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oh gamestop, its just one thing after another with u *sigh* | |
I might've tried to get this if I had a PC. *Sighs* | |
This sucks for Stardock indeed. And the gamers only get hurt on the process. Fail GameStop is fail... | |
So they sold the game before Stardocks official release date? Can't they be fined/sued for that? | |
Why does anyone even trust Gamestop to distribute their software any more? | |
I really hope this doesn't end up hurting Stardock. They're a great group of folks over there, and I always try to show my appreciation of their (a) hard work and (b) support of our community whenever I can. Stardock is one of those very few companies that I won't even hesitate to hand money to. | |
wow this game looks great really want to buy it | |
Well, I'm sure you can find a pc that runs WC3 and then you can just DL dota. Its like fifty bucks cheeper. | |
I might actually buy this game if it's more than just DotA (because I'm not paying 50 dollars for DotA with better graphics and more maps). I'll have to check out a demo. Anyway, Gamestop is bullshit. | |
They're WalMart. Because they sell so many copies, they get to decide the when and the how, or else the producers of the game aren't gonna have their business at all. What jerks. | |
Bloody Gamestop. They screw up the gaming industry enough as it is. | |
I'd say to boycott the place, but chances are the informed gamers here already do. I'm interested in the piracy aspect of this though. | |
I just read this after reading the thread about some guy getting screwed at Gamestop and receiving only $2.25 for two games. I always go to Gamestop for my games. I have to reconsider. | |
Probably. There's something called anti-competitive business practices, vis-a-vis the digital distribution and that's just for starters. There also exist representation laws in which Gamestop, acting on Stardock's behalf, could be called accountable for making them look bad (releasing a game with no multiplayer servers as complete). I only see Stardock acting on this if there's a truly severe result from it, but I'd agree with oliveira on "fail Gamestop is fail". | |
I can't actually see this hurting Stardock in the slightest. In the short term, maybe, as far as getting the online multiplayer up to speed, but does anybody ever expect that to go smoothly for anybody besides Blizzard on launch day anyway? Gamestop is not the Walmart of PC game sales, Walmart is, as is Target, to a lesser extent, and Stardock has retail presence in both stores, while Gamestop's PC game shelfspace is only, what, 5% of their console shelf space? It's only a matter of time before Gamestop's PC sales go the way of their used DVD sales. In the meantime, Stardock owns their own digital distribution platform, and their own distribution and publishing business. The only fallout they'd be likely to see from embargoing Gamestop is an uptick in Impulse subscribers. | |
Why do the terrible games have to be the ones to go DRM-free? Seriously, if you have any inclination to play this game, PLAY DOTA INSTEAD. DotA has a VERY steep learning curve, but its much more rewarding than this game. I've played a few rounds of Demigod multiplayer and about a dozen single player, trying to give it a serious chance to prove me wrong, but I can guarantee it is no where near DotA in terms of fun and quality gameplay. If DotA isn't your cup of tea, just wait till League of Legends comes out. I'm glad to see this genre taking off, though. I am surprised it took someone so long to make a commercial version of it, or at least I'm not familiar with anything like this outside of DotA/AoS maps on wc3. EDIT: Err... not sure exactly what I was implying with my first sentence. Since the only other non-drm games that come to mind are World of Goo, Braid, and Savage, all of which are pretty good. Bleh. Anyway, my point is I'm hoping they realize that the game being crappy is what caused bad sales, not lack of drm, even if the piracy is ridiculous. | |
Oh gamestop why do you phail so. Pirated games ftw. | |
I feel bad for Stardock,they're one of the only devs that aren't in it for the money and actually care about the gamer. | |
I can't find any downside for gamers in "game gets sold early". The game was already pressed onto discs anyway so there won't be any missed development, the only thing that gets cut down is the time the stock spends useless in some warehouse with gamers unable to buy it.
Couldn't he just say "no, for that money I won't sell them"? That's one screwing you can decide not to take.
I don't think antitrust laws apply to that, at most you can get a breach of contract. Stardock can probably sue them under whatever terms the contract contains (or just collect the fee if the contract specifies damages that can be taken without court involvement) and, if necessary, delay future shipments to GS until after the street date. GS isn't important enough to bully people around, they aren't WalMart. | |
What else is new? I learned about their strategy for breaking street dates months ago (on an Australian Gamer podcast.) Gamestop will do absolutely anything if they think they can get away with it, including lying to customers about what reservations they have, selling opened and played products as "brand new," and not giving employees breaks (by giving employees way too much work and not nearly enough time to do it in.) I shop on Half.com whenever possible. | |
Here's a downside for you; the multiplayer servers weren't up running completly yet because the devs weren't going to roll them out before closer to the actual release date. But instead they had to go into overtime in the holidays to rush out a deployment. That's not good for anyone, except possibly GameStop... | |
I have never seen a copy protection that has prevented piracy so i don't think removing it will make much difference. It will mostly just annoy people who buy the game legally. | |
So on the days before the game gets officially released you can only play singleplayer. And? The other option would be to twiddle your thumbs (or play something else) until then. | |
"Since we know Demigod is an outstanding game with a wide appeal with equal retail and digital distribution to other titles that came out this year with similar demographics we can see how well it sells compared to them" i loled outstanding game... rofl...
this however just blew my hat off. | |
I do hope so! Stardock are one of the few publishers who actually work the business as a business - i.e. not horse whipping paying customers to get rid of pirates. | |
Also, I'm curious - is the game fun? It looks fun, but there is no demo, and after the whole Spore thing, I'm more wary about buying without trying. | |
Probably wait for a review before buying. | |
I feel sorry for the devs as a 8 week crunch and having holidays off as a reward then it striped from you. I would be more than a little pissed. I surprised if this a frequent occurrence that companies both with them as only takes one to say since you keep doing this to us and is no respect for our release dates then we refuse to do business with you any more. As only takes one for others to follow suit as gamespot will not be missed when there gone. | |
And GameStop continues to make it look extremely stupid. Why, GameStop, why? I'm not saying GameStop is a god send, but it's not like I have any other choices here. I've only been able to preorder games from GameStop, and their "bargain bins" see frequent $5-$10 purchases from me. To be honest, they have been getting a lot more bad rap than I really think they deserve. I don't think it would have been blown this out of proportion if some other company did this. Still, not a good move here. I feel sorry for Stardock, as I can fully understand how bad programming and testing crunches can be. <( - . - )> | |
I just don't get it though. That shitty wolverine movie gets leaked and you know if the people responsible ever get caught they are going to be violated soo hard they will have a permanent limp. Gamestop does pretty much the same thing, releasing something they were legally not allowed to. So why should they not face the same consequences? | |
And you are surprised that pirates ALREADY HAVE RELEASED THE GAME. | |
Bah post fail wait a second... Edit: Yes it hursts the players Demigod is supposed to be a multiplayer RTS and the MP component was the main part of the game. It came out completly broken to the people that bought it on gamestop. Apparentlty the SP is skirmishes and a tournament or something. | |
Those who want only MP can just wait until the servers go online and buy it normally on the street date, others can choose to buy it early and still end up ahead compared to no date breaking (because even only half a game is still better than no game at all). | |
A boycott would be good but the problem is that they have legions of zombified gamestop fanboys who think that they can do no wrong and will gladly give them week old games for $20 trade in and then put that $20 down as a pre-order for a game they'll have to wait another year for anyway. | |
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GameStop Breaks Demigod Street Date; Stardock CEO "Very Unhappy"
Stardock boss Brad Wardell is none too happy with GameStop over the retailer's decision to break the street date for Demigod, a move that forced the early digital release of the game and brought tired Stardock employees back to work through the Easter weekend.
Demigod was originally slated for release on April 14 but GameStop put it on sale last week, causing no end of aggravation for Wardell and the folks at Stardock. "First, it was Easter weekend. And many of us had just finished a good solid eight weeks of massive crunch and were looking forward to the weekend to recover," he wrote on the Impulse blog. "Instead, we found ourselves back at work having to turn on and configure the multiplayer matchmaking servers (we had enough for a beta but not for thousands of people)."
The absence of copy protection on Stardock games means that piracy of the game will be maximized "in theory," since it wasn't available anywhere but GameStop, even if only briefly. On the upside, Wardell, who is well known in gaming circles for his support of "gamers' rights" and opposition to intrusive DRM, said the unique situation will allow Stardock to "actually see the effects of piracy."
"Since we know Demigod is an outstanding game with a wide appeal with equal retail and digital distribution to other titles that came out this year with similar demographics we can see how well it sells compared to them," he wrote.
There's been plenty of speculation as to how all this came about in the first place. Some observers have suggested GameStop intentionally released the game early to get an edge on Stardock's digital release of the game on its Impulse network, but Wardell declined to comment in his post. "There have been plenty of discussions about whether GameStop did this intentionally or not which I won't go into here," he wrote. But he told Gamasutra that he's not ready to drop the matter with GameStop just yet. "We're still discussing with [GameStop] how exactly this happened," he said. "Obviously we're very unhappy, as it has made getting online connectivity going a lot tougher than expected."
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