Unknown924

Join Date 03/2006

+12

Ways for Stardock to express "displseasure" with Gamestop without a legal battle

because while I can wait for the 13th, I do need to vent a bit

Frogboy has stated that while Stardock is "pissed" over Gamestop releasing Demigod early, there will not be a lawsuit. So I figured that we might as well come up with ideas of what Stardock could do. While Stardock may not use any of the ideas, I think it will be a good form of stress relief. Who knows, Stardock might like one of the ideas.

2.) Don't sell them any more copies of Demigod then they have already bought. This is a bit overkill, but would be possible. It would be similar to how Frogboy is perfectly willing to tell customers he doesn't want their money, it would just be one step up in scale.

3.) Variation of 2 - don't sell Gamestop any more copies of Demigod for a few weeks.

4.) Don't let Gamestop have copies of a Stardock published game until after or right on the release date. This could be justified by pointing out all the other times Gamestop have broken street dates for other games. It would be a simple "Sorry, you have demonstrated you are not responsible enough to get a game before the official release date/street date"

Persionally, I like 3 and 4 as they would let Gamestop know Stardock does not like their actions while not being absolutes.

Just typing that has made me feel much better.

demigod

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, well man i really belive anything we can come up with the legal team at stardock can come surpass it, so i dont know i think they can do better than us.

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the whole release date issue aside i thought GPS / Stardock would still get a cut of every copy sold regardless of whom sold it. Maybe the profit is higher off the Impulse system, but profit is profit right. Or am i totally wrong here.

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Point 4 is good.

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You know what?

Flood gamestop with Demigod boxes and sell all of them!

Huge profit is good for us, means that stardock will have the proper motivation to keep the wheels spinning for this game and also finance future projects. This game has huge potential that should not be wasted on misunderstadings.

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I think all of those ideas are terrible. None of these ideas would "punish" Gamestop; These ideas would all punish Stardock/GPG, which is the total opposite of the desired outcome.

In the end Gamestop is a source of income, and they could always choose not to sell Demigod; r worse, games published by Stardock. The best option, in the end, is to get over it and move on. Stardock won't, and shouldn't, do anything about it.

I suppose the fans can always do something. Write letters / emails expressing your outrage of this event; go online and blog about, maybe even Digg it. Let the fans handle it, it's the only viable solution that won't hurt Stardock/GPG/Demigod.

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Quoting Daikaze,

reply 5

I think all of those ideas are terrible. None of these ideas would "punish" Gamestop; These ideas would all punish Stardock/GPG, which is the total opposite of the desired outcome.

Not even Stardock/GPG, it would punish us. Gamestop would shrug their shoulders while the rest of us have to scramble to less-than-perfect retailers to pick up a copy of a game and that's if they even bother to.

I generally agree though, those are pretty bad ideas. In my humble opinion, we should just drop it. Most of Stardock's and GPG's sales are through their own preorders anyway, most EB games got about one or two copies at best. Yes, they screwed up. Yes, it's not fair or funny. But in this cold business word, the smartest choice would be to just waggle your finger at them and say "Bad Gamestop, bad!" then move on.

GPG\Stardock seems to be taking a much better approach by trying to reward those who stuck with preorders from them instead. No need to go looking for conflict that in the end does little but waste time and money and upsets people\companies.

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Waste of time. Lets just forget that they release it early.

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The main problem with pre-release sellings is the fast that DG is not "ready" to be played before release date. While the client is final (with a 0-day patch) the server is not.

This means a few things:

1) Loss of pre-orders.

2) Buyers thinking that the quality of the game is much lower than the real quality of the game. Since SD prides on quality of their products, a pre-release can have those drooling gamers get a sub-standard quality product until the real day 1.

I think point 2 is important.

However simply throwing money away by refusing to sell to GS is worthless. SD does not make up a giant selling force for gamestop. The only logical course of action is:

a) Nothing

Whining

c) Point 4 of OP's post.

Point 4 of OP's post is the only plausable action that SD might take. Everything else seems harmful to their business.

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Quoting astonerbum,

reply 8

The main problem with pre-release sellings is the fast that DG is not "ready" to be played before release date. While the client is final (with a 0-day patch) the server is not.

This means a few things:

1) Loss of pre-orders.

2) Buyers thinking that the quality of the game is much lower than the real quality of the game. Since SD prides on quality of their products, a pre-release can have those drooling gamers get a sub-standard quality product until the real day 1.

I think point 2 is important.

However simply throwing money away by refusing to sell to GS is worthless. SD does not make up a giant selling force for gamestop. The only logical course of action is:

a) Nothing

Whining

c) Point 4 of OP's post.

Point 4 of OP's post is the only plausable action that SD might take. Everything else seems harmful to their business.

Normally that would be true but the servers aren't that bad and the guys that have been posting have been screaming "awesome!" so far! And Point 4 wouldn't work, the entire reason for shipping ahead of time is so you can sale the game on time.

Shipping the game right before release sets up a lot of problems. If the shipment arrives late or gets delayed (because that never happens), then the release date magically gets bumped from the "12th" to the "17th" for example.

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Well, it would only be Gamestop that gets the shipment last minute. Given their history of breaking street dates, I really don't care that much if they alone have to push back the date they release a game.

Also, venting my anger was the main reason I posted my ideas and that is what they are: irrational ideas, the type people think of to feel better, but will never happen.

Out of my ideas, 4 is the only one I can see Stardock doing.

Here are some more reasonabe(slightly) ones.

5 - Involves a bit of legal work - have the purchase contract between Stardock and a retailer say that the retailer must pay extra(say $5-10) for each copy of a game that is sold before the release date as a penalty.(This would give retailers a good reason not to break street date, but they should be able to make a profit on each copy sold even with the penalty)

6 - Have all serial numbers, not just the beta ones locked out until release. Just make sure that anyone who tries gets a message that the serials will work on the release date and not before.(I think there is a decent chance of Stardock doing this for future games. I also can't think of a strong objection to this idea, if anyone can feel free to post it)

7 - Not sell Gamestop any more copies of Demigod until other stores have bought more.(Don't see Stardock doing that, but I enjoyed thinking about it)

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Quoting Wagnard,

reply 7

Waste of time. Lets just forget that they release it early.

someone released it early?! (a bit of sarcasm, but still worth it) while i do hate to admit it, SD isnt in a high and mighty position to deny GS their products. the only reason GS lets this sorta thing happen is obviously, what are the others really going to do about it. as much as i hate saying taht, and i think SOMETHING should be done, itll prolly be just another slap on the wrist for GS. for whatever its worth, they sure wont be getting any of my money. like Daikaze said, itll be up to us to put a thorn in GS's side.

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I'm assuming Gamestop would refuse to sign a penalty clause on breaking street dates

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Quoting gaping_maw,

reply 12

I'm assuming Gamestop would refuse to sign a penalty clause on breaking street dates

The solution is to make the penalty clause a requirement for every retailer who wants to release a Stardock published game on the release date. The key part is making it a requirement for ALL retailers, not just Gamespot. Then those that do sign the penalty clause will get a headstart on selling over those who don't. They don't sign the penalty clause, they have to wait a week after the release date to get the game shipped to them.

If no company would agree to the clause, I am sure Stardock would be quite sad to have the game exclusively on Impulse for a week before it arrived on store shelves.

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Heh, sorry, one of our interns made an "oopsie" and posted it early, so, well, our bad, Gamestop! It's all good though, right? I mean, these things happen...

But that would never happen, since Stardock is a class act and that's why Stardock published games get my $$$. Keep the games comin, Stardock, and I'll keep purchasing through Impulse.

('-')y

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Quoting bortlings,

reply 14

Meh, I wonder how Gamestop would react if Stardock agreed to whatever the heck street date Gamestop wanted for them to stock 94023490bajillion copies of Elemental on the shelves then Stardock released the Impulse version 1 weeks early.

Heh, sorry, one of our interns made an "oopsie" and posted it early, so, well, our bad, Gamestop! It's all good though, right? I mean, these things happen...

But that would never happen, since Stardock is a class act and that's why Stardock published games get my $$$. Keep the games comin, Stardock, and I'll keep purchasing through Impulse.

('-')y

hah as much as id love to see that, i dont think SD is willing to lower themselves to GS's level. nor should they, we all know who's the better in all this.

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Quoting gaping_maw,

reply 12

I'm assuming Gamestop would refuse to sign a penalty clause on breaking street dates

Purchase and sales contracts are flimsey at best. There are companies who set prices for products, they will never sue a company for underpricing but they won't do business with em anymore.

Like I said I have yet to see a company sue a retailer for choosing to make less proffit or sell earlier than anticipated. The losses must be grand!

Oh boo freakaty hoo, SD lost 10,000 dollars on pre-sales. I bet lawyer costs alone would be tripple that at best.

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basically all your saying is basically also killing "Star docks" income as well.

do you really think.. there are people who magically going to coem to this website and go.. oh lets purchase?

i think there are more people who goes into GAMESTOP than people who visit this website to be honest.

its actually like advertising the game in your store. even though they give them profits.

its like putting a banner up on a billboard.. but you still have to pay to put it up.

if stardocks just didn't released it to any stores. then how would ANYONE know about this game except US ? ( on this fourm)

i see many people buying from gamestop and also.. i heard game CRAZY (a different store) started to sell it early too.

not to be rude or anything but i do love stardocks due to this game. i never heard of this game ever until i saw it at a gamestop preorder list and i looked it up .

but i don't think stardocks is AS BIG as Blizzard or Valve Softwares

where people can just type blizzard.com or steampowered.com and buy a game. and i didn't hear about impulse either until this game.

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So if GS decided to "release" the game early, does that give the ok to other retailers to do the same? Oh, and hai!!! Hope to see some of you guys online!

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Quoting ,

quoting post

1.) Overkill response - refuse to sell Gamestop any more games published by Stardock, ever. While this will may make people feel good, I don't see it happening because Gamestop, for all their flaws, is a source of income for Stardock.

2.) Don't sell them any more copies of Demigod then they have already bought. This is a bit overkill, but would be possible. It would be similar to how Frogboy is perfectly willing to tell customers he doesn't want their money, it would just be one step up in scale.

3.) Variation of 2 - don't sell Gamestop any more copies of Demigod for a few weeks.

4.) Don't let Gamestop have copies of a Stardock published game until after or right on the release date. This could be justified by pointing out all the other times Gamestop have broken street dates for other games. It would be a simple "Sorry, you have demonstrated you are not responsible enough to get a game before the official release date/street date"

Sorry, this is entirely unrealistic, because this will hurt sales for a game that deserves it. Not everyone is accepting digital distribution with open arms. Some poor people are located in an area where GameStop is their only viable option for purchasing games. (Let's shed a tear for those folks...) Unless you've been under a rock, PC games don't put out the massive numbers that console games do, and the battle for shelf space, as idiotic as it may seem, is dwindling.

If there's anything that needs to be done, just put up a welcome message for the people who received it early just stating that online is not available until the official launch, but thank them profusely for buying the game. Don't hurt the customers, it's not really their fault.

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Do what I do. Refuse to buy games from Gamestop. They've turned into a shady pawn-shop, who's only inventory consists of pre-orders and used games. They will also sell you opened display copies as new, and apparently break street-dates.

Order it online, Save printing, shipping and labor costs, and give more profit to the developer so they can make you more games that you enjoy. And never worry about having to dig up the CD to install it.

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Quoting Ceylin,

reply 20

And never worry about having to dig up the CD to install it.

Good point, but its always nice to have a hard copy of the games you purchase in case you ever feel like playing it in the distant future and its no longer available to download online.

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That's probably the only realistic response. Hit gamestop where it hurts

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Quoting Daikaze,

reply 5

I think all of those ideas are terrible. None of these ideas would "punish" Gamestop; These ideas would all punish Stardock/GPG, which is the total opposite of the desired outcome.

It works the other way around as well. Stardock are a source of income for Gamestop - and Gamestop screwing over Stardock lowers Stardocks profits. That's a pretty clear cut - you mess with us, we mess with you case.

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No lawsuit from them ? No more pre-orders from many of us.

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Too many companies are lawsuit happy these days. It is like how some people WILL sue you over ANYTHING. Anyway, once Stardock finds out what REALLY happened, then they will make a respectable decision based on the outcome.

As of right now, if it wasn't truely Gamestops fault, and they were on the forums saying, hey, lets bring up a lawsuit, it would look bad. Wait until the facts have come in.

Reason to keep your pre-order? The more money they make, the longer they will be providing the great updates the come with the game. Thanks for the game Gas Powered Games (Many of you are not giving them the credit they have earned) and Stardock.

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