Gas Powered Games founder and Supreme Commander developer Chris Taylor said that the PC gaming industry needs to embrace new business models which sidestep piracy concerns to survive.

"PC gaming isn't dead. PC gaming—the old model— probably is," Taylor told GamesIndustry at GDC. "Secure PC gaming is the future—it's going to thrive and we've all got to get on that,"

Taylor suggested that server-based and online-authenticated gaming proves to be the most successful business model in an industry fraught with piracy. The developer envisioned an industry in which data would be accessed from a central server rather than directly from the user's PC.

"It's all got to be secure, we can't afford to make this stuff and give it away for free," Taylor said. "It inconveniences a little but now they know why. And then we can get the economics back in line and maybe we can actually start ... Read more

Gas Powered Games' latest project is becoming a little more clear with the release of a few more images.

Using the Supreme Commander engine, Demigod will borrow aspects of gameplay from RTS mods such as Warcraft III's Defense of the Ancients, allowing players to control a single hero unit within a massive online battle.

A release time frame and platform has also been revealed since the initial announcement: Fall 2008, on PC.

Chris Taylor and the team at Gas Powered Games will follow their 2007 RTS Supreme Commander with a take on a popular RTS modification, according to a 1UP report filed today.

The game, called Demigod, is said to at least partly derive its gameplay from Defense of the Ancients, the wildly successful user-created mod for Blizzard's RTS Warcraft III.

As in DotA, players of the multiplayer-focused Demigod will command a single hero unit, which can grow in power based on a leveling structure. Some of the hero units will have the ability to create lesser units and supporting structures, while others will make do with their own super powers.

According to the report, Demigod is being designed as a multiplayer experience, with an "emphasis on co-op play." There will be a singleplayer component, which Gas Powered Games characterized as a "training ground."

Platform and release date projections have yet to be announced.

THQ today announced that the standalone Supreme Commander expansion pack Forged Alliance has gone gold, and will ship to stores November 6.

Developed again by Gas Powered Games, Forged Alliance features a new singleplayer campaign, a new alien faction, over a hundred additional units and extra multiplayer maps.

"Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance tells the story of the UEF, Cybran and Aeon's desperate alliance as they fight for survival against the Seraphim, a long forgotten alien race that has returned to destroy all of humanity," said Chris Taylor, CEO, Gas Powered Games. "Adding a new faction, and giving the existing factions some crazy powerful new units opens up a wide range of innovative strategic possibilities, taking the single and multiplayer game to a place never seen before in an RTS".

Developer Gas Powered Games plans to expand upon the dungeon-crawling action RPG gameplay it employed in its Dungeon Siege series with its upcoming Space Siege. In a partnership with publisher Sega, the Redmond-based studio will deliver Space Siege for PC in Q1 2008.

Space Siege thrusts its protagonist Seth Walker into what is claimed to be a dynamic storyline set aboard a colony ship housing the last remaining members of humanity. Gameplay hinges on the continual choice of retaining Walker's humanity or adding on cybernetic upgrades that afford increased abilities but damage Walker's relationships with his fellow humans. That choice plays into the narrative elements of the game, affecting NPC reactions and plot paths.

"Chris Taylor and his talented team at Gas Powered Games are recognized as leading innovators in the industry," said Sega marketing VP... Read more

Sega of America today announced that it has signed a deal with Gas Powered Games, the studio known for the Dungeon Siege series and Supreme Commander, to publish the company's next PC role playing game. The game will be based on a new property.

"SEGA is continuing its march forward in building a strong western developed portfolio of games," said COO Simon Jeffery of Sega of America, Inc. "Partnering with well established and visionary game creators such as Chris Taylor and his talented group of at Gas Powered Games aligns perfectly with our strategy." Added Chris Taylor of Gas Powered Games, "Our focus at Gas Powered Games is to create exciting and visually stunning new worlds coupled with revolutionary game play experiences and we see SEGA as the perfect partner in achieving that goal for our next original RPG."

No details about the game, including an estimated release date, were revealed.

The guys at Gas Powered Games (Dungeon Siege, Supreme Commander) send along word that they're expanding , hiring in virtually every department (art, animation, design, engineering and production). For a full overview of job openings head to their site.

THQ has issued this press release, announcing that the Gas Powered Games strategy game Supreme Commander has gone gold. The game will ship to stores worldwide February 20.

In the 37th century the galaxy has been ripped apart by three warring factions, each vying to eradicate the universe of all opposition and end the 1000 year Infinite War. The next generation world of Supreme Commander brings an all new level of scope and scale to the RTS genre, establishing a new benchmark in strategic and tactical RTS gaming. Experience a new level of control over countless land, sea and air units, and use the innovative zoom function -- scrolling outward to see the entire Theatre of War or inward to focus on the action -- to command your forces to victory. Developed by legendary RTS developer Chris Taylor, Supreme Commander offers a unique storyline, innovative gameplay and infinite online multiplayer battles.

New at FiringSquad today is this Gas Powered Games Q&A. Chris Taylor is asked about signing with 2K Games for future Dungeon Siege titles, pressure that comes with making a spiritual sequel to Total Annihiliation, Supreme Commander content download plans, Windows Vista, thoughts on next-gen consoles and the Uwe Boll helmed Dungeon Siege movie.

The latest issue of PC Gamer has hit newsstands and on the cover is Supreme Commander, the latest game from Gas Powered Games and Chris Taylor. Taylor is best known as the creator of both the Dungeon Siege and Total Annihilation series. While Taylor was never able to acquire Total Annihilation from Atari, he did tell PC Gamer that Supreme Commander is its spiritual successor.

The big deal with SC is that there is a galactic war going on in real-time and as the Supreme Commander, you can seamlessly zoom in and out of different battles, shifting from a satellite to ground-level view. The action takes place on land, air, and sea with a large variety of units, including "major units" that are huge, hulking pieces of steel many times larger than the standard unit. Think a Godzilla-sized unit marching along with your tanks.

Overall, the article has you coming away with the sense that Taylor is trying to reinvigorate the genre. He feels RTS games don't feature strategy of any kind and he's here to fix that. For instance, you can use a "Base Commander" to handle all resource management while you're off actually dictating the outcomes of battles. On top of that, he wants to create a sense of realism and scale that has yet to be seen; the battleships in Supreme Commander are so enormous, you'd need a dual screen setup to see the whole thing at the ground level view. Supreme Commander is set to release in 2006.

This press release announces that Electronic Arts and Dungeon Siege developer Gas Powered Games have signed a publishing agreement. Gas Powered Games will work on a real-time strategy game, due out in 2006.

The Gas Powered Games jobs page has been updated, listing several positions that need to be filled. The Dungeon Siege developer is looking for a character animator, a web developer, and several engineers for both Dungeon Siege 2 and their mystery RTS game.