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Stardock's Sins of a Solar Empire leads PC game sales

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

March 4, 2008, 3:35 PM

Gamasutra's list of best selling games this week sees Sins of a Solar Empire in the number one slot, beating out Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and WoW: The Burning Crusade.

The Realtime Strategy/4X game was released on February 4, and has already received critical acclaim from several video game review publications. What has won it such praise is its unique combination of 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) civilization management gameplay with the battle speed of a RTS, and its sheer size, which creates an immersive effect heretofore unseen in strategy games.

Players take control of one of three races and attempt to dominate the galaxy through diplomatic relations, economic acumen, and military superiority. The game's story represents each of the three races as a sort of dynasty: one which was formerly in control of the galaxy but was wiped out (and then came back,) the "current" one which restored order after the former empire, and one which is a nation exiled from relations with the current empire.

Putting out such a successful game is an admirable feat when considering the company's main focus is not gaming. Stardock began as an applications provider for the OS/2 platform, and later found success in the skinning and customizing of Windows with its WindowBlinds skinning tools and Object Desktop accessory suite, which remains the company's chief products.

Compounding the impact of this feat is the size of Stardock when compared against whom it beat in sales. With under 50 employees, Stardock's product bested Activision/Blizzard, which has 3,000+ employees, and EA which has over 9,000. Developers of Sins of a Solar Empire, Canada's Ironclad Games, is a group of only nine programmers and designers who had formerly worked for the following: Sierra Studios, Take2 Interactive / Rockstar Games, Disney Interactive, TNT Television, The Cartoon Network, and Mattel.

By comparison, Infinity Ward, developers of the Call of Duty series which took second place behind Sins has a team of over 70.

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By GrantTLC

edited Mar 5, 2008 - 5:29 AM

I'm going to have to download the demo of this one. Another of their games, Galactic Civilisation 2, has been on my hard drive for the last year, and with each expansion pack seems to be turning into the ultimate 4x strategy game of our generation. I've lost *months* to Galciv - Sins' looks like it could do the same.

Well done, Ironclad, for achieving such phenomenal sales with such a small development team.

Score: 0

By cranbers

posted Mar 5, 2008 - 12:06 AM

Wow, 9 programmers and designers? it's amazing this game didn't take decades to make. That shows true dedication, team work and being well organized.

The game is the most time consuming addictive 4x game i've ever experienced. While it does seem like something is missing, it really is addicting and satisfying.

Although the sad thing is, you work so hard to beat up the other person against you and it just ends, like killing a fly with a sledge hammer, or you find the fly is coming at you with a bigger one.

An example is that you spend 5 hours building up, and you slowly start getting pounded, almost like watching your life slip away, then you come back. Reclaiming the worlds you lost, then you send a massive armada against their's and you watch an amazing battle. You get attached to your capital ships after watching them pound ship after ship.

A campaign similar to homeworld would be welcome. Right now you have no idea who the races are or what the point is. But it is fun.

Score: 0

By improvelence

posted Mar 4, 2008 - 10:13 PM

Wow, I didn't even know Stardock made games.

Score: 0

By sport5

edited Mar 10, 2008 - 8:13 PM

will u do now

Score: 0

By daq

posted Mar 4, 2008 - 6:44 PM

Wow, didn't expect this game to sell so well. I liked it overall, but it seemed very complicated at first. Took me a while to finally get into it.

Score: 0

By Adrian79

posted Mar 4, 2008 - 6:41 PM

role playing games blow

Score: 0

By psycros

posted Mar 4, 2008 - 5:17 PM

I would probably be all over this one, but I'm a turn-based purist. Not to mention..only three races? I guess if it was highly customizable in some way (ship design, etc.) maybe I'd give it a go.

Score: 0

By PapaBearNZ

edited Jun 3, 2008 - 11:31 PM

Hmm - Stars! player perhaps?

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

posted Mar 4, 2008 - 5:53 PM

They're probably doing the whole CNC strategy: release a game with three factions/races then later release an expansion that has different subfactions of those three.

Score: 0

By the artist

posted Mar 4, 2008 - 4:15 PM

SUCH A MONSTER OF A GAME!!!

It's incredible fun, anda fantastic refresh for the formula!

Did you know it's the spiritual sucessor of Homeworld 2, but hugely expanded? Yes, i loved the game.

Score: 0

By PapaBearNZ

posted Jun 3, 2008 - 11:52 PM

I greatly enjoyed HW. I will definitely have to try this one.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Mar 4, 2008 - 4:32 PM

Hmmmm...

I enjoyed the HW series. I'll have to take a look at this. I've never actually even so much as glanced sideways at Stardocks "game" offerings.

As for the "leading PC game sales", just wait until HL2:Ep3 hits the shelves, or even Spore, for that matter. This is nothing but the post-holiday slump. All the big names released prior to the holidays.

Score: 0

By Setian^Stalker

posted Mar 4, 2008 - 6:29 PM

I enjoyed the HW series as well and decided to buy this.
I think I am the only person in the world who is not enjoying it :)
It felt like an extended starwars game i played a few years back but didnt quite hit the spot for me :(

Score: 0

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