Wow.

Guess it's time to give in and just install Steam.

Separately:  As part of the acquisition, did GameStop agree to support the Gamer's Bill of Rights?  Or have we been completely sold out?

@Brillig: "Separately:  As part of the acquisition, did GameStop agree to support the Gamer's Bill of Rights?  Or have we been completely sold out?"

Brad:  As for how GameStop will treat the Gamers Bill of Rights, I can’t really speak to. Generally speaking, GameStop has always seemed pretty progressive in their sales policies such as with their handling of game trade-ins and such.

Thanks, I missed that.

In other words, "trust me and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."  Riiiiiight.  Time to start archiving everything - hope Brad paid the CDN bill.

Gamestop has an investors conference call on Monday, and they've got both this deal and another deal at the same time. It makes no sense for them to wait to announce it until right before that call when they knew about it beforehand, particularly for a something like April Fools that the investment world completely ignores.

People need to put april fools out of their heads here. It's completely irrelevant. Anybody confused by that simply doesn't understand how business deals work.

Its actually the only smart move for Gamestop.  Why are thier staff so  poorly treated, and poorly paid, and margins so high - because they can't make the business work any other way.  In the UK we have both Waterstones (book seller) and HMV (music and computer games retailer) that are under constant pressure to reform.  Why? because everyone goes to Amazon for these types of items these days.  The costs for bricks and mortar stores staff etc are huge compared with the value that they add for the customer.  If you don't even have to post the stuff.. well then why not do it all on line - its not as if PC gamers won't have a computer! 

I know right. Imagine if Stardock became a company that had a hugely successful store to rival that of Valves which allowed you guys to work on whatever projects you wanted. Instead you do a deal with the devil.

Sounds like all the right reasons.  Staying small enough to maintain focus on what your core abilities are.

Way too obvious AF guys.  Gamestop already has their own store with digital downloads, though you'd have to brain damage to support them and their $5-10 markups on everything.

I think people have a tough time understanding how much of a "Brad Wardell's olde software shoppe" Stardock is. It's really very understandable that he doesn't want it to transform into a retail giant, because the massive competition and the amount of money involved in the business and the work required to keep things growing would inevitably lead to having to have a bigger corporate strutcure. When you are the end user, it is easy to forget that there are actual people behind the business, and the business actually affects their lives. Being someone who would never work at a big corporation (I love working at companies that employ less than 20 people), I can absolutely understand how Brad doesn't want to see his hard work building up Stardock to be a company he and so many other admire transform into just another retail giant.

I'm sure that if he could have it both ways - keep things small and nice, focus on making the games he loves, enjoing life and at the same time running Impulse - he would do that. But that's not possible, and it's not our place to say how Brad should spend his life or run his business. I'm very glad that he has done what he has done already for the PC community and in part I'm also happy for this, because I want him to be able to focus on making Elemental all it can be.

I hope you don't get too much flak for this, Frogboy. Thanks for doing the interview about it, helped a lot understanding and accepting what's going on.

Eh, it's Brad's company. So, meh, his decision.

Let's just be glad, he didn't sell the gaming part of the company to EA. That would have been bad news.

I'm very hopeful that this is a really clever but cruel April Fool's joke. I detest Gamestop and their business practices. If they own Impulse I will uninstall it.

If it's a joke. . . good one, you got me.

While I understand the reasoning and I'm hoping for the best, I think it's far more likely Gamestop will screw up Impulse rather than improve it.  I haven't found that Gamestop has the same ethics or concern for their customers that Stardock has.

How will existing accounts be handled?  Stardock and Impulse has earned my trust, Gamestop has not.  I for one would rather create a new account with Gamestop rather than have my personal info and current account passed on as part of some sale.  I'll create an account with Gamestop when they've earned my trust.  (I suspect the answer to this question will reveal a major drawback to any digital distribution system).