impulse posts

Stardock's recently released 2009 customer report has quite a bit of info about the publishing company's Impulse download business. However there's also some speculation on the whole digital download industry for PC games. Company CEO Brad Wardell says that by his estimates, a new PC game title will get 25 percent of its revenues via digital distribution if it's released this year. That means that while brick-and-mortar stores still get the majority of PC game sales, the amount of revenues received from downloads represents a significant fraction that can't be ignored by PC publishers anymore.

Wardell also speculates that Valve's Steam service has 70 percent of the overall PC game download market with Impulse holding onto 10 percent for second place. We think those numbers could be debated but there's no doubt that Steam has the high ground in this industry with everyone else playing catch up. In Stardock's customer survey results, Wardell states that 61 percent of those who responded say they buy PC games digitally versus just 34 percent who still buy physical copies in boxes.

In the quest to find a truly great movie-based PC game comes the forthcoming release of James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (yep, that is the full official title) from developer-publisher Ubisoft. The game, which tells a parallel story related to the upcoming (and, it has to be said, truly epic looking) sci-fi movie is due to be released on December 1.

PC game download sites like Steam, Impulse and Direct2Drive are offering their customers an in-game pre-order bonus that is apparently not in the retail version of the PC port. They consist of two weapons unlocks; the Dual Wasp for the RDA faction and the Fighting Staff for the Na'vi faction. In addition, both Impulse and Direct2Drive are selling a downloadable special edition of the game for $54.95 that adds six exclusive weapons and two extra character skins to the game. Again this special edition is not being sold in stores.

Thursday is a special day for many as PC gamers hit the download site to see what deals they can find. We have the latest list of price cuts to check out right now:

• GamersGate has an assortment of titles on sale including Kings's Bounty: The Legend for $12.49 and Frontline: Field of Thunder for just $4.95
• Impulse has several games on the price chopping block this weekend including Iron Grip Warlord for $9.99 and Supreme Commander Gold for $22.49.
  
• Steam has cut the price of Frontlines: Fuel of War to just $7.49 this weekend. You can also buy Star Wars Galaxies The Complete Online Adventures for 50 percent off until November 26. The newly released game Ninja Blade has a 10 percent discount for the first week Also you can get the original Dirt racing game for 80 percent off its normal Steam price with the pre-purchase of the PC version of Dirt 2. Finally you can pre-purchase Rogue Warrior for 10 percent off its normal price before its Dec. 1 release.
• Direct2Drive also has Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures for 50 percent off. You can also take $5 off of Torchlight from now until Sunday if you use the discount code 5OFFTORCH at checkout.
  

Most people think of Stardock mainly as a game developer of titles like Galactic Civilizations II and the upcoming Elemental but the truth is that the company has its hands full in several areas including third party publishing of games, developing non-gaming Windows applications like Object Desktop and the Impulse PC game download service. Today Stardock issued its 2009 customer report which gives an overview of what the company has done in the past 12 months.

The report is brutally honest with the fact that the launch of Stardock's big 2009 game, Demigod (developed by Gas Powered Games) did not go as well as anticipated due to multiplayer networking issues. The report does say that despite the launch issues, Demigod "continues to sell thousands of copies weekly."

The report goes over a number of the company's other issues such as future updates to their Impulse service (which include adding pre-loading of games), how weekend sales reductions have reduced the overall cost of PC games to consumers and lots more.

You thought we were done with PC game download sales on Thursday, didn't you? As it turns out there are a few more price cuts that we found out about after we posted up the news yesterday.:

• Steam has just launched the indie puzzle game QuantZ and is giving folks a 50 percent discount for its first week, bringing the price down to just $4.99.
• GoG.com is selling the two games in its library from the now defunct Elixir Studios, Republic The Revolution and Evil Genius, in a bundle for just $9.98 until Monday.
• Impulse users can get a 50 percent discount on the Galactic Civilizations II Expansion Bundle (featuring Dark Avatar and Twilight of the Arnor) for 50 percent off with the coupon code CGEXPANSION.
• The indie action-puzzle game Grappling Hook's price was just reduced to $14.95.

Sailing takes us away . .. oh, wait. That's would be sales, not sailing (sorry Christopher Cross). If you are looking to save a few buck this weekend, the various downloadable PC game sites have you covered:

• Steam has put both Crysis and Crysis Warhead on sale for 50 percent off their normal price this weekend. They have also put all of the Overlord games on sale for a whopping 75 percent off.
• Impulse has put their exclusive game Demigod on sale for 50 percent off this weekend. Other games on sale from Impulse include Titan Quest and Tropico Reloaded.
• Direct2Drive has a $5 coupon offer for Borderlands this weekend with people able to put in the code 5OFFBORDER at checkout.
• GamersGate has several games at 50 percent off their normal price this weekend including Elven Legacy, Darkstar One, Company of Heroes Complete and STALKER Clear Sky.

It looks like other download sites have decided to drawn a line in the sand over the decision by Infinity Ward and Activision to incorporate Steamworks into the PC port of Modern Warfare 2. Direct2Drive has already stated it won't sell the upcoming shooter because it intergrates the Steam features into the game. Now Voodoo Extreme reports that Stardock's Impulse won't sell the game either for the same reasons. Furthermore Kotaku reports that GamersGate has confirmed they won't make Modern Warfare 2 available for sale on their stores for the same reasons.

While we again point out that Steam-supported games have been sold by IGN's Direct2Drive in the past (Empire: Total War and Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II) it looks like they and the other two sites have all put their finger down in this case to protest having Steam be a requirement for purchasing Modern Warfare 2. We have emaield Valve, Infinity Ward and Activision for comment.

While everyone else is waiting for pre-Black Friday sales, PC gamers know that sales on downloadable PC games can be found all the time, especially on Thursdays.

• Steam has cut the price of the original Mass Effect to just $9.99 for the weekend
• Impulse has a number of weekend game sales going on including Flock for $7.49, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl for $9.99 and Mosby's Confederacy for $12.99.
• GamersGate has cut the prices of several of their games. That includes Painkiller, Painkiller Overdose and Painkiller Universe which are down 30 percent each. It has also put Grappling Hook (for PC and Mac) on sale for 50 percent off its normal price this weekend.
• Direct2Drive offers up $5 off Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising if you put in the promo code 5OFFOPFLASH at checkout.
• Telltale Games is offering full seasons of Sam and Max Seasons One and Two, Strong Bad and Wallace and Gromit for $20 each, a savings of $15 each from their original price.
  

Yep, that sentence is correct. The game is centered around you protecting your . . .pig . . . while also trying to capture your opponent's . . .pig. Is it just us or does this sound an awful lot like a game that Monty Python might come up with in their heads? In any case, Sacraboar (love the title too, by the way) has both single, skirmish and multiplayer modes (LAN and Internet) and will be released on November 6 via Impulse and Steam. You can pre-order the game now for 25 percent off its planned $19.99 price and get instant access to the game's beta test.

It's Halloween Eve but for PC gamers looking for good deals, the treats are already here:

• GoGamer.com has launched a new 48 Hour Madness sale with lots of PC games on sale, including Painkiller Black Edition for $4.90, Velvet Assassin for $12.90, Prototype for $19.90 and Stormrise for $7.90.
• Impulse has several games on sale at their download site including all of the Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War games for $37.49.
• GamerGate also has a bunch of games on sale at their download site including Space Siege for $9.99
• Direct2Drive has the PC version of Ghostbusters on sale for $9.95. Don't forget their special Halloween-themed sales that we mentioned earlier this week
• Steam has put Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on sale for 40 percent off its normal price. So do Impulse and Direct2Drive
  
• GoG.com has three horror-themed games on sale for 30 percent off this weekend.