Stardock Impulse

I just downloaded Stardock’s new Digital Distribution platform Impulse, and thus far I’m reasonably impressed.

Without getting too far into it, it looks like both Steam and Impulse essentially have a web browser embedded in them, and they use the callbacks from this browser to kick off the downloads process.  Both services allow you to keep a catalog of your games, re-download them as many times as you want, and both services have community elements as well.

Steam has a better catalog of games, and has hooks into various Valve magic such as a Steamworks, and saved games in the cloud (which is awesome).

But Impulse is shiny, and that matters.  I currently use both Quicken Online (at least until my trial expires) and Mint for personal finances, and even though Mint is horribly crippled by not supporting Canadian banks, I still log into it because it’s prettier than Quicken is.  Additionally, Steam has the unfortunate habit of randomly hanging in the middle of downloads, requiring me to stop and restart the download.  This isn’t a show stopping issue, but it’s irritating, and Impulse can capitalize on that.

Web design has moved forward since Steam was launched, and it’s time for Steam to bring some of those design principles to the table.

Get Over the Hardcore

Stardock has built themselves a tidy little market turning around profits that are orders of magnitude higher than their development costs (under a million!).  They’ve done this on the piracy haven that is the PC, and without using DRM.  In the dawning hours, as the industry is starting to realize the potential in casual gaming, I think we can predict a related move:  Getting away from the hardcore gamer.  Trends that begun with the first high resolution FPS in the nineties are beginning to reverse.  I predict in the next 5 years a major shift away from those large budget titles and into a field of much smaller, more innovative and original titles with smaller development budgets, delivered through digital distribution, and appeasing a much broader audience than the twitch crowds.

And I’m looking forward to it.  (On a related note, Dreamfall is getting released on Xbox Originals on Monday!)

Rockstar comes to Steam

Rockstar and Valve announced yesterday that many of Rockstar’s games are now available for download through Steam.  This includes both the Max Payne series and the entire Grand Theft Auto series.  Notably absent is Bully.  Valve continues to do very well for itself, and at this rate, will corner the market in Digital Distribution of PC games.