IGN reports that Gas Powered Games (GPG) plans to publish their "next big thing", Demigod, through Stardock. GPG is best known for its Action-RPG series, Dungeon Seige, and its large-scale, futuristic RTS, Supreme Commander, which is the spiritual successor to (GPG Founder and CEO) Chris Taylor's Total Annihilation. Stardock, which I wrote about earlier in this blog entry, is gaining fame for its game publishing ethos which involves a lack of copy protection and frequent patches, updates and free expansions to its games. Those who read my previous entry know how much I value the Stardock business model as well as its two major games, Galactic Civilizations and Sins of a Solar Empire.
This is new territory for Stardock. Indeed, GPG is a strictly AAA title producer. The fact that Taylor would choose Stardock to distribute his next major release means a couple of different things for the industry: 1) major developers are beginning to recognize the poverty of the current copy protection model, 2) Stardock is starting to get a reputation for a quality business model and, 3) perhaps the industry recognizes the marketability of putting out good, fun games over flashy, brief aural/visual experiences that make good sound/vid bytes but fleece their buyers. (I mean, seriously, $70 for a 5-hour experience; starting to lose the edge over movies.) I, for one, am ecstatic for Stardock. And I hope Demigod proves good enough to justify their faith and investment in it.
