The so-called "dumbification" of video games, Windows 8, and the sale of digital distributor Impulse to retail monster GameStop are among the topics PC developer and publisher Stardock has covered in its latest annual Customer Report. A Stardock tradition, it's written by its notoriously outspoken CEO and president Brad Wardell.

Read more: GameStop was better for Impulse »

The long-awaited patch 1.2 for Elemental: War of Magic has launched, bringing a whole host of fixes and improvements to Stardock's fantasy strategy game.

"The focus of this patch was to improve the UI, memory use in large games and stomp out any remaining bug," Stardock explained. 1.2 also brings an assortment of other tweaks and changes, along with four new maps. Read more »

Stardock's annual Customer Report was released today and, as usual, CEO Brad Wardell provided a frank overview of the company's successes and shortcomings, along with a few sprinkled hints of plans for the future.

Unsurprisingly, Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity was counted as a standout success, and the company teased "important announcements" for the franchise this year. The report later states that it anticipates "3 big announcements" this year for the PC, making us suspect that one could be a Solar Empire sequel or expansion. Read more »

Yesterday, it was announced (unofficially) that Jon Shafer, the lead designer of Civilization V who recently left Firaxis, had been hired by Stardock to help with the continuing development of Elemental: War of Magic and eventually lead his own team for another game down the line.

Shacknews caught up with Jon for a quick interview, which is presented below. Enjoy! Read more »

Stardock, the developer of Elemental: War of Magic and operator of the Impulse digital download storefront, has hired Jon Shafer who recently left Firaxis Games where he had served as lead designer on Civilization V (via BigDownload).

Shafer will assist with the continuing development of Elemental: War of Magic, which is currently being overseen by Derek "Kael" Paxton who was hired back in October for his experience with creating the Civilization IV mod "Fall from Heaven". Stardock CEO Brad Wardell stepped down from the lead developer position to serve as the game's executive producer and continues to work on the game's AI. Read more »

Things are on the up for Elemental: War of Magic as developer Stardock has finally launched its much-anticipated mega-patch 1.1, bringing dozens of fixes and changes to the fantasy turn-based strategy game.

"The 1.1 patch for Elemental: War of Magic is an opportunity to enhance and refine the game," said lead producer Derek Paxton in a press release. "In a limited timeframe, the team was able to implement major features. As a result, the game has been rebalanced to remain fun and challenging throughout. It impacts nearly every aspect of gameplay, the interface and most significantly the role of Magic." Read more »

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath will finally debut on PC this holiday season, developer Oddworld Inhabitants announced today, when the 'Oddbox' series compilation revealed over a year ago at long last launches.

Releasing for download via Steam, the Oddbox will pack Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee from 1997 and 1998's Abe's Exoddus, both released on PC, among other platforms, plus previously Xbox-exclusive Munch's Oddysee from 2001 and 2005's Stranger's Wrath. Read more »

When it first launched, Elemental: War of Magic stumbled in the wake of gameplay and balance issues. Today, things are looking up for the game as publisher/developer Stardock told Big Download that sales were up 30 percent in October.

Stardock wouldn't detail the increase but noted that sales on its digital platform Impulse, as well as retail order shipments, saw spikes during the month. Of course, whether this has more to do with the developer fixing some of the game's issues or the two free expansion packs that were offered for buyers before Halloween is unclear. Read more »

Still seeking to make amends for Elemental: War of Magic's "disastrous launch," developer Stardock has announced that everyone who buys the PC fantasy strategy title before October 31 will receive its first two expansion packs for free.

Earlier this month, Stardock revealed that work on the first expansion pack would begin after it launches Elemental patch 1.1--an update that will be available in beta form to all players in "early November." Back then, Stardock had only revealed plans for the first expansion to be released free. The expansion will also be when veteran modder Derek 'Kael' Paxton will take over from the former lead designer, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell. Read more »

Stardock has hired Derek "Kael" Paxton, creator of the Civilization IV mod 'Fall from Heaven', to "oversee Stardock's ongoing development and expansions of the recently released fantasy strategy game, Elemental: War of Magic."

The launch of Elemental was, by some accounts, "disastrous" and bringing in some external talent is a good move. Brad Wardell, Stardock's CEO, "will serve as the executive producer and lead AI developer on Elemental," and had previously served as the lead designer on the game. Read more »

The patch that was to enable multiplayer along with other gameplay fixes for Stardock's Elemental: War of Magic has been delayed until next week. It had been scheduled to release today, but wasn't ready.

In a post titled, "Making use of a lesson learned," no doubt referring to the game's shaky launch, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell explains the slight delay: Read more »

Though the studio was hit with layoffs last week, development continues for Elemental: War of Magic over at Stardock. This week, the company expects to release version 1.08, which will enable multiplayer in addition to a "weapons balance pass, bug fixes, AI updates" and more.

Additionally, CEO and lead designer Brad Wardell has outlined the plan for future patches and content in a "drama cleansing thread" over on the Elemental forums. Read more »

[Update 10:30pm] Stardock CEO Brad Wardell has confirmed the layoffs in a forum post, attributing the cuts to Elemental's updated revenue projections following its launch.

"Elemental's revenue was anticipated to provide the revenue both for our main games team's next project as well as a second team," writes Wardell. "Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen so we've had to start laying people off." Read more »

Field Reports provide our first-hand experience with the latest games, but should not be considered a review.

It is my personal opinion that Stardock's latest game, Elemental: War of Magic, is not ready to be reviewed. I'm not talking about bugs, crashes, or compatibility issues—those should have all been ironed out at the time of this post—but rather, game design and balance. Read more »

Although its only been available for a day, Stardock has added a slew of new content and fixes to its fantasy turn-based strategy title, Elemental: War of Magic.

Users who purchased the game at retail now can download the "Day 0" patch via developer/publisher Stardock's Impulse digital delivery client. The patch adds new spells, a "Faction Editor" and additional mod tools. The release also fixes a bevy of issues, including tweaks to Elemental's AI and fixes for multiple crash bugs. Full patch notes are available on the official Elemental forum. Read more »