Stardock is full of smart people

Wow - two gaming posts in one weekend. What is happening!!

Basically, I saw this post and it resonated with me so much that I had to talk about it.

By way of background, I used to be a heavy PC gamer. I used to have flight sticks and steering wheels etc for my PC. And the majority of my games were played on the PC. In fact, I have too many memories of PC gaming to recount here. But somewhere along the way, I changed and became primarily a console gamer. So what happened?

If you read the link and some of the comments in that post above, you will know exactly what happened. The cost and hassle of keeping my PC in a gaming state together with the hassles of DRM just made me stop and think "why am I putting up with this crap?". Yes, I know how to update my drivers (or restore old drivers). I know how to take apart my PC and upgrade individual components. I know how to check forums to see whether there is a known fix for whatever issue I'm having. What I don't have is the time or inclination to do so.

Despite this, there are still games on the PC which consoles just can't or don't do well. As a result of this, I do still buy and play PC games. However, I tend to be extremely picky when it comes to PC games. And as I have mentioned before, DRM is one of the factors I take into consideration (to be clear, I understand why most games have DRM and I am willing to put up with it as long as it remains unobtrusive).

Most publishers talk about piracy being the death of PC gaming and use this to justify DRM. Stardock (publisher of Galactic Civilizations II and the new PC hit strategy game Sins of a Solar Empire) is one of the few developers/publishers who understands that piracy isn't the problem. In fact, they put their money where their mouth is and don't put any DRM (none whatsoever!) in the software they sell.

Considering that Sins of a Solar Empire was the number 2 best selling PC game for February in the US (bear in mind the NPD only tracks retail sales hence the online sales of this game are ignored - which is a shame as Stardock make a lot of sales online), Stardock seem to have the right approach.