Yep, GPG is the developer for Supreme Commander. Ha, if Blizzard jumped on board and wanted to distribute SC2 via Impulse, Valve and Steam would probably crap their pants

But I don't think we'll get to see that.

Regarding cornering the RTS market with Impulse, I read in an article yesterday that that's exactly what they're trying to do, at least early on. Sorry don't remember the link.

It'll be a long, cold day in Hell before Blizzard would decide to kill off DRM (no doubt a prerequisite for distributing on Impulse).

-HM

Ya, something big to do with Impulse could be the only thing that Stardock would term "huge." Free games or something related to the GalCiv2 expansion would be great but I don't see that happening...

When's this announcement happening, anyway?! I've been hitting refresh all morning.

I've got neuroscience to study, I can't be held hostage any longer...

Well,  the article on gamasutra http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18124 is very interesting

maybe by "huge" they meant the font size.
a
HUGE Announcement!

I'd like to be wrong, but I seriously doubt there's any other news coming besides the Gas Powered Games announcement.

-HM

oh, well ixnay the "cornering of the RTS market" I thought read about

Blizzard recently patched out the copy protection from Warcraft 3. Their main protection is cd-keys for Battle.net anyway (and subscriptions for WoW), so they wouldn't actually lose much there.

They've shown serious reluctance to do digital distribution, but DRM doesn't seem to be related to it.

Heres the news PEOPLE! Stardock and Gas Powered Games have Partnered up with no cd key required and same with no cd required too. For more info go to IGN in PC game section. But you will be told the info very soon.

Great link, thanks Phoenix

Yes, and Blizzard just removed the CD check for Starcraft. But how long has that been out? I don't see them removing DRM immediately for new games.

-HM

Why not? Does CD check based DRM actually prevent piracy ? No(copy the CD, or if that doesn't work use an emulator -- SecuRom will be patched around in days). Does it inconvenience customers? yes.

You should be asking Blizzard that, not Hollow Man All in all, DRM is still the "norm" for game publishers, even though Stardock is doing a good job breaking the mold.

Daemon Tools and Alcohol 120% ftw. As a worst case anyways, for a long time I had a few dozen CD images on my HDD to prevent having to actually physically get up. Because, you know, I'm allergic to exercise. Yeah, thats right, endorphins cause me to break out in hives

I owned most of the games at any rate, the only game I currently have that I don't own a legit copy of is Titan Quest b/c the company that produced it is a bunch of *tards and the hacked version works better than the production version.

What does this new rts by Gas powered have to do with Sins? I would expect this being the official Sins of a Solar Empire web page that they would promote things about the game and not about others. Using this site as a means to promote non related Sin stuff just doesn't seem right to me.

DreamMystic, it may not seem right to you, but since the website is run by Stardock, they can do whatever they want.

Ron, Stardock is so much the outsider when it comes to copy protection it's not funny. I've been playing PC games since 1983 and there has always been stupid protection on more than 80% of gaming software. Even though Stardock is making strides, I don't expect this will change anytime soon, because there aren't enough gamers that refuse to buy games with copy protection.

-HM

I know. ./nasty face

So then why are you asking me why Blizzard won't remove the DRM from new titles? I'd ask, "Why should they?" They're making a gajillion dollars on everything they release. Why should they change their model? Because it's the right thing to do? Hah, tell that to their suits.

EDIT: But I will tell you one game that doesn't have copy protection (drumroll; it's a big surprise): Supreme Commander. Yep, bought it a few weeks ago on sale at Best Buy for $20, patched it up, and no DVD needed to play.

I have not played the version that comes on the DVD, so unsure if it's like this out of the box or if it was patched in.

-HM

Supreme Commander was with serial check only for patches and online play from the start.

SecuROM was patched out of SC a few months ago, IIRC. That was still a long time on shelves to have it.

RE: Supreme Commander - there's a game with a lot of wasted potential...

That news ironclad released was pretty damn lame. I thought they were going to announce somthing like they were takeing over Galactic Civilization. Or they were going to release a new expansion to Sins or maybe add a campaign to it.

Personally I would of like to see them create a new engine around Galactic Civilzation.

Heres somthing they could also do make a program that would configure your router for there games.

That would be a highlight for the game industry.

Things like this would make for excellent news but I'm guessing it will never happen.