Informative and interesting, as usual!

Interesting read Stardock, thanks for reading. Minor chuckle at hiring all those various civ 4/5 devs.

2 new games woot!!  ARe they going to be totally brand new or...perhaps one will be a new version of an old favorite(hint hint one that may have a cat type race that likes to conquer and eat everyone?)  Glad to see you guys are doing good, especially with the way things are today.

Since you are making lots of Win 8 apps, does that mean Win 7 users are now outta luck and should move to Win 8?  I guess it could be time for a new gaming laptop for me...just have to get the boss to approve, but she gets so feisty on spending money on that, and has allocated alot of our resources to buying new dresses for our 6 month old!!  I keep telling her, that Bree is 6 months old and doesnt need new dresses, which then gets me the "Stare" so I then head into town and go buy some dresses.  

Thanks for all the hard work!

First off, I really appriciate that Stardock has felt it necessary to share it's private successes and failures with the public. I have a few things that I took note of:

I find it interesting how Brad has acclaimed 90% of their sales to steam. Obviously, if you release products that are steam-only, than the % will be weighted in that direction. Only way that stat would be useful is if the products all had multiple venues of sale.

The same can be said for download sales versus store sales. Since developers stopped selling their games through stores, obviously the % will shift towards direct download. You can't get it in stores. It's being forced on the customer base.

I also found it interesting that only 37.2% prefferred steam. The rest want alternatives. Granted, a portion of the rest are willing to live with steam, but there is a portion that would be happier without. Comparing closer to home, 20.8% still want direct purchase from the developer. Even if half were willing to use steam, that still means Stardock has decided to cut away 10% of it's market by going steam only.

I'd wager, if SD was on the stock market, the release of this document would have made the market very cautious to invest, despite being SD's best year to date.

Thoughts? Comments?

As in Galactic Civilizations, Fallen Enchantress, and most of our other games?

I think it's safe to say that at this point, the market has gone with Steam. I put my money where my mouth was and spent millions on an alternative -- Impulse.  So I think it's safe to say I tried to provide consumers with an alternative.

SD won't be on the stock market.  It's privately held and independent and I have no intention of changing that. 

Over 95% of the customerbase is male?

Firefly, did steam steal your firstborn in the dead of night or something? You seem to have a rabid hate for them, and seem to feel everyone else should. I can't understand someone spending so much time and effort trying to justify not using Steam.

Interesting stuff, Frogboy.

Glad to know SD isnt going on the market...that would kill they way you do business and treat your employees.  I worked for a small company making motherboards, which got bought out by John Deere...4 years later its now all in Mexico...Im not in Mexico, so you can see what can happen.  Keep strong Frog!!  WE love SD(ok some of us) the way it is!!

Why u think im not mad at LH being steam only? You guys tried. I do suggest this, one thing that held the Civ5 Steam Exclusive tensions was the integrated Steam Workshop. Having a steam workshop made players feel like there was some benefit to having steam other than having steam (which isn't always a benefit).

I would hope that a Steam Workshop integration would inspire you to similar action. Yes, there are ways to get mods however a lot of people are kind of confused about it, and uncomfortable "tinkering", they just want a button to make it work.

Keep up the great work, everyone. 

+1 for Steam Workshop, and improved mod integration.

Good stuff, glad to see SD is doing great. 

Also hell yes for Steam Workshop and more mod stuff! 

Wow never new you published this.  Thats' fantastic, good for you Brad/Stardock.  Interesting read thanks.

Awesome Sauce for Stsrdock!

Didn't think you would be putting it on the stock market.  Just a point of comparison.

I would never have called Impulse 'an alternative' to steam. That's like saying that the democrats are an alternative to the republicans.  It's picking one evil for another. Any time there is a client involved set up to manage the users system for them, it's bad for the user because he has to give up control for the system.

That said, I most certainly appriciated the effort you placed into offering a direct download option for the FE release. Thank you for that.

In the end, you've got your private business to run. You've decided to go with steam and that's most certainly your right and your call. Despite my decision not to use steam, I'm still staying on the forum board because I believe that FE:LH is still currently gamers greatest hope of seeing MoM's spirtual successsor. I'll continue to follow the forums and offer any comments and opinions I have so that the game will end up being as good as it can be. Obviously, as you've probably alreadly seen, I've stopped commenting on things that have to do with game balance. Without the game, I can't really comment to those points...now can I.

I'm still going to be hopeful that after everything is said and done and after FE:XX is released and the final update is estabilished, that Stardock will be willing to put together a direct download release completely free from the intrusive steam software for those that wish to make the investment. When/If that day comes, you'll get my money.