Gamestop acquires Impulse, Stardock's digital distribution platform.

[Anteaus]

This is probably the most logical reason for them to go this route. Gamestop makes the vast majority of their money on console releases. They would have to know that they could never be as big as Steam if they stayed with PC, so they must be looking to venture in the untapped market of console digital distribution. If they do it right they could make a killing, especially if they support older console titles that aren't in stores anymore.

I personally loathe gamestop, but I have to admit it's a smart business decision. My question is, did Stardock sign a exclusive deal to only sell on Impulse for the time being? It seems Gamestop would have to have known Stardock itself is one of the reasons Impulse is so popular, just like Steam had Valve.

 

[Beev]

Gamestop is shitting their pants, and this just further proves that. A number of my friends work for Gamestop, and none of them have anything good to say about it. The corporation is one of the worst ran companies I have ever seen. Their executives are completely out of touch with their stores, sickeningly so.

Last year they bought kongregate.com, and when that didn't go as well as they wanted they cut hours at every store to save on payroll, which has absolutely annihilated employee morale. Digital distribution and online codes (for EA games) has also started killing their used sales. Gamestop is hurting. Bad. When digital distribution becomes the norm and not the exception they are gone, and I can't wait for that day because they do not deserve to stay in business.

 

[boozie]

I love how everyone in here is instantly "whelp gg, at least I only had X from impulse". Read a link or two or try using your brain. You aren't losing the games you bought.

This isn't a huge fiasco that people are making it out to be. It has potential to be better than its current state in the hands of Gamestop. Not saying it will be for sure, but think about trade-ins for money to use on their electronic store. There's upside, Gamestop has more of a chance to compete with steam prices.

 

[Martimus]

I love how everyone in here is instantly "whelp gg, at least I only had X from impulse". Read a link or two or try using your brain. You aren't losing the games you bought.

This isn't a huge fiasco that people are making it out to be. It has potential to be better than its current state in the hands of Gamestop. Not saying it will be for sure, but think about trade-ins for money to use on their electronic store. There's upside, Gamestop has more of a chance to compete with steam prices.

I think you should be using your brain. There is a reason people are worried about "Gamestop" running Impulse. Yes, I don't expect to be cut out of my games in a month. I would not be surprised if they ran the business into the ground and I lose access to them in a year or two though.

 

[CPA]

I think valve is looking to buy something, they've said they are sitting on a ton of cash and I also know that per employee they take in more than google. I could easily see valve buying onlive or even become some kind of Netflix business. I'm sure they would love to get some recurring revenue.

It would not surprise me in the least to see Valve use the Steam platform to deliver movies and TV shows.

 

[boozie]

This sucks balls. I have a bunch of games on there that I haven't yet downloaded.

So why are you worried that you haven't downloaded them yet? You think they will go out of business before you can download everything? Either you misspoke or you gave erroneous information.

Woe is you. People said/say the same thing about Steam. Lots of overreacting.

 

[Martimus]

So why are you worried that you haven't downloaded them yet? You think they will go out of business before you can download everything? Either you misspoke or you gave erroneous information.

Woe is you. People said/say the same thing about Steam. Lots of overreacting.

Who knows how they will treat these things? who knows if they will even keep rights to host those games, or how long they will? You don't know any of these things and neither do we.

If you are mad at me for being worried about these things, then you have some major issues. I know why I am unhappy about his news, and you feeling that I don't have any reason to be unhappy just shows how little you actually understand about the situation.

 

[boozie]

Why would I be mad at you? I just said it's silly how people are acting like the games are forever gone. I also don't understand the relevance of not having downloaded games yet. It comes off as you thinking you never will.

You claimed that you might actually lose access to the game. (THIS JUST IN... that was always the case!)

 

[heat901]

Why would I be mad at you? I just said it's silly how people are acting like the games are forever gone. I also don't understand the relevance of not having downloaded games yet. It comes off as you thinking you never will.

You claimed that you might actually lose access to the game. (THIS JUST IN... that was always the case!)

I am not entirely worried about this but it still in the back of my mind. This is gamestop and they have a reputation for being bad guys. What I am more worried about is prices... Impulses deals have been getting better and better, more deals, better prices and almost competing with Steam. Now I dont know about you but any time I've checked Gamestop own website there really arent deals, good prices or anything remotely good for PC. That and I do not like I liked how they distribute the game and have download insurance at a price to be able to download the game 18 months after purchase. I honestly DO NOT KNOW HOW YOU CAN BE SO "EH DON'T WORRY".

 

[Red Storm]

Gamestop is bad for PC gamers, I dread to think what they're going to turn Impulse into. Not that it's perfect right now, but things will only get worse with Gamestop at the helm.

 

[Beev]

Gamestop is just bad for gamers. Here's a trick if an employee pisses you off: preorder a bunch of stuff from a different employee at the same store, then go back when the shitty employee is there and cancel all of your preorders through him/her.

/shrug. It's vindictive, but honestly, fuck Gamestop.

Other tricks to hurt the company:

Buy single items, keeps the units per transaction down.
If you see someone buying DLC in store, tell them they can get it tax free on XBL or the PSN.
Never buy their warranties (hardware or software) they're garbage.
If you buy a used system and it wasn't wiped then raise hell. They will bend over backwards to accommodate you, to your benefit and their loss.

I really hate Gamestop.

 

[paperfist]

Why would I be mad at you? I just said it's silly how people are acting like the games are forever gone. I also don't understand the relevance of not having downloaded games yet. It comes off as you thinking you never will.

You claimed that you might actually lose access to the game. (THIS JUST IN... that was always the case!)

With Steam it's always been said if they go out they turn the games back over to the users. With the other distribution systems we don't hear much and now that one has been bought out by an anti-PC organization it makes you wonder were we'll stand in a few months with games we've purchased already and the future of the system. It's human nature to worry

I'm not a big fan of congress and I don't care what the EULA says, but if I paid $5, $15, $60 for something and I suddenly lose access to it what recourse do I have? DD is an unregulated operation which sorely needs some standardized rules.

 

[A5]

From what I can tell, Stardock had a decision to make: be a game retailer or a game maker. It's pretty obvious that the work on Impulse was hurting their games (Elemental...), so the CEO decided to take them back to being a developer. The announcement said they're still only going to be distributing digitally on Impulse, but we'll see how long that lasts.

Frankly, they probably needed some cash to stay in business and Impulse was the only sell-able asset they had.

 

[zerocool84]

We wouldn't count on its retail business going away anytime soon, but it looks like GameStop is now also betting heavily on a digitally-distributed future. To that end, the company has just announced that it's acquiring both Spawn Labs and Steam-competitor Impulse, the latter of which it's buying out from parent company Stardock Systems. While Spawn Labs may not be the most familiar name, you might remember its HD-720 set-top box -- essentially a Slingbox for your game consoles -- which we first checked out way back in 2009 and finally started shipping in early 2010. It sounds like GameStop may have some even grander ambitions for the technology than that, however, as the company's press release says that it's now testing a "new consumer interface" that will give users "immediate access to a wide selection of high-definition video games on demand on any Internet-enabled device." As our pals at Joystiq note, that sounds an awful lot like OnLive-esque cloud-based gaming service, but GameStop unfortunately isn't offering many other hints at the moment.

OnLive competitor. I bet since now Gamestop is getting in that, Steam might get into that area as well. Makes sense.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/01/gamestop-snaps-up-spawn-labs-impulse-game-distribution-platform/

 

[zinfamous]

NOooOoooOOOooOOOO!

 

[Throckmorton]

Who cares? No one uses those fly by night 'digital' download services. Or at least no one should.

 

[s44]

This is terrible all around for the consumers.

For one thing, since PawnStop has retail outlets on every other street corner, this will force Impulse customers everywhere to pay sales tax.

 

[KaOTiK]

I thought of one possible good outcome for us. Maybe now Stardock will put their games on Steam?

 

[zerogear]

Well, I guess I'm done with buying Impulse software. GJ Stardock

 

[sactoking]

From a business strategy standpoint this makes sense. Gamestop's business model is to buy used games for fractions of a penny on the dollar and resell them for almost full price. PC Games never fit into that b/c of massive HDD space and open architecture. Gamestop didn't want to carry new PC games b/c the inventory overhead was too high and margins too thin. This way they can now carry PC games with virtually no overhead and no inventory costs. At that point the thin margins relative to used console games doesn't matter.

 

[Red Hawk]

Who cares? No one uses those fly by night 'digital' download services. Or at least no one should.

And why not?

 

[marmasatt]

From a business strategy standpoint this makes sense. Gamestop's business model is to buy used games for fractions of a penny on the dollar and resell them for almost full price. PC Games never fit into that b/c of massive HDD space and open architecture. Gamestop didn't want to carry new PC games b/c the inventory overhead was too high and margins too thin. This way they can now carry PC games with virtually no overhead and no inventory costs. At that point the thin margins relative to used console games doesn't matter.

Indeed. This always has been their business model. Make no mistake about it. And I've always hated it. But that's how they stay in business. They prey on consumers, (mainly 11-13 yr old boys with no money):biggrin: who want the latest game. So they give you like $18 in trade for 4 games which they turn around and sell for probably $70. And the kid is just happy he's got the $18 (remember when you were 11?) So he borrows another $20 from mom. And now he's able to buy the game from the store.......that he can turn around and sell back to them for about $15 in 2 mo's (that he just paid $40 for remember) that they will then mark up somewhere in the middle - say $30...And it goes on and on...I cringe when I see some of these kids going in there with like 5 game boxes.

 

[rpanic]

This is all around bad news.

 

[boozie]

This is all around bad news.

I guess I'm the only person here who thinks this can do more good than harm. I'll necro this thread a few years later to bring light to my insight.

I would at least hope we're all in agreement that this at least has potential to be good for PC gamers. If they can rival steam the consumers benefit.

 

[ViviTheMage]

that could also happen to steam any day now.

Doesn't valve own STEAM? I can't imagine they'd sell ... yet.