Star Ruler will be pulled from digital distributor Impulse, which was recently acquired by GameStop, because creator Blind Mind Studios really hates GameStop.
GameStop dropped a big bombshell last week when it announced the purchase of Impulse, one of the biggest digital distributors in the business. It’s no Steam, but it’s right up there with Direct2Drive, GamersGate and GOG, and its acquisition represents a huge maneuver in GameStop’s battle to remain relevant in the era of digital. But not everyone is thrilled with the new boss.
“On March 31st, Stardock Systems announced that Impulse will be purchased by GameStop, likely some time in May. Due to a rather large list of things we detest about GameStop, Star Ruler will no longer be available for purchase on Impulse after the takeover,” Blind Mind founder and lead programmer Andrew Ackermann, also known as “Thy Reaper,” wrote on the Star Ruler website.
“We are ending sales through Impulse due to GameStop’s long, negative behavior toward the PC platform and independent games,” he continued. “We would never have signed onto distribution through GameStop, and being forced into this situation has only made it worse for us. We feel GameStop cannot serve as the leader of a true competitor in the digital distribution market.”
Ackermann emphasized that the studio’s relationship with Impulse has been “consistently good” and that it had every intention of continuing to use the service for future releases. But with Impulse founder Brad Wardell out of the picture, Blind Mind says it no longer has faith in the future of the service.
It won’t leave Impulse customers stranded, however. “We will be trying to arrange the continuation of automatic updates through Impulse. If this doesn’t work out, our patches are all compatible with the Impulse version, and we will be working on an automatic updater for all of our customers to make the update process simpler,” Ackermann said.
And that, kids, is called putting your money where your mouth is.
