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Stardock CEO Wardell Addresses Demigod Launch, Sales
by Chris Remo
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May 19, 2009
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In the wake of a series of setbacks for Gas Powered Games and Stardock's strategy/RPG Demigod, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell has spoken out with a series of in-depth explanations as well as promises.
Wardell also estimated the game will have sold 100,000 units domestically before going on sale in Europe at the end of this month.
Posted to his own Stardock blog, the CEO's response is customarily candid, pointing out the server stress caused by a significantly piracy-inflated player count but dedicating even more words to explaining a netcode problem that he pins squarely on Stardock and Gas Powered -- and which he promises will be fixed by tomorrow.
"We've learned that you can’t treat networking as just another thing to plug in like you would a sound library or even a 3D engine. It’s a whole different animal," Wardell wrote, adding, "After Demigod, I don't ever want to hear the words 'socket' or 'port' again."
Intended to ship just a month ago, Demigod was infamously released early, after retailer GameStop broke the game's street date and made available illicitly through a torrent while the Stardock staff was on a pre-release holiday.
Soon after the servers went live, testing determined that a mere 15 percent of the game's 120,000-strong simultaneously-connected user base had actually purchased the title. Like other Stardock titles, Demigod does not use disc-based copy protection.
As the game approaches 100,000 units sold, Wardell called the performance "considerably better than Galactic Civilizations II's but slightly less than Sins of a Solar Empire at the same time." Both of those titles have sold several hundred thousand units to date, with Sins believed to be approaching a million in total.
In the coming days, the executive promises Demigod will see a number of connection and multiplayer fixes, and existing owners will receive coupons and other unnamed benefits by way of Stardock's Impulse digital distribution service.
To back up claims of improved netcode, the company has altered its previous plans for a single-player-only demo, and will be offering a multiplayer demo at an unspecified date.
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Especially considering that he's said the majority of their sales have been digital, in which case every penny of the $40 price goes straight into their pocket, that's probably a cool $3-4 million they've already pulled in.
And remember that Sins of a Solar Empire's budget was roughly $1 million. I doubt Demigod was many multiple times higher than that.
IF they make a story to Sins or the next Sins I will buy it. I applaud Brad's company for the stance on drm and want to throw dollars at em sometime. I did buy GC2 a few years ago and kept my eye on what they been working on since.