, their audio code didn't work properly with Creative audio cards resulting in as much as a 50% reduction in performance. Their solution? "We have no intention of fixing this. Use on-board sound instead."

Yeah, that kinda pissed me off. So good luck to Stardock, but I probably won't be buying Demigod unless I can be assured that it will work properly.
Reply #48 from Sins Forums Top
Now wait just a minute, wasn't GPG complaining about PC piracy being out of control a few months ago, or am I confusing them with someone else?
We have made converts of them to Stardock's way of thinking.


:SURPRISED:
Reply #49 from Sins Forums Top
Now wait just a minute, wasn't GPG complaining about PC piracy being out of control a few months ago, or am I confusing them with someone else?
We have made converts of them to Stardock's way of thinking.


I'm sorry, but it doesn't seem that you did:

What others have referred to:

games hosted on a server that require player authentication in order to play


Then you mentioned that they've changed their thinking. I hope that's true, but here something else is said:

You just want to install on your laptop, and your desktop, and just...

BW: Play it whenever I feel like it. If I'm paying $40, $50, or $60 for a game, don't treat me like a criminal.

Speaking of which, if you have installed multiple times, how do you manage the save file across multiple installs?

BW: The save file?

You know, like your progress in the game. Is that something you've looked into?

BW: It depends on the game. Demigod is going to have a persistent universe, so all your characters and stuff are server-side. But what I'm saying is that it's not the platform that does that. It's the individual implementation from a game point of view.


GPG is still thinking the same, they just found a better way to sell the game. They get bigger profits and guaranteed sales due to the requirement that each game be registered (and therefore killing any chance it can be resold later).

I was really interested in this game too. :(

P.S.

They also keep the saved games and other info on their servers which further locks down usage. I don't know about you guys, but this doesn't jive with the approach that Ironclad went.

P.P.S.

How exactly does that allow a disconnected laptop user to play the game? :confused: