Impulse nears millionth user, user # 1,000,000 to score a nice PC

by: Chuck - posted: 3/18/2009 12:53:00 PM

The folks at Stardock have had a pretty strong response to their Impulse digital distribution service and are quickly approaching 1 million users.  To celebrate this they are giving away a top end PC to the customer number 1,000,000.  No details are given on the brand or type of PC that they are giving away but my guess is that the $4,000 prize is probably going to be able to run Crysis really well and will probably run their upcoming RPG/RTS Demigod pretty good as well.  Of course this is a bit of a bummer to those of us who signed up early.

Stardock’s Impulse Nears Millionth User - Millionth Impulse User Will Win a $4,000 Gaming PC --

PLYMOUTH, MI – MARCH 17, 2009 – Stardock Corporation announced that its digital download platform, Impulse has grown to close to a million users since its launch last summer. Impulse (www.impulsedriven.com) enables users to purchase and download PC software including games, utilities and applications. The nine-month-old Impulse platform now boasts games from THQ, 2KGames, Atari, Capcom, Dreamcatcher, Epic, Paradox as well as numerous new applications, utilities, anti-virus and more. To celebrate its success, Stardock will be giving its one millionth Impulse customer a brand new top-of-the-line gaming PC worth more than $4,000.



Impulse attributes much of its early success to customer-friendly experience as well as aggressive pricing such as its "Weekend Impulse Buys" in which selected titles are up to 70 percent off for that weekend. Another reason Stardock cites for Impulse's success has been its support of local currency conversion which has been popular with both users and publishers that use it.



"We're very pleased with how quickly Impulse is growing," said Brad Wardell, president & CEO of Stardock. "The digital distribution market is still in its infancy, ensuring that publishers and consumers both have choices this early on ensures that this market will continue to be dynamic and competitive."



Stardock will be at the Game Developer's Conference meeting with publishers as it prepares to formally unveil Impulse Reactor, a library that allows publishers to provide effective protection for their software, in-game chat, ‘friends’ lists and micro-expansion purchasing. Impulse Reactor does not require publishers to change any code in their software or include a third-party client with their title. This allows publishers to have a single executable to be sold at retail or digitally that is vendor neutral.



Wardell continued, “A big part of our upcoming focus with Impulse is to work with publishers to ensure that they don't lock themselves and their customers into a particular vendor. That means providing technical alternatives to publishers they can count on and the best possible user experience for our users."



Next month Stardock plans to release the third major update to Impulse since its release which will include features such as Impulse Anywhere (ability to download your title from a web page on one PC and then install on your home PC), and the full release of Impulse Reactor, which will provide in-game features from Impulse seamlessly and an updated Impulse client with a host of tweaks and changes.



Gas Powered Games' new real-time strategy game / RPG Demigod will showcase the new Impulse Reactor features on April 14th.



"By Impulse's first birthday, we expect Impulse to be the 2nd largest digital distributor of PC games and to have nearly all of the major PC game publishers on board," said Wardell.