I'm relatively neutral on this whole thing but let me give a real world example where this can turn out positive.

Last year the company I work for was purchased by a giant international company. My company was a respected and trusted expert in our field which is why it was purchased. The purchaser, let's say, was lacking in this category. Now alot of anxiety was caused, namely around job security, but once that was nailed down it was the issue of "Clash of Cultures." Would the less respected yet giant culture dominate and destroy the respected brand and culture of our company?

What's actually happened is personnel from my company were placed into key positions of the new merged entity. The culture that made our medium-sized business successful started to change the culture of the new merged entity for the better. Picture a bigger fish eating a little fish and the little fish gets the last laugh by eating the big fish from the inside out.

It's certainly possible Gamestop could just wreck everything Impulse. On the other hand, it's also possible they bought what Brad had to offer for the purpose of providing investment that Brad could not or did not want to provide. Maybe they have no plans at all beyond basic synergies and cost savings? Maybe SD's culture will win the day? Too early to tell. Flip a coin. I highly recommend everyone take a deep breath, read and listen to Gamestop's announcement, and pay particular attention to who will be calling the shots of the new division. Are key Stardockians going to call the shots or are they bringing in their leadership?

I personally see nothing positive about this, every Gamestop/EB store I've been to (which is a hell of a lot, I've moved a lot) have few PC games, and the staff were rude and condescending as hell. The few times I tried to pre-order games through them they screwed it up every time and their phone and email support staff were as rude as the people in the Store.

I end up every time having to go through someone else. In fact the last game I tried to pre-order threw them was Star Trek Online, they screwed up at every turn so I went with impulse instead, even thought the pre-order bonus was worthless.

I continue to order stardocks games through impulse (or directly from Stardock if i can) since the the only way I can get them right now but that it, I refuse to give Gamestop one more penny of my money.

But one huge red flag, thats worth a whole bunch of little red flags was raised when I learned that it was Gamestop who was the buyer. They are big time responsible for doing the sorts of things that Brad says is threating the industry.  Why Gamestop?  They got big money and industry influence sure.  And by way of brand recognition and existing customer base, they are in position to give steam some near term competition.  Stardock needed more time to grow its base.  But fortuitous events in the industry gave Stardock and Impulse opportunity to expand its user base simply by continuing to do those things which set them apart from their competitors. I thought they were on the right track and that growth would begin to come exponentially.  Well thats not to be it seems.  But Gamestop!? Their track record runs the wrong way.  They profit off an industry which they undercut by diverting revenue away from the actual content providers.  When I read Brads articles on the negative aspects that retailers have on the PC gaming industry, Gamestop comes readily to mind.

Brad explained a reason for selling Impulse was that it demanded resources he was unwilling or unable to give.  Fine.  Its also fine if he wanted to build it up for the purpose of selling it from the get go.  It's not my business how he runs his... except for the small fact that I have something to lose.  He has sold the ownership of a service which controls the validation keys to a software usage license which I have paid for.  And he has sold it to an outfit which I have firsthand reason to distrust.  And a little bit of time spent researching gives me even more reason to distrust.  So I am taking a personal interest in this decision of his.  I've got something to lose here.  

I've probably said too much on this topic.  I'm a bit disappointed if this is true.  I thought Stardocks Impulse was going to bring noteworthy change to the industry while providing an ESD I could trust.  I'll wait and see if there is any news tomorrow.  Then decide where to go from here.  Things were so much simpler when the keys to my game were in the hands of someone I trusted.  And the future of middle market old school TBS looked a bit brighter than it does now.  There is still Paradox Games though :~) 

console publishers making the next-gen of consoles resale proof would be just that for Gamestop, and I put the odds of that happening at 80%.

That said, I think consoles have peaked as a business model.

The news was posted on gamestops corporate website.  http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=130125&p=irol-news&nyo=0

or here:  http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/news/news.asp?ticker=GME:US

http://www.forbes.com/2011/04/01/gamestop-acquires-spawn-labs-impulse-marketnewsvideo.html

If you think the board of gamestop would stand for an April fools joke that would impact stock prices, you are very mistaken.

So your thought is that games will no longer be published on consoles or that there will not be a new next gen console?  I personally think that all we have seen is that M$ and Sony have increased the life cycles of their current hardware once they realized consumers weren't exceedingly interested in shelling out $200-$500 every 2 years for the latest and greatest.  This is actually a huge win for the consumer and developers.  But if you don't think that Sony and M$ (most likley M$ first) are working on a next gen system I'd argue.  There's alot of money to be made here. And even without releasing a brand new machine, both companies launched updated versions of their consoles along with new peripherals. 

That said, it's not in the best interest of any company to make a console that is resale proof (imo, of course) - ESPECIALLY if you factor in that some consoles are supposedly sold for less than they cost to manufacture.  Whats in all publishers best interest is coming up with a system that generates revenue for them on ANY resale.  The executives out there are just trying to figure out a way to make this happen.  For instance, imagine you want to buy a PS3.  You can buy it at retail for $200.  Or you can buy it at gamestop for $125 with the same 1 year warrantly.  The catch is that you have to pay a $25 activation fee to Sony directly to use the system.  This is the same stuff they are trying to pull with games.  So, gamestop can sell you a used game and make some money.  But now EA wants to change X dollars if you want to play online. Eventually, gamestop's numbers will dip the closer it costs to buy and activate a used game vs buying a brand new copy.  And then G$ will have to adapt and drop prices (or lock in agreements with various publishers).  The future (which probably won't favor the consumer) is a model where anytime you buy a used game or system, you will have to pay some sort of fee to the publisher.  This is great for the publishers (they have been getting the short end of the stick because of companies like gamestop.  Bad for gamestop, but they will eventually mitigate the losses by adjusted losses and forcing the end user to pay. Or something like that.  And that future is not all that far away. 

This is real?...

I'm really sad. 

One of the best parts of Impulse was its aftersale support. What exactly does this new "unit" that Gamestop have that's so much better than that?

Wow, lotta passion on this subject. My owner on the left has a vet appointment today and I have to dig out of a snowstorm so I apologize to anyone I don't have time to reply to.

My point wasn't about my experience with Mom & Pop shops. I love specialized local stores. My point is that it's very hard to run one in video games these days. Why? Well I used Gemini Wars as my example game last time, so I'll pick on them again.

Lets say I want Gemini Wars. Big Box Inc doesn't carry it because it's a niche title. In the past, I could go to the local store and talk to the owner, who is my go to guy. He can track it down and get it here. It might take two weeks and cost $90, but he can get anything and being a local guy instead of a chain it's worth his time to do it. That's great.

Today? If I want Gemini Wars and Big Box Inc doesn't have it, Steam probably does. If Steam doesn't have it (ala Star Ruler), Impulse probably does. If it's an older game, GoG probably has it. I don't have to get someone else to track it down and ship it here. I can hit the download button and put my very high speed fiber line to work for instant gratification. Mom & Pop simply aren't competitive against that, and neither is Big Box Inc. So if you're Big Box Inc, do you bother stocking a niche game like that which might not sell, or do you stock Call of Duty knowing that you can have a midnight launch party lineup of geeks and get moms in to buy it for their teenage boys?

As a businessman, that's not a hard choice. I want to make money. I also want to have enough sales to be able to make payroll.

Impulse is an entirely different beast because the cost to carry a game is negligable compared to doing so in a retail outfit. There's no boxes, no warehousing, no limited shelf space, no shipping. I can list Gemini Wars worldwide (if the publisher lets me) for a very low upfront cost and thus I don't need to sell 100,000 units to make it worthwhile. This is a HUGE boon for indie and niche gamers.

It's also good for Gamestop. They didn't stop carrying PC games because they hate PC gamers. They only stopped carrying them because the space in the store is more profitable if it carries something else. That's just business. The whole paradigm is turned on its head online because the "shelf space" isn't really limited and its so much cheaper to get games listed.

Yeah I agree with this totally. Why would Gamestop buy it if they don't care about PC games? They can not care about PC games for free. Impulse was Stardock's most profitable unit, it would not have come cheap. Why does a publically traded company spend significant cash on something that they don't care about?

It doesn't make sense. If they made this purchase, it's because they see an opportunity to get back into the business of PC games. PC games at retail are dying off. That's just a fact. PC games over DD are thriving. Gamestop wants to be able to compete with Steam. Gamestop has gobs of cash and thus the resources to put into something like Reactor to get it done, which has been taking Stardock a very long time.

We don't know what Gamestop is going to do at the end of the day, but there's very plausable scenarios where this works out well for PC gamers.

 Very disappointing. My biggest problem with this deal is this. Giving my personal datas was a conscious decision for stardock/impulse, after reading these forum and after picturing "Who are theses guys?".  I dont do this for every company or on every internet-site. I dont throw this datas around like candy. I had never used Impulse, if this was a gamestop-platform right from the beginning. I dont "know" anybody from gamestop. Just a big retailer, who just wants to make big money and gives a shit about what gamers want. (imho)

(Sry for bad english. I hope its understandable what i mean.)

One other thing to consider here. In broad terms companies are acquired for one of two reasons:

1. Company or division is failing (think Myspace) and it can be purchased for cheap. Goal here is to acquire any valuable assets and absolutely gut the entity with layoffs and restructuring. Bean counters are in control - it's all about making a cheap investment and nuking the purchased entity. Profitability and cutting SG&A expenses are the rules of the day.
2. Company or division is thriving (think Impulse) and needs resources to expand further. Brad's heart isn't it and he has nowhere near the resources to truly allow Impulse to compete with Steam. Gamestop does. Gamestop wants to take this baby and pour investment into it, retain the brand name, and take it to the next level. In this type of acquisition the bean counters aren't in control (although basic synergies are always looked for such as duplicative functions in accounting, finance, etc.). Brand name, reputation, and sales are in control. Maintain the infrastructure and build upon it. Bean counter priorities are secondary.

We know Impulse is thriving and not failing. If Gamestop leadership is competent this acquisition should fall into #2. Those who care about this passionately should follow development over the coming weeks and months and look for the following:

• Is the brand name changing or remaining Impulse? Something like Gamestop Impulse. Or is the name completely changing?
• Is anyone from the legacy Impulse team being put in leadership positions?
• Is a massive restructuring planned beyond basic duplicative back-office positions?

Good leadership from Gamestop combined with a culture change from the incoming Impulse team could make this a huge win-win. On the flip side bad leadership from Gamestop could blow this whole thing up. Too early to tell.

And for those who have had bad experiences with Gamestop in the past I totally understand not wanting to patron any of their business. I would do the same. However, I've bought a number of used console games over the years for my kiddos and never had a problem personally.

It is 2nd of April,  can we stop this joke now? Brad?

I've posted before that I don't like this deal BUT there are two sides to this.

Stardock - This is a good move for Stardock.  As Brad stated Impulse was taking away a lot of resources and attention from what they do best...games and Windows productivity software.  By selling Impulse they get that off their chest, get an influx of cash in the process and can hopefully be a better game developer to avoid another Elemental and also a better game publisher and avoid another Demigod.  This is all good for fans of Stardock games.

Another side benefit I see that I haven't seen talked about is wider distribution of their games.  Let me explain, in the past Stardock has refused to put their games on Steam because Steam requires the bundling of the Steam store which is in direct competition of Impulse and thus the Stardock bottom line.  NOW that Stardock no longer owns Impulse that issue is no longer an issue.  Sounds like Stardock has a certain window here of continued exclusivity to Impulse but once that agreement runs out I can see a year or so down the road Stardock putting their games on Steam which again will only help Stardock reach more gamers.  Note that Brad has always stated he doesn't hate steam and likes the platform.  It just directly competed with him.  Now that is no longer the case.  I think this may have been a pretty big reason in the decision to sell Impulse.

I really don't see many gamers or "fanbois" having a problem with this side of the business decision.

Gamestop - This is the other side of it is who bought Impulse.  Gamestop is hated by PC gamers moreso then Steam.  In fact much of the Steam popularity in the beginning was that gamers could get games *without* having to buy at Gamestop.  I won't repost why gamers hate Gamestop, that has been done a lot already.  It is curious why Stardock/Brad decided to sell to Gamestop which violates so many of the gamers bill of rights statements but that's neither here nor there, it was purely a business decision I'm sure.

I think though we may see an end to the "Stardock way" of doing games now that Impulse is no longer theirs.  I mean, I can't really see how Stardock gives away Enchantress in the future where they don't own Impulse.  Right now they just flag people's account to get it.  But when they don't own Impulse anymore and perhaps are on Steam and GG as well....how will they do this?  I guess they could email codes out to current registered owners but now they need to almost build up their own infrastructure again.  Certainly could happen but it won't be as easy as when they owned the store and could do what they wanted to with it.

So now for many gamers it comes down to the "lesser of two evils" between Steam and Gamestop.  Yea there are other smaller players like GG but these are the big boys.  At least it will come down to this for me.  Certainly I will keep an eye on Impulse and will still use it for Stardock games if I have to but I'm about to welcome my Steam overlords despite a promise to myself in the past to never use Steam.  But without a good alternative (less evil) I guess I'll go with the majority on this one.

I'll repost what I put here yesterday (and seems to have been deleted)

Gamestop let me down three times and I no longer use them to import games from the US.

To precis:

1. Failed to deliver game - 6 month fight including sending them my visa statement (which they did not take as proof that the game had been paid for) at no time did they provide one iota of evidence that the game had been despatched. No shipping code etc, not even a date. After 6 months they refunded me "as a gesture" - I think that attitude wound me up more than anything

2.Charged early for a game that had not been released against their own policy of not doing do (and we are talking almost 2 months not a couple of days)

3. Refused to service my account. I rang and spoke directly to a rep at gamestop (at my considerable cost from the UK) was told a direct lie that they "no longer export to UK"

I've never had such bad service from a company..

Maybe for US customers they are ok, but for the rest of us they are a terrible orgainisation

(Note to Frogboy - if you call this a "Strawman argument" - please explain your reasoning this time - or better still don't use terms you don't understand)

Even better forum mods - just delete this post like you did to yesterdayst - A great way to win an argument is to deny the opposition a voice - it's also the most egregious and dictatorial method as well - and says a lot about the character of the deleter.

Seems that any real dissent is already being quashed and this free forum is a mockery of its former self already.

Scritty