Well, from what i see, they cut the middleman but don't make the goods cheaper... they only make more benefice for share holder...

It is the same thing with food... by example, your hamburger become more expensive when price of beef meat increase but it never become cheaper when price of beef meat lower...

The only retail games I tend to buy nowadays are collector editions or cheap games on Amazon(Diablo 3 will probably be an exception).

One benefit of going all digital is that there is no longer the issue of retailers influencing regional prices.

That leads to my next question: Will Stardock use the dollar = euro like most games on steam or use a set dollar value and convert it to other currencies?  I think that doing the second will make Stardock games very attractive to the people on Steam that really hate the U.S. dollar = other currency issue.

Without retailers though, that problem should be avoidable.  I think the Australians especially will buy a lot of copies since they have the issue of paying twice as much if not more for most games.  A game that cost half or less of what they are used to paying would be really attractive.

Our new titles are typically $39.95 in 2011 dollars.  Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 was over $90 in 2011 dollars.  

Games are vastly cheaper today and you get a lot more.

I'm actually sad to see this, I still buy all my PC games through retail... and am glad to see more retail games come preloaded with steam now. Though I prefer consoles to PC, I just don't trust digital downloads nor do I really have an internet good enough to support it. I was planning to pay the extra cost of shipping to get a copy when the final version released for FE, but it seems I can't do that now.

I may try to get the beta today depending on how big it is (if anyone has knows please post it) or let it download overnight, but my backup plan was the physical copy if it was to big & just to have a physical copy...

Though I would take a DD of a PC game over streaming a game any day of the week, call me old fashioned, but I prefer that physical copy that I know if I take care of... it will always be there, and I'm not the only one. I think you may be missing out on a large part of potential customers, because not everyone has a good enough internet, trust DD, nor does everyone have enough bandwidth with ISP's having limits nowadays to download a game.

Maybe Stardock could start a system for those with poor internet connection to make a DVD with all the latest updates on it, and even if there was a cost for postage, some may be thankful that they can get a physical copy.  It could be like the concept of the latest patch discs that Stardock was going to make for the first Elemental game could be used for the second Elemental game.  Maybe there could be a postage charge upon buying the game and getting sent by mail the install disc, but subsequent updates have a minimal (or zero) cost for posting?

How dare you compare FE to Pac-Man.   (Just making fun of guy who had a problem with this post.)

That's ... wow I haven't heard of this concept in many many years. Living in a poor internet location, this would be a neat idea! Not quite sure how it would work with steam but *shrugs*

I was thinking of games bought directly from Stardock that did not have a Steam requirement (if there are any).  I do hope that Fallen Enchantress and other Elemental releases don't require steam, although I wouldn't mind if they could be bought from the Steam store without Steamworks, as one of several choices, as well as buying directly from Stardock.

Although I do suspect that Elemental games in the future might require Steam with Steamworks even if bought directly from Stardock - any Stardock reply on this issue?

FE for sure won't require Steam if bought from SD Store.  It's also not a MP game so no need.

It's been stated before several times over the years that this was planned.  Whatever happened to this?  I doubt more then maybe 100 people would take you up on this, but it's a nice touch. 

Also, one other question/suggestion: Is GalCiv II complete on Stardock's own store?  I noticed Impulse was no longer selling the individual GalCiv II games.  Perhaps those with GCII+all expansions should get their registrations on SD's store replaced with GCII Complete.  Mentioning this because a month or so ago I saw someone say they wanted Twilight, but couldn't buy it (they had the first two games), and didn't need Complete.

We have that for 

We did that for War of Magic v1.4 (you can contact sales@stardock.com and get a master DVD shipped to you for just shipping cost). 

I don't know what we'll be doing going forward yet.

Well, let make a deal... i am ready to pay 90$ for a boxed version of rebellion who don't need steam who will allow me to enjoy sins forever everywhere... agree without problem to a one time activation via the future new stardock central and the obligation to have a legit stardock central registration for install patch...

In fact, i don't need a boxed version, a online archive download is good too... the point is that i wish to be able to play the game until the last day of my live... that if Stardock or Steam die before me, i can continue to play the game...

Price is not a problem for me, in fact, game are on the cheap side when compare to other software that i buy... My poser pro 2012 is 500$ and i am not sure that they work more that you with sins when i see the few new features added to poser... have already spend more that 100$ on sins ( kalypso version was not cheap + the 2 expension ) and i don't regret it... if i divide these 100$ by the amount of hours that i have play, it end up with entertaiment who cost me only a few cent by hour...

Personally, i have no problem to pay more for games when it is a quality product... the only problem that i have is that i will maybe not be able to play my loved game in some possible near future if steam go down...

Can you promise that if steam die someday or if you have a different with steam and that your product is removed from steam ( like it have happen with Dragon age II or other game ) that you will allow people who have buy on Steam to redeem their Rebellion game on the new Stardock central for a version who don't need Steam... i trust Stardock but i don't trust Steam...

Well, there is maybe a between solution... will it be possible to buy Rebellion by Stardock using pay-pal once the beta is released... so, the business transaction will be between me and Stardock... don't care if i need to pay something more at a later stage for redeem it on steam since i will remain a stardock customer for Rebellion due to the purchase on stardock central and i am pretty sure that in case of problem with steam being dead or Stardock game being removed from steam due to different, Stardock will support their own customer and provide them with a working version who don't need Steam anymore...

Have just check... In 2012, on Amazon, a new Pac-man for Atari 2600 cost 29.99$ ( http://www.amazon.com/Pac-Man-Atari-2600/dp/B0009V1CO8/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t )... by the way, you don't wish to compare your games with the Pac-man for the Atari 2600 ( http://www.pcworld.com/article/127579-4/the_10_worst_games_of_all_time.html )... a game was have never reach his planned sales, where a large amount of cartridge was returned... game port was rushed and game critic have hate it... in fact, this game is one of the reason for the video game crash of 1983 in US... when market revenue have drop from 3.2 billion in 1983 to less that 100 million in 1985...    

By the way, Rebellion is not a new title... it is the old sins from 2008 with entrenchment, with diplomacy and the last expension called Rebellion... it is not because a new paint is put on a old car that these old car become a new car !!! Rebelion is nothing more that a DLC with everyting released before bundled together... i think that you have already receive a fair share of complain from old soase customer who have buy sins and all expension, not being able to buy Rebellion as a stand-alone  like it was for entrenchment and Diplomacy... Don't insult their intelligence by calling Rebellion a new game... it wil be a new game for the large amount of 15 year old who populate steam but not for people who are fidel to Stardock for several years...

And Fallen enchantress is in some way how War of Magic have must be... if it was good made the first time...

Steam isn't going anywhere for a number of years obviously, barring some massive hack or EMP pulse, in which case we got bigger problems then games.

If in 20-30 years Steam is gone, some abandonware site will have a crack.  Also, I'm pretty sure Steam isn't needed to run the game, so just keeping the game on a hard drive should be sufficient.  

While I do have concerns with Steam, I don't worry about them going under without plenty of warning.

Steam is already cracked itself.  If it went under without Valve releasing it, you'd have an alternative available before it's demise even came about.

Everything can happen at any moment... Who have believe that bank or country can know bankruptcy... There can be a release of a new client who is better that steam, who can slowly drain the life out of it... several major game publisher have choice to quit steam and use their own system... so, it can be that Steam survive hundred year or die tomorrow, nobody know...

About warming... well, be warmed don't solve the problem... According to the Steam Subscriber Agreement, Steam's availability is not guaranteed and Valve is under no legal obligation to release an update disabling the authentication system in the event that Steam becomes permanently unavailable... in fact, if you read their steam subscriber agrement, they have no obligation at all :

C. NO GUARANTEES.

VALVE DOES NOT GUARANTEE CONTINUOUS, ERROR-FREE, VIRUS-FREE OR SECURE OPERATION AND ACCESS TO STEAM, THE SOFTWARE, YOUR ACCOUNT AND/OR YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS(S).

As for crack, i know that they exist... will maybe seek one once i have purchase a legal version... but it is not a good solution... using a crack simply promote the work of hacker/pirate, give them a justification... a crack in all case, remain illegal in regard of the Eula of any game... Better for game dev to propose a legal solution that push people in the hand of hacker/pirate...