Author Topic: Stardock sold Impulse  (Read 15185 times)

Offline Shrugging Khan

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #15 on: April 06, 2011, 06:38:58 pm »
Big corporations buying smaller companies is always bad. Baaad.
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Offline zespri

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #16 on: April 08, 2011, 05:38:24 pm »
Received this nice email today:

Quote
Dear Andrew,

As you may have read, Impulse Inc. is in the process of being acquired by GameStop to extend their PC digital distribution business.  We are very excited about the opportunities and resources this will provide and the improvements we'll be able to make to the Impulse experience in the near future.   This will result in a far broader selection of Impulse games, more exclusive content, and the opportunity for GameStop Power Up Rewards members to earn points on purchases after that program is integrated.

During this transition we are taking extra steps to protect you and your personal data.  As a result of these additional security measures, we are canceling your pre-order for ******.  You have not and will not be charged for this pre-order.  This action to protect your data and should in no way affect the availability date of ****** on Impulse.

We regret this inconvenience and would therefore like to stress that Impulse and GameStop are committed to continued service with the least possible disruption.  All of your previous purchases will continue to be available through the Impulse client and you will still be able to purchase new games via Impulse as the acquisition moves forward.

We appreciate your loyalty and support and want to apologize for cancelling your pre-order.  To thank you for your understanding, please accept this 15% off coupon to use on Impulse.  You can use this coupon to purchase ****** upon release or another title at any time.  This coupon is one time use and will be valid for 12 months.

CouponCode: ******

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].

Sincerely,
The Impulse Team

My opinion is that they wording does not make much sense. How canceling my pre-order is going to protect my data?
What really happened, I think, is that pre-orders somehow got in the way of what they are going to do with Impulse, so they decided to get rid of them. And they don't want to tell the real reason.
« Last Edit: April 08, 2011, 05:41:30 pm by zespri »

Offline zespri

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #17 on: June 12, 2011, 11:43:30 pm »
Just installed Steam in my work place, behind corporate firewall and was immediately reminded of one of the reason why I disliked Steam: it does not work here. Apparently some non-standard ports are used. Impulse on the other hand works perfectly.

I do wish Impulse had been more successful, that Stardock didn't  have to sell it.

I liked Impulse better in almost every way:
- Less oppressing protection
- An ability to archive and restore downloaded games
- Ability to work on standard ports / protocols
- Impulse Anywhere
- No need to keep the client on, while playing the games, can play without internet

It's a shame, that impulse did not fly and steam did...
« Last Edit: June 12, 2011, 11:53:54 pm by zespri »

Offline Shrugging Khan

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #18 on: June 13, 2011, 05:00:11 am »
Steam just had the Valve games, is all  :-\
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Offline x4000

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #19 on: June 13, 2011, 06:27:37 am »
Impulse didn't fail; gamestop would not have bought an ailing platform to be their online distribution portal. For us, impulse has always been and still is our #2 seller behind steam. Wardell says that impulse was getting too successful for his taste, and I believe him. If you run a small store, but then it's staff keeps growing and growing, and suddenly it's overtaking the rest of the business that you actually care about, that's not a good thing.

Unless you're a corporate empire-builder, trying to amass the largest staff and revenue you can. To me, that's taking ones eye off the ball, and I'm glad Wardell isn't that sort. I'm sad he sold Impulse, but if I had been him I very possibly might has done the same in that situation.0
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #20 on: June 13, 2011, 11:15:12 am »
Buyouts are a sign of two profitable companies. If the company wasn't profitable then the competition has little reason to buy it rather then just compete for sales.

I've always used impulse for my online game database because it was my first, its light, it doesn't cause problems, and was the underdog. I've yet to have a bad experience from it.

Still, to be safe rather then sorry, i've modified my list of preferred methods of obtaining games:

1. Direct download
2. unknown as of yet potential new online store that i must find first
3. Impulse
4. Steam

The change is done simply because gamestop being a store first and not customer orientated like stardock I fear it has little to lose from adding more handshakes for DRM.
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Offline Cyborg

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #21 on: June 15, 2011, 08:40:46 am »
The problem I have with impulse is that it didn't have the deals I wanted on the games that I wanted. When I compared the prices and the distribution, steam came out on top. I love the holiday sales. I already had games with them; the choice was easy for me. If impulse could get games at competitive prices, I would consider shopping over there. I'm also worried that if they lose their business, I would lose my games. Steam is so big and valve has a greater reputation, so I'm not worried that I might lose my collection.

If it was that profitable for them, it stands to reason they could have hired a staff to create a business unit for it and let it take care of itself. More than likely, it was more trouble than it was worth.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #22 on: June 15, 2011, 08:55:14 am »
More than likely, it was more trouble than it was worth.

That is absolutely true, I think, but I still think it was very profitable.  Inferring from sales data that I have on AI War at various places on their charts, plus what I know of the size of their staff, I feel safe in saying they were probably making an excellent profit.  Not that I can speak about details, or have for-sure numbers, but I'm closer to it than most.

That said, "more trouble than it is worth" is a funny concept.  In movies, when some guy's dad leaves him the family business, and the family business is profitable but the guy doesn't want it, we all understand that, right?  Who wants to run the family store when your passion lies elsewhere?  Running the family store is a drag and Not What I Want To Do With My Life.  So there are many conflicts between the son and the dad, because the dad doesn't get it, but the audience thinks the dad is really dense about it -- the son should follow his passion!

But when it comes to companies, people always think that companies should behave like they are Microsoft or something: becoming enormous is apparently the goal of every company.  But I think that's bunk -- good companies often get ruined by getting too large.  And the larger the company gets, the more you as a manager have to step back from the smaller things and focus on the big picture.  Sure you can hire an underling to manage X subunit, but then you still have all sorts of problems.  Maybe suddenly you need two offices, or to move offices, because of lack of space?  Now you can't hold certain company functions because there are too many people to do them.  Maybe now certain benefits packages don't make sense, because you have too many staff that are non-core that would be eligible but who, again, are not part of what you consider the core business.

Maybe Wardell was thinking about General Electric.  GE is an awesome company, and in general has done really well.  However, they branched out into financial services as a market in a major way, because that sector was really hot.  Then when that whole market when to pot, the entirety of GE was suddenly put at risk.  Having your eggs all in one basket is not a good idea either, but straying from the business areas that the staff and management really understand is also not that smart.

It's only publicly-traded companies that have the implicit mandate of Increase Stockholder Value for management.  For privately held companies like Stardock (or Arcen, for that matter), there are frequently other mandates that are a lot more important.  For instance, if I had ten billion dollars, I wouldn't start buying other companies and growing as large as possible.  I'd probably start some sort of external indie fund, and transfer some of the money over to there, and let that live or die on its own.  But I'd keep the core staff at 10 or less, ideally, because that's just the sort of company I want to run and work for.

At the end of the day, I think that Wardell and/or others looked at their business and realized that this was not what they really wanted it to look like.  Somehow they wound up running dad's store without ever meaning to.  When they saw that, they severed ties with the store, gaining a chunk of cash and the freedom to pursue their real passions more directly.

That's my take, anyway. ;)
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Offline Cyborg

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #23 on: June 15, 2011, 09:24:54 am »
I get the family business analogy and diversification. I'm sure you know more about their internals. However, if you have billions of dollars, and something is just a cash cow, you get said cow a farmer and just ask for rent payments. There is no incentive not to. In fact, if you want to separate businesses and health benefits, all you need to do is set up another llc. You can live the dream of a small business and do what you want to do, and just collect rent. Even better, sell the company for a share in the new buyer, collecting dividends or license payments for your tiny logo on the bottom corner.  :P

There are so many creative ways to do it besides becoming Microsoft while still preserving revenue streams. When you give up a revenue stream, it tells me you are betting on a future where you could do something better with the payoff. You still have the expectation of arbitrage.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #24 on: June 15, 2011, 09:31:18 am »
Well, these are good points, and I can't argue them on a logical basis.  You might well be right.  All I can say is that, emotionally, sometimes people just get tired of trying to manage too much stuff, and so they cut the stuff they don't like as well.  I have no idea if some flavor of that happened or not.
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #25 on: June 15, 2011, 11:14:59 am »
I get the family business model, but from my understanding of retail it is almost explicit that you need to grow or you end up being bought out or go out of business. This is evidenced today in that smaller stores close or merge while larger companies stay on the top.

I wish I took some buisness courses to cleverly term and illustrate how, but in general that is how retail is. I perfectly can see how any creative outlet would not want to grow too much. Or if the family restruatant stays to one location. But in the buisness of selling other people's work bigger is almost better. If this wasn't the case steam wouldn't continue to be on top, walmart wouldn't dominate.

It could very well be the creator likes to make new companies, not actually run them once they solidify. I have seen plenty of examples of that.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #26 on: June 15, 2011, 11:20:47 am »
Well... my point was that I think the guy doesn't want to be in retail at all.  If I want to make games, running Walmart on the side is not going to be something I want to do.  Retail is cutthroat and only the large really seem to thrive, you are right -- so if that's not the business you really want to be in in the first place, why stay?  That may speak more to their actual motivations, and fits well with what Cyborg was saying, anyhow.
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #27 on: June 15, 2011, 11:23:06 am »
I guess I'm missing something. Did Impulse always start as a store first? To follow your example it would be you wanting to run games not walmart, but then opening one.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #28 on: June 15, 2011, 11:27:27 am »
I guess I'm missing something. Did Impulse always start as a store first?

Stardock was the owner of Impulse; until recently, Impulse wasn't its own company.  Stardock started out with enterprise software, which is still their core business today where their huge money comes from, as I understand it.  Then they also became a game developer, or maybe that was at the same time as the enterprise software, and they've been very successful at that despite some recent setbacks on that front.  But they made it very clear in their reports that their enterprise business is what funds their games business, so they can afford some setbacks on the game side.

Then at a much later date, they decided to start an online store called Impulse.  Originally just to sell their own games, if I'm not mistaken, but then they started branching out into other people's games since they were having some success at it.  Over the last years that's been growing and growing as a games platform, and so now they sold off this arm of their business.  Which, if I understand properly, was the second-most profitable of their three business arms.  The least profitable one being their apparent passion: game development.  So now they're down to their main cash cow, plus their passion, minus the middle that was neither their largest earner nor their passion.

To follow your example it would be you wanting to run games not walmart, but then opening one.

That's exactly what it would be like, yeah.
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: Stardock sold Impulse
« Reply #29 on: June 15, 2011, 11:30:44 am »
Oh, well now I know!

To more accurately describe it then, it would be you programing other things, then making games, then making a place to sell them...


Ok, yes, selling Impulse was a good business move. Better to leave the act of retail to the company who actually does it for a living. The act of making it in the first place was risky but they gambled and won through selling it later.
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