Stardock Costumer Report

Stardock is a company that has recently been talked about in the gaming industry for two things:

1. The success of their games, including Galactic Civilizations and Sins of a Solar Empire
2. That this success (both critical and commercial) comes with zero to limited DRM on their software.

In the 2008 Stardock Customer Report, the company looks at their failures and successes in the industry, both in gaming and in application software, where they got started.  They go into detailed discussion about DRM and their stance on it, which may surprise some people who believe that they are strictly anti-DRM (in short, they argue for intelligent DRM that doesn’t harm honest customers).

Aside from the chance to look at some of the inner workings of a company like Stardock, which should be of interest to anyone with an appetite for the industry, I thought I’d share the document because it features Stardock’s Impulse software.  Impulse, for those that don’t know, is a digital distribution platform made by Stardock which can be customized for almost any company that wishes to sell their wares online.  Since digital distribution seems all but inevitable, it might be of interest to some local companies looking to sell their wares directly to the customer instead of through a 3rd party.

Check out the Stardock customer report here.

Philippine game industry featured on the Manila Times

Our very own Cesar Tolentino was interviewed by a correspondent of the Manila Times on the state of the Philippine game development industry.  Of particular note is that the small industry has earned an estimated 3 million dollars this 2008 and expects to at least double that amount by next year.  An excerpt from the article:

Speaking at a session at the two-day BPO Summit 2008 at the Crowne
Plaza Hotel, Cesar Tolentino said the projected 2008 revenues will be
generated by slightly over 20 companies employing a total of close to
500 computer programmers as well as graphic artists.

According to Tolentino, Philippine game developers in three years
time are expected to have only 0.1 percent of the global market for
computer games, a sector projected to reach $30 billion annually by
2010.

This kind of attention can only be good for the local industry, which is finally starting to build up steam and get some recognition for the groundwork laid by the members of GDAP.  Check out the full article here.