star-ruler posts

Just a few more days until Portal 2 puts us under its spell. We can't wait to go co-op portalling. Wait ... that doesn't sound good.

• Steam has automatic updates for Defense Grid: The Awakening (with free Portal 2 themed levels) and Star Ruler.
• The closed beta for APB Reloaded has finally launched a couple of European servers.
• Two more official StarCraft II action figures are due for release just before Christmas 2011.
• Minecraft creator Marcus "Notch" Perrson has paid $2,000 for the Humble Frozenbyte Bundle.
• Speaking of Minecraft, it should reach the 1.9 million unit sales mark sometime early tomorrow.

Last week developer Blind Mind Studios announced it would pull its space strategy game Star Ruler from being sold from the Impulse PC game download service. It said its decision was based on the feeling that Impulse's soon-to-be new owners Gamestop would not respect independent game developers.

While GameStop has yet to officially comment on the matter, Gamaustra got Brad Wardell, the head of Stardock and the soon-to-be former owner of Impulse, to comment. He states, "I was really surprised. By his own admission, Impulse is 25 percent of his (Blind Mind Studios) revenue."
He adds, "Impulse is going to continue to function as it has. If a developer wasn't paying attention to this, they wouldn't notice any difference. ... On one hand, they [say they] trust me, but they don't trust me enough to realize I vetted [GameStop]. Stardock didn't have to sell Impulse."

When Big Download spoke to Stardock's Brad Wardell last week about selling the Impulse part of the business to game retailer GameStop he told us that the sale was a win for PC gamers. But at least one indie game developer sees things differently.

Blind Mind Studios, the developers of the indie space strategy game Star Ruler, have announced on its web site that it will pull the game off of the Impulse service once Impulse is under GameStop's control. According to the statement, Blind Mind Studios is making this decision "due to GameStop's long, negative behavior toward the PC platform and independent games. We would never have signed onto distribution through GameStop, and being forced into this situation has only made it worse for us. We feel GameStop cannot serve as the leader of a true competitor in the digital distribution market."

The developer hopes that people who have already purchased the game on Impulse will continue to receive automatic updates. Big Download has emailed both Stardock and GameStop for comment.

[Thanks Blue's News]

It's Bulletstorm release day. How many of you bought it today? Also how many of you checked out the Dragon Age 2 demo? Today sure was busy in PC gaming land:

• Dungeons and Dragons Online celebrates its fifth anniversary this week with new content and special events.
• Steam has a new minor update for Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.
• Steam also has an automatic update for Star Ruler.
• A new entry in the official Bethesda Podcast has been released with company PR head Pete Hines answering fan questions.
• A new Kickstarter.com campaign has started to help fund the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in San Fransisco.

Yet another busy day today and we are nowhere near GDC, to say nothing of E3. It's enough to get you to think, "Hmm..what's coming up next?"

• Steam has automatic updates available to download for Star Ruler and a tiny update for Call of Duty Black Ops.
• Steam has added the new Luxor: 5th Passage game where it is on sale for 30 percent off until February 1.
• BioWare has revealed the in-game items that players can unlock in Dragon Age 2 when they play the upcoming Facebook game Dragon Age Legends.
• The Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies music soundtrack is now available via several music download stores for $11.99
• Nearly all in-game items in Star Trek Online's C-store are on sale for 20 percent off until February 4.
• Finally, a free-to-play fishing game? Actually, yes.

Our apologies for the somewhat scattered news postings today. Things should be back to normal tomorrow.

• Steam has a new automatic update for the beta of Monday Night Combat as well as Star Ruler.
• PC gamers are not happy that they won't get a demo of Bulletstorm. Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski feels their pain.
• Spoiler Alert! Playing Deus Ex Human Revolution will apparently take about 25 hours or so to complete.
• Here are more "Kinect PC drivers are in the works" rumors for you.
• Everquest II Destiny of Velious pre-orders are scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
• Four words: Paper Half-Life 2.

Just when you think things are going to be dull this week, news wise, along comes the nice gift of the StarCraft II demo. It would have been even nicer if we had gotten it closer to the late July release date but we will take what we can get:

• Steam has a new update for Star Ruler for download.
• Steam also has an update (for Europeans only) for Emergency 2012.
• The Humble Indie Bundle 2, now with over $1.3 million in revenues, has now surpassed the revenues generated by the original.
• Heroes of Newerth is getting a new "hero" on Wednesday; the vampire-like Dampeer.
• The fourth chapter of Bleedout, the episodic expansion for CrimeCraft, will be released on Christmas Day and will be free for anyone to download for the next week.

Just one more shopping week left until The Big Day arrives. Of course we prefer digital gifts and online purchases over rushing around some huge mall with screaming kids and long register lines but that's just us.

• The latest Bethesda Podcast chats briefly with Todd Howard about they pulled off last week's reveal of The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim without the general public knowing about it.
• Blizzard has a new Raynor design for its Battle.net Authenticator.
• Steam has new automatic updates for Rush (with two new levels added), Left 4 Dead 2, and Star Ruler.
• Steam also has added Winter Voices Episode 2 to its library.
• Check out this cool fan made Fallout trailer. It's spiffy.

• There are new automatic updates on Steam for Star Ruler, Ion Assault, Eufloria, Clones, and Farming Simulator 2011.
• Wacky video number one: Watch someone play an MMO on a really big screen.
• Wacky video number 2: Watch someone play Minecraft via a Kinect controller.
• It's not really PC game related but it's still pretty cool; The Unreal Engine 3-based iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch game Infinity Blade is due to be released on December 9.

It's truly bizarre (pun intended) that Activision is now considering shutting down one of the best development teams in the business. Garnett Lee at Shacknews expresses his feelings on this situation and they mirror our own. In short, Activision bought Bizarre Creations yet mismanagement by the higher ups, and not poor gameplay design, is causing this current situation.

• There's a new Steam client update available along with an update to Star Ruler.
• Steam also has a new Wanzer DLC pack for Front Mission Evolved available for $3.99.
• As promised, Steam now has Zen Bound 2 available to download and purchase.
• Activision could also be shutting down the mostly console game developer Budcat Creations.