If Gamestop fails, they earned their fail by their previous actions.  I think it's sorta ironic that Brad didn't seem to factor in Gamestop's reputation, when Stardock makes extreme efforts to maintain goodwill themselves. 

That said, Steam does need a competitor, and Impulse is still the best bet, provided Gamestop is willing to play dirty.

I really don't want Steamworks DRM to become standard, it's just giving too much power to the DD provider for my own comfort.

yeah... Aeligos... in about 15 to 20 years maybe even 25 years no offense, I've love to see that now... so I won't have to be an old man by the time we get that stuff.

I hate to say it, as I wanted to give Gamestop the benefit of the doubt- but the Deus Ex scandal + a general decline in selection and deals means I no longer wish to support Impulse.  I hope Stardock gives customers the option of Steam/Impulse/Direct Purchase in future.

Gamestop is playing dirty, but in a way that won't work and will alienate people.

As good as Fallen Enchantress looks (and it does look great! Even more so after the UI Dev journal), I'm just not willing to deal with gamestop. This thing with Deus Ex is minor relative to gamestops history.  It is a big deal for the precedence it sets.  But gamestop does worse.  One could have predicted this Deus Ex scenario simply by looking at gamestoppers historical anti-competitive practices.  It'll get worse. Already they seek out exclusive digital distribution deals.  And just so much more.  

I am strongly anti-privacy.  But in this case... I bought E:WOM.  E:WOM sucked.  But Stardock said it would make things right.  And it said it some more.  They went on and on about the famous support.  A year later and the game actually sucks worse than it did at the beginning of the year.  But only one guy is working on it.  All the others are working on E:FE.  But maybe thats okay because Stardock is giving this game for free to everyone who bought E:WOM last year.  But then, Stardock goes and sells Impulse (which is our access to this game) to a despicable company.  You have to agree to this shady companies terms before gaining access to Stardocks now infamous product support.  You either accept gamestops methods or you can't get your game fixed.  I don't accept their terms nor their methods.

So, since E:FE is the product support for E:WOM.  And since I bought E:WOM last November. Well, maybe I oughta look into a pirated version.  I have paid for it since it is the only product support option for E;WOM.  So it wouldn't really be pirating would it?  I'm not so convinced.  And likely won't make E:FE my first and only pirated game.  But damnit, why is it there are so many motivations to pirate?  The motivations go far beyond trying to get something for nothing.  Hell, I thought about buying Civ5 at retail, then destroying the faux install disk and pirating a user friendly version.  Bah.  It all started turning to shit once gaming got big.  

I think part of the deal with Gamestop was that Stardock Entertainment needed to remain Impulse exclusive for one year from the takeover.  I'm not sure whether there was also a requirement for Stardock to put FE on Impulse.  Depending on the terms, they might need to put at least one new game on Impulse.

Best regards,
Steven.

They're not doing right.  They're just making a payoff.  Doing right would start with giving all purchasers the free ticket for onlive.  Then if they want to pay for an apology, they can give store credit or whatever.

They still achieve their aim.  And that is to intercede a competitors promotion.  Unfortunately the payoff will have some affect in this "me" society that can't look past the end of it's own nose.  Still, I hope that an increasing number of people learn that it is in their own personal interest to not deal with these sorts of companies.  They will follow the money.  It should be you the consumer that drives the market.  Doing business with them is akin to accepting their business practices and all that it entails.

They did fix their mess.  I lost trust in them due to this, but they're going to get another chance.  They are running out of chances though, and I do wish Stardock would stop being Impulse-exclusive when they are allowed to do so.

Ask Gamestop.

For now, Mark - go to store.stardock.com and click on the MyAccount link, then log in using your email & P/W.  You can download all the installers for the individual OD apps there.

A replacement for Impulse is in development.