Breaking: GameStop to buy Stardock's Impulse, Spawn Labs' streaming
Game retailer GameStop has apparently decided to buy its way into two PC game-selling technologies at once. In a single press release , the retail giant announced that it will acquire both Stardock's Impulse download service (a competitor to Steam) and Spawn Labs ' streaming service (a competitor to OnLive). The release indicates that Impulse will continue to function as normal, but will be fully integrated with GameStop.com within the next few months.
With GameStop's backing, Impulse could suddenly become a real threat to Steam, which currently dominates digital PC gaming sales. Founded in 2008 by Stardock, it's currently a respectable but distant competitor that's gotten some attention through Stardock's own games like Sins of a Solar Empire, Demigod, and Elemental.
(Note that GameStop isn't buying all of game publisher/developer Stardock, only the Impulse, Inc. subsidiary.)
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Lords of the Fallen studio embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include 'any social or political agendas' in its games
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are 'pretending to be Republicans' to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately 'rip off consumers and crush competitors'