Stardock opens second development studio

[Bateluer]

Stardock Press Release

PLYMOUTH, MI (FEBRUARY 4, 2009) - Stardock Corporation (www.stardock.com) announced today that it is expanding its current games division and will open a second games studio in Michigan.

The new studio will create up to 50 much-needed jobs in the state of Michigan and will be responsible for an as-of-yet unannounced RPG title developed and published by independent developer Stardock Entertainment.

When evaluating where to open the second studio, Stardock considered several other states in which to open it due to the relatively high costs of recruiting game developers and artists to Michigan as well as some of the technology infrastructure challenges Michigan faces.

However, Wayne County in conjunction with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation as well as Plymouth Township coordinated to provide tax incentives and access to better communication infrastructure in order to make Michigan a more competitive choice to open the new studio.

Stardock President and CEO Brad Wardell said, "We're very pleased with the support we've received from Wayne County and the state of Michigan. We think Michigan is well placed to become a hub for technology companies thanks to new programs from the state to make Michigan more competitive to do business in. We look forward to continuing our strong growth with additional development projects over the next couple of years."

 

[shortylickens]

This sounds utterly delicious.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Cool ... me like stardock ... Galcivs = doubleplusgood!

Smart timing on their behalf too, lots of good people are looking for work, they should be able to get a tip-top team at fair wages....

 

[mindcycle]

Great to hear. Companies like Stardock have the right idea about the direction of the industry. I can see them picking up some the slack in the PC gaming market as the current big devs move to consoles. I for one couldn't be happier.

 

[ShawnD1]

I don't know. This sounds like it might not be a great idea. One of the biggest problems in PC gaming is that the market is very quickly saturated. We don't need more games, we need bigger and better games. Rather than having 2 studios work on 2 games at once, it would probably work better to have 1 studio develop a game twice as good in terms of speed/stability/customization. This is how id Software makes games and look at how well that has worked.

 

[mindcycle]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
I don't know. This sounds like it might not be a great idea. One of the biggest problems in PC gaming is that the market is very quickly saturated. We don't need more games, we need bigger and better games. Rather than having 2 studios work on 2 games at once, it would probably work better to have 1 studio develop a game twice as good in terms of speed/stability/customization. This is how id Software makes games and look at how well that has worked.

Well, Sins was produced with a small dev team and it turned out great. I think with 50 people working on something new and the old dev team still working on other things, it wouldn't saturate things. I may be wrong of course, depending on what they put out, but it's not like they're downsizing or anything like that.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Think it will be a massive multi-player RPG?

 

[Maximilian]

Good for them, i enjoyed sins and look forward to the expansions for it. Stardock is a good company that knows what pc gamers like.

 

[mindcycle]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Think it will be a massive multi-player RPG?

Hopefully not. We don't need anymore of those.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

That sounds like quite an expansion and a rather large risk. Programmers should seriously consider coming to the metro Detroit area; the cost of living is very low compared to other large cities in the country.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Think it will be a massive multi-player RPG?

Hopefully not. That market is hyper saturated.

 

[lupi]

If they back off on their drm I'll care, till then meh.

 

[Ganeedi]

Its good to see successful independent developers. They have a pretty damn good track record with Sins, Galactic Civ, and Space Rangers 2. The upcoming Demigod looks pretty decent.

Any rumors what their new RPG will be?

EDIT: Stumbled onto this little tidbit ...

This new expansion will be to make an all new game title which Wardell told us will be a fantasy based "old school party system" RPG. Elemental: War of Magic will be completed in 2010 and then that team will move onto working on Society, a long-in-development MMO title.

Full article link

What he means by "old school party system" is debatable. To me, that means scrolling combat text ala Wasteland or Bards Tale. But he probably means something else