Stardock Releases '09 Customer Report

[Telefrog]

Stardock has released their Customer Report 2009. Brad Wardell reviews the improvements made to Impulse and details the planned features of future versions.

As users often remark, “What good is buying online if it takes 6 hours to download?” While I believe any objective third-party test would demonstrate that Impulse is typically 2 to 3 times faster on new installs than the second fastest provider, our ability to get new programs up onto Impulse remains a challenge due to all the variables involved.

Pre-loading of new content, coming in Impulse Phase 5, will also improve the user experience for users who preorder titles.

On the lessons learned during the Demigod launch, Brad Wardell reveals a couple of surprising bits of information.

For Stardock, the more significant shock of Demigod has been the discovery of the low number of PC gamers who play strategy games online. Demigod’s single player experience, while decent, did not get anywhere near the care that the Internet multiplayer experience did. Despite this, only 23% of people who have purchased Demigod have ever even attempted to logon to play Internet multiplayer.

[...]

At the time of this writing, approximately 2,000 users did return Demigod to us. Approximately 60% of those users purchased at retail. Nearly 90% of all users who returned Demigod subsequently re-purchased the game once the network issue had been resolved.

The report also takes hard look at Stardock's competition with other digital download providers, their business and productivity applications, and the state of the industry in general.

[PathMaster]

Interesting return statistic. Sounds like the company is assessing issues and relatively quickly taking action to address said issues.

Great!

[Hemalin]

For Stardock, the more significant shock of Demigod has been the discovery of the low number of PC gamers who play strategy games online. Demigod’s single player experience, while decent, did not get anywhere near the care that the Internet multiplayer experience did. Despite this, only 23% of people who have purchased Demigod have ever even attempted to logon to play Internet multiplayer.

That's not really shocking. Epic said similar things about UT2k4 years ago. Even for the heavily multiplayer focused games, singleplayer is still quite popular. It's a bit of a disapointment that, in FPS's at least, bots seem to be a low priority.

[Doogie2K]

Originally Posted by Hemalin

That's not really shocking. Epic said similar things about UT2k4 years ago. Even for the heavily multiplayer focused games, singleplayer is still quite popular. It's a bit of a disapointment that, in FPS's at least, bots seem to be a low priority.

Yeah, really. I played the entire SP ladder in the original UT. The bots in that game were the shit for 1999. Actually, they're still pretty competitive today, which probably says something about AI development in that time. It's also why I hated Quake III: the SP was bullshit in every facet, and I was too young to go online in those days (I was the 13-year-old kid back then, except my parents wouldn't let me go on and be a douche because they were worried about their dial-up quota and luring; oh, the late 90s).

I also like the preloading announcement, so I can download Sins: Diplomacy a few days early.

[kyrieee]

What's wrong about Quake 3 SP?
I've played it to death

[Trebor]

Originally Posted by Hemalin

That's not really shocking. Epic said similar things about UT2k4 years ago. Even for the heavily multiplayer focused games, singleplayer is still quite popular. It's a bit of a disapointment that, in FPS's at least, bots seem to be a low priority.

I have to also disagree here. The level of difficulty with the bots on UT, UT2K3 and UT2K4 can be scaled down for Kindergarteners to toy with to levels so high as to give veteran FPSes a real challenge. Not to mention the number of bots in each game can be adjusted. Just imagine having 16 bots on the "hardcore" setting running around a UT map gunning for your ass. That does not sound like a disappointment at all.

[Voodoo]

Originally Posted by Trebor

I have to also disagree here. The level of difficulty with the bots on UT, UT2K3 and UT2K4 can be scaled down for Kindergarteners to toy with to levels so high as to give veteran FPSes a real challenge. Not to mention the number of bots in each game can be adjusted. Just imagine having 16 bots on the "hardcore" setting running around a UT map gunning for your ass. That does not sound like a disappointment at all.

What is the case for the UT series is definitely not the case for the majority of other FPS games. I believe this was his point and I share his disappointment. I play many FPS games but most often do them single player because it is hard for me to devote a significant amount of time in a block to multiplayer gaming. The lack of UT level bots in many FPS games is very disappointing.

For example, I'd like to be able to play a single player skirmish in a Call of Duty game...

[Trebor]

Originally Posted by Voodoo

What is the case for the UT series is definitely not the case for the majority of other FPS games. I believe this was his point and I share his disappointment. I play many FPS games but most often do them single player because it is hard for me to devote a significant amount of time in a block to multiplayer gaming. The lack of UT level bots in many FPS games is very disappointing.

For example, I'd like to be able to play a single player skirmish in a Call of Duty game...

Agreed, very disappointing..

[Secret Agent Dog]

It can be commended that they release any document that states their goals and purpose to the public as there are so many tight lipped developers/publishers out there. However, this report seems like a lot of lip service and fluff that does nothing but convince me steam is better. They state how their games are developed in house and how they have a high sense of pride in the games, but launch problems such as the demigod multiplayer issues seemed to be passed off in a light tone, they admit fault, but that doesn't really explain the tarnish that faulty matchmaking for 3 weeks can cause on a launch. And when talking about steamworks "effectively cutting them off" from titles, is this their choice, or a fundamental incompatibility? And as long as they cannot compete or adapt continuing to lose sales on big titles such as MW2 doesn't seem like a viable business model.

I did really like the idea of being able to sell my digital copies of games, and their stance on 3rd party DRM. Yet when compared to a system like steam, a tried and true juggernaut, which already has a majority of the features I enjoy in place for some time, impulse just cannot deliver. Impulse just keeps coming up short for me when all they can offer is words. Just saying their downloads are 2-3x faster with no proof is not so convincing when steam already gives me great speeds and the ability to preload popular titles.

Quoting statistics drawn from a 96% male population, 67% claiming to be power users, and a majority between 20 and 40 years old really just shows me that impulse will forever be the little guy and part of a niche market. Words are sweet and I am sure there will always be those who prefer impulse, but this report really seems to tell me that impulse will always be the underdog, always a dollar short with less features and a smaller library. So as someone who already uses steam and enjoys it, stardock makes some good points but is ultimately outlining what they currently do that will eventually be their undoing.

[Doogie2K]

Originally Posted by kyrieee

What's wrong about Quake 3 SP?
I've played it to death

The "ladder" for Q3A, as I recall, was basically a dozen deathmatches, and the boss was a cheating whore with a railgun. The ladder for UT had something like thirty or forty matches across all five game modes, and the challenge ladder and final boss, while tough, were also fair and eminently beatable if you took the time to get good at it. As for skirmishes, the Q3A bots were markedly inferior to UT99's, and much less scalable.

God, I can't believe I just retyped an argument I had ten years ago on the Gamespy forums. I've been doing this way too long.

[jeffbax]

Originally Posted by Doogie2K

The "ladder" for Q3A, as I recall, was basically a dozen deathmatches, and the boss was a cheating whore with a railgun. The ladder for UT had something like thirty or forty matches across all five game modes, and the challenge ladder and final boss, while tough, were also fair and eminently beatable if you took the time to get good at it. As for skirmishes, the Q3A bots were markedly inferior to UT99's, and much less scalable.

God, I can't believe I just retyped an argument I had ten years ago on the Gamespy forums. I've been doing this way too long.

All that being true, Quake just had overall better gunplay and physics to me. No bullshit like charging up 5 rockets at a time and other such overall-spammy guns found in UT.

UT2004 was much much better than UT1, mostly because it was more Quake-like in this sense.

[kyrieee]

Originally Posted by Doogie2K

The "ladder" for Q3A, as I recall, was basically a dozen deathmatches, and the boss was a cheating whore with a railgun. The ladder for UT had something like thirty or forty matches across all five game modes, and the challenge ladder and final boss, while tough, were also fair and eminently beatable if you took the time to get good at it. As for skirmishes, the Q3A bots were markedly inferior to UT99's, and much less scalable.

God, I can't believe I just retyped an argument I had ten years ago on the Gamespy forums. I've been doing this way too long.

I think it just comes down to which game you like better
Sure, the UT bots are better, but that doesn't matter much in straight up DM. UT had more team modes so it needed better bots. Bots cheating? Well, all bots cheat. The final UT99 boss can see you when grab the invisibility powerup. Q3 was beatable because I've beaten it on nightmare

I've played a lot of both games in single player and ultimately I don't think there's a huge difference. UT has a more interesting structure but it's still not all that interesting. It's still just a multiplayer mode played vs the computer and neither game's bots come close to providing the type of experience you get vs real players. I've played more of Q3 than UT99 though just because I enjoy the weapons and the movement physics more.

[Ancalagon]

Q3 is probably better for shooter purists, who want the "ultimate" combat experience. Well, I mean in a sci fi non realistic FPS of course.

UT tends to have a lot more "flavour", with different game modes and more varied maps, instead of just gothic maps. I prefer UT myself, but UT3 is just the same game as UT2k4, rehashed again.

[PathMaster]

UT Assault mode with Bots was fun, Q3 CTF could be fun.

I much preferred UT for all things BUT pure DM, although it was a very close 2nd to Q3.

[Doogie2K]

See, I actually didn't like Q3A's gunplay, which probably made a lot of the difference.

Or I'm just a whore for the Flak Cannon. Probably that. But yeah, UT's weapons were awfully spammy, in hindsight, and Domination probably didn't work as well as I thought it did ten years ago (Onslaught/Warfare is really the culmination of UT-style capture-point gameplay).

[kyrieee]

Haha I like Domination the best

<3 Tomb of Sesmar

Oh, I have to say too, the music in UT99 is some of the best in any game
I still to the soundtrack every now and then

[Stoke]

Originally Posted by Secret Agent Dog

It can be commended that they release any document that states their goals and purpose to the public as there are so many tight lipped developers/publishers out there. However, this report seems like a lot of lip service and fluff that does nothing but convince me steam is better. They state how their games are developed in house and how they have a high sense of pride in the games, but launch problems such as the demigod multiplayer issues seemed to be passed off in a light tone, they admit fault, but that doesn't really explain the tarnish that faulty matchmaking for 3 weeks can cause on a launch. And when talking about steamworks "effectively cutting them off" from titles, is this their choice, or a fundamental incompatibility? And as long as they cannot compete or adapt continuing to lose sales on big titles such as MW2 doesn't seem like a viable business model.

...

Quoting statistics drawn from a 96% male population, 67% claiming to be power users, and a majority between 20 and 40 years old really just shows me that impulse will forever be the little guy and part of a niche market. Words are sweet and I am sure there will always be those who prefer impulse, but this report really seems to tell me that impulse will always be the underdog, always a dollar short with less features and a smaller library. So as someone who already uses steam and enjoys it, stardock makes some good points but is ultimately outlining what they currently do that will eventually be their undoing.

It's technically their choice but in reality it's their only option. Allowing Steamworks games on Impulse would be like Walmart selling an item that could only be used once you took it into Target. Technically doable but absolutely stupid.

Why do usage stats show you that Impulse is flawed? Doesn't Valve do this every year with Steam?

[Secret Agent Dog]

Their stat usage is not really flawed as it shows more of a skew. I am not saying that their demographic is bad but I am trying to say that it is not a representative of the whole PC population, which in itself is a skew of the global population. By showing that their users, or at least those who replied, are young males who are self claimed adepts I see impulse as a service that is not targeted, or at least used, to/by casual or social gamers, women in general, or the children's/elderly markets. Now I have no idea on the steam user base and I suspect that it is somewhat similar, but with steam somewhat recently starting a children's game section I see steam building inroads to capture more market share simply by catering to a larger population. Now if steam sold or integrated with something such as Facebook for something like their mafia wars (or any "casual" or "social" game that attracts a diverse audience) that could be the coup de grace for impulse ever taking any significant share to be considered a major competitor.

That is a good point about steamworks cutting off impulse, and as someone who enjoys steam I do not really care that MW2 would require steamworks as I already am using it. Yet that does reinforce an idea that impulse will always be the underdog even if only for the reason that it just doesn't have the cash/size to negotiate deals for exclusivity or inclusion.

[MagGnome]

I came in here expecting to read about Stardock and Impulse, and instead I found myself in the midst of a debate about Unreal Tournament and Quake 3: Arena. After checking the date and realizing that I wasn't back in high school, I chuckled and thought to myself "this is why I love COG."

More on topic, I'm glad to hear that pre-loading is coming in the next phase of Impulse. While I've only used it for one or two games on Steam, it's definitely nice to have. I think Impulse is pretty nice, and the improvements they've made in the last couple of phases have really turned it into a great download service. It still has a ways to go before catching up with Steam, but I'm glad the competition is there. You can really see that Steam keeps on eye on Impulse, and vice versa.


Edit - Does any gamer want to see Steam cater more and more to a "casual" audience? I'd hate to log in one day and see the entire service flooded by crappy flash games and the like. There's already some of that on there, but thankfully it doesn't stay at the top for long. I for one do not want to see them integrate things like Facebook and Mafia Wars. If I wanted to see that sort of thing, I would just log on to Facebook.

[Doogie2K]

Originally Posted by kyrieee

Haha I like Domination the best

<3 Tomb of Sesmar

Oh, I have to say too, the music in UT99 is some of the best in any game
I still to the soundtrack every now and then

This is very true. Facing Worlds is one of my favourite maps ever, both because of the sniper-friendly design and the calming space music. I also like that Orion's Barricade's music is similar to (based on?) that of Star Goose. God damn it, now you're going to make me go reinstall it from Steam.

And you're welcome, Mag.