An Interesting Read from StarDock
StarDock is a software company which I would be willing to bet just about all of you have heard of or personally use some of their products.
I haven’t actually purchased any of their product although I have tried the free version of ObjectDock and played Sins of a Solar Empire. Why I found this I have no idea, but just a few weeks ago the annual StarDock customer report came out and for some reason I decided to read it, you can download it here.
The report is short and concise and written by StarDock CEO Brad Wardell, normally this is the last kind of document I would waste my time reading, but If you do take a look I think you’ll see why. Brad Wardell provides an overview of everything StarDock had achieved over the past year and provides a frank and honest assessment of their strengths, weaknesses and future plans.
Even though I don’t have an interest as such in StarDock myself it was great to see a company so open and honest with their customers and without any feeling of PR bulldust.
The other thing which interested me is StarDock’s new Impulse software distribution system which I think it brilliant, although it does need a lot of work done such as considerably more content and some stability improvements.
If you take a look at Impulse you’ll see the kind of modern, internet focused software distribution application that Microsoft should be providing with their Windows Marketplace and Digital locker. I won’t go into any detail but I recommend you checking it out just for interest sake, their really isn’t much content at this point but the Customer report outlines plans to really improve on that over the next year.
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I love StarDock, and while I don’t have the time to play video games, I am a huge fan of how they do business. I believe the CEO of the company also impressed me with his honesty in the forums.
I recently wrote up a lengthy article about the company as well:
http://onlyjames.com/2008/07/stardock-business-expansion-done-right/
I hope they are able to make it. We need more companies like this in the world.
Valve’s Steam is way ahead of the game with five years to evolve its platform to its current form. But its good to see competition from another indie developer. Impulse however looks like a rough copy of Steam.