The fourth quarter of the year is always the busiest in terms of new game releases and in sales but developer-publisher Stardock has deliberately decided to avoid that busy time period for its current and future games. Sins of a Solar Empire, the space strategy game from developer Ironclad Games, was released by Stardock in the first quarter of 2008 and went on to sell over 500,000 copies.

In a chat with Gamasutra, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell reveals, "What we try to do is we want to release a title every first quarter of every year. For as far out as our schedule goes -- that's five or six years -- there's a game coming out." The next game to get that treatment will be Demigod, the strategy-RPG from developer Gas Powered Games. Stardock's just revealed turn based fantasy game Elemental: War of Magic is planned for a first quarter 2010 release. Stardock already has a game set for a first quarter 2011 release but has not revealed any details yet on that title.