‘Sins Of A Solar Empire’ Shows ‘Spore’ How It Should Be Done
It’s been oer 10 years since the talented programming boys and girls at EA started work on Spore, and the game finally hit shelves this week. But all is not good, as a huge hubbub surrounding the game’s highly restrictive DRM has arisen causing people the world over to hold off buying the game, even causing a stir in the mainstream press.
But amongst the madness surrounding Spore‘s release, another much humbler RTS game has been attracting a lot of attention too. It’s called Sins Of A Solar Empire, and the game’s developers have famously decided to eschew any copy protection at all, arguing that it would only alienate their customer base. Brad Wardell, CEO of the game’s publisher, Stardock, had this to say on the issue:
The reason why we don’t put CD copy protection on our games isn’t because we’re nice guys. We do it because the people who actually buy games don’t like to mess with it. Our customers make the rules, not the pirates. Pirates don’t count. We know our customers could pirate our games if they want but choose to support our efforts. So we return the favor – we make the games they want and deliver them how they want it. This is also known as operating like every other industry outside the PC game industry.
The result? The little-known RTS from the even littler-known publisher has sold over 500,000 copies since its release in February. Considering the game cost less than $1 million to develop, I’d say that their strategy paid off.
What’s even stranger about this decision is that, other than the cult hit Galactic Civilisations games, Stardock’s best known product is a themeing system for Windows called WindowBlinds – probably one of the most pirated pieces of software I’ve ever come across.
Finally, it’d be biased of me not to mention that Wardell also attributes the game’s sales success to its relatively low system requirements. But I’m pretty sure that he, I, and over half a million other gamers out there know that giving your customers what they want and not messing them about and making their lives difficult in the process is exactly what it took for a little-known desktop apps company to really excel in the tough PC gaming market.
“The result? The little-known RTS from the even littler-known publisher has sold over 500,000 copies since its release in February. Considering the game cost less than $1 million to develop, I’d say that their strategy paid off.”
Seriously, just imagining what the 10 years of development behind Spore must have cost, I merely cannot help but laughs reading this one. Seriously, Stardock is pure win compared to EA in this case
ITT: Bitching
I haven’t met a single person that has SINS that hasn’t downloaded it off a torrent, yet most Spore owners have the retail version.
Sins might have sold 500k units since february, i’m guessing Spore will have sold that by the end of next month or this one.
Seriously get over it…You can download it off a torrent page if DRM is affecting your life so much.
[citation needed]
Also, if you read the story you’d see that there is no “bitching” or indeed affecting of anyone’s life going on. I’m merely reporting on popular opinion, and making an (I thought) interesting comparison between the two companies’ differing DRM policy.
You say that Sins is available by torrent, hinting that it’s lack of DRM makes it freely available, but you also go on to contradict yourself by adding that Spore is also available on torrent sites (even though “most people” bought it).
Did you buy Spore?
Bullcrap, seriously.
All of my friends and myself LAN Sins of a Solar Empire all the time. All of us have paid for, and bought, the game, because we love the game and we love Stardock for treating us well. Nobody that I know in-person has pirated that game, although I know a few people online who say they have.
On the other hand, those people I know who’ve played Spore, have pirated it. Nobody wants to buy it, because nobody I know ok with the SecureROM crap.
Sins is worth my 40 bucks, both because it’s good, and to support Stardock, because Stardock rocks.
Also, considering the money-wasting and inefficiency at EA, I wouldn’t be suprised if, after all the grosses and expenditures are counted, Stardock still walks away with more profits from Sins than EA ever will with Spore. Gross market share doesn’t mean anything if your development-cost/intake ratio sucks. Nintendo has proved that in every single console cycle, and Stardock is similarly displaying a philosophy of low-development-cost/high-quality gaming.