Stardock addresses Demigod online issues, GameStop

Publisher of real-time strategy game irked at retailer for breaking street date, apologizes for bumpy launch and announces patch for later this week.

In theory, creating an online game that works on day one shouldn't be that hard. In practice, it's a task that has stymied countless developers and contributed to the failure of many a promising game. The latest release to run into online issues at launch is the Stardock-published, Gas Powered Games-developed PC real-time strategy title Demigod.

Is someone really shooting arrows at this thing?

While reviewers may be taking exception to those online problems, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell is assuring customers that the publisher is well aware of the issues and taking steps to address them. In an open letter posted on Stardock's online storefront, Wardell apologized to gamers for the problems, which range from overloaded servers and mismatched matchmaking to connectivity bugs.

"While I can say that there are, even as I type, many hundreds of people playing online together, mostly in Skirmish and Pantheon games, there are many hundreds of others having trouble connecting to people in custom games or having skirmish or pantheon doing something odd due to the server overload," Wardell wrote. "We are working to address it and what I mean by that is that we intend to release another update this week to deal with as much of what we've found as possible."

As one part of an effort to make it up to frustrated fans, Wardell said a number of Stardock developers will be busy playing Demigod multiplayer matches online later this week, offering tips and tutorials for those trying to wrap their heads around the game's finer points.

The online issues weren't the only headache associated with Demigod's launch. As Wardell (aka Frogboy) posted on the game's official forums, specialty retailer GameStop broke Demigod's official street date by a number of days. Wardell said that forced developers to come in on scheduled days off to set up and configure multiplayer servers for the early adopters. Stardock also released the digitally distributed edition of the game early for preorders and beta testers.

49 Comments

  • HitmanDante

    Posted Apr 27, 2009 8:18 pm PT

    Pirated games typically aren't played online, unless they use Hamachi. Which means they'd only be playing on a VPN, not actual game servers.

  • tsunami2311

    Posted Apr 19, 2009 10:45 am PT

    lets not forget the fact Online got screw over by the fact 14000 people online bought the game and like 100000 people online pirated the game there the ones that kills the server by overloading it on day one with more connections then there should been.

    And it surprising Gamespot didn't report this or or take that into account when they reviewed online portion

    On Day 0 there were around 140,000 concurrent users, with 18,000 validated users. The pirates couldn't update their game or play online, but they could still "touch the servers."

  • yonderTheGreat

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 4:38 pm PT

    "The early release from Gamestop was unexpected, sure, but it only revealed how woefully unprepared Demigod was for release. I mean, Stardock didn't have any servers up even a few days prior to launch!"
    Sorry, DontEatCream, this just shows how little you understand about the specifics of online gaming and whatnot. I'll let the others here explain...

    How can Gamespot expect *ANYONE* to take them seriously when their biggest complaint is the connectivity of a game that has legitimate, third-party reasons for having connectivity issues?

    Sure... there are reasons to knock the game... quite a few of the ones in the review are legit. But GS obviously just doesn't "get it" (or are they altering their scores to appease their advertisers again???). This will more than likely stand out like sites who review "Space Giraffe" with 90%...

    Completely clueless... you guys *knew* there were legitimate reasons for the problems... either ignore them... or grow up and wait a few days.

  • sataricon

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 7:29 am PT

    @ lukemularczyk
    Will in regards to marking the game down..you have to understand that HL2 has a very long and good single player while demigod has no single player option that the player can play for more than 2 hours...i got board of it after 2 hours because of connection problems.

    Also you know that demigod has no story what so ever and this is a weak point.
    but i gotta say that GS gave it too little score because the game is fun.

  • imprezawrx500

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 4:47 pm PT

    It will be really funny when gs tried releasing a game early when it requires steam only to find that the game can't be played. steam activation retail games could real hurt gs. people were mad when the last remnant couldn't be played because it had not been unlocked on steam. just think what would happen if gs tries to beat steam by releasing it 4 days early only to get lots of mad customers not being able to play it for 4 days.

  • raahsnavj

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 2:30 pm PT

    Regardless, it plays great over LAN...

  • TheAustrian

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 1:21 pm PT

    For all those Gamestop haters: "Rumors" about Gamestop being pissed at Steam and other online retailers for stealing their money are just that: rumors. Even if there is truth to them, neither side can prove their story; it's all pure speculation. Besides, believing that the Gamestop's board of directors were thinking "Man, digital distributors piss us off! I know! Let's sell a game 3 days before the street date - that'll show em!" is just plain stupid.

    Either way it turns out, I hope that neither distributor gets jacked for this. I buy from Gamestop and digital distributors equally, so the best case scenario for me (and gamers in general) is that both continue to do well. If anything, maybe this will give a little more attention to the fledgling digital market.

  • Jedi_Dad

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 12:52 pm PT

    @ mastaobiwan

    GS as well as other reviewers are often given advanced copies to review so that their reviews appear in print (online) shortly after a game is released. These advanced builds do sometimes have issues, but if the primary selling point of a game is non-functional even at that late a date, what is a reviewer supposed to do? GS did not goto Gamestop to get their copy, they had their own advanced copy and should not have had a lot of issues of server load during their testing. If there were still issues, that's Stardocks problem. The truth as to who is to blame here will likely never see the light of day.

  • DubYew

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 10:29 am PT

    I wouldn't be surprised if Gamestop released the game early intentionally to damage Stardocks reputation as an online retailer...

  • FortisEM

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 10:23 am PT

    I wonder how KvO would have rated this game if it had the correct online support. It looks really good. Better than a 6.5.

    -Evan

  • makemeweak

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 10:03 am PT

    Why bother getting the servers online early just because a retailer broke the street date? Just let them wait until everyone else gets it.

  • armyofrobots

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 9:29 am PT

    Gamestop "broke" street date by 3 days. 3 DAYS.

  • TehEliteElite

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 9:18 am PT

    With digital distribution on the rise, here's to hoping that Gamestop is one parasitic middle-man who gets cut out of the game selling process!

  • Vasot

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 9:11 am PT

    Even with a buggy multiplayer i just do not like this game

    The gameplay is stale and feels unpolished.
    I will not even mention the Single player since it is complete worthless in this game...

    I will wait for Starcraft 2 i guess

  • lukemularczyk

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 5:34 am PT

    this wasn't really GPG's fault, Gamestop released the game early, meaning that any predicted ammount of servers won't be there in time, i kinda expected that this would happen when i found out that gamestop screwed the pooch.

    "On top of all that shouldnt they have the online infrastructure for game set up for longer than a couple days before release."

    There was infrastructure before game release, this sort of infrastrucuture is normally scaled up , then down again to meet demand, when you have demand when you shouldn't have demand (i.e. before a game is launched ) it causes issues with that.

    Not read the gamespot review but if they marked it down due to the multi servers being under load then they need to get bais out of there system, did they mark HL2 down because people couldn't play the game on release day and a few days after, did they mark tf2 down for the servers having issues on release day and a few days after. No. Shame gamespot are heading towards eurogamers level of "reviewing" (its in inverted commas because its so bad its not really a review)

    Edit - to fix a couple of punctuation errors.

  • Dante2710 posted Apr 16, 2009 5:08 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Dante2710

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 5:08 am PT (hide)

    developers need to get their act together and stop releasing games that clearly have issues

  • NeilCardiff

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 4:14 am PT

    I have been a playing stardock games for many years and you can all be assured that if they say they will do everything they can to fix this asap thats exactly what will happen, their commitment to the players is second to none and they constantly listen to gamers for information about not just bugs but improvements to ballance and even gameplay aspects. in my experience these requests/complaints are never ignored.

    So whoever is to blame I am confident that it will be fixed and fixed properly.

  • mastaobiwan

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 11:16 pm PT

    i have never typed a comment against a review in my life on gamespot and ive been on it for over half a decade ... but i absolutely HAVE to say this - DO NOT allow this review to impare your judgement or feelings on Demigod ... i think GS was very unfair to review the game in its current state when since MONDAY Brad Wardell himself has been talkin with the community OPENLY AND HONESTLY with regard to issues and letting us know what is being done, in a few days these issues should be gone but this biassed and unfair review will remain and im takin time out to write this in the hope that it will be ignored and Demigod be sampled regardless because i can tell you now it is absolutely superb and as a Dota player of many years, connectivity issues aside, they have done enough to RIVAL Dota let alone mimmick it!!!

  • Arcadius

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 10:45 pm PT

    So it's not just about the profits, someone still cares for the little guy?

  • Froggz656 posted Apr 15, 2009 10:21 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Froggz656

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 10:21 pm PT (hide)

    First and foremost no one is hiding behind any excuses. If Gamestop is at fault then why doesn't Stardock seek restitution for the cost of "forcing developers to come in on scheduled days off to set up" we all know that them money is there if they wanted to. It just came out yesterday. On top of all that shouldnt they have the online infrastructure for game set up for longer than a couple days before release. I think this is just stardock not owning up to there own mistake, and knowing how gamestop operates, if they continue to make these claims and they are not true then gamestop will just cross them off the list of vendors that we buy from. They shipped a broken game and are seeking excuses. Some people need to just look at the big picture rather than just believe everything that is read in the media.

  • Bucketoffish

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 9:33 pm PT

    Breaking street date is something the company has always been tough on. I'm sure there will be some sort of compensatory reaction from GS. We all know how detrimental it can be to a company that is not ready for a game to be released (See Hellgate London's first day of server subscription errors). PC games are still good revenue for any company, albeit a very small portion. That doesn't mean PC games are neglected. But let's be honest, look at sales in Console games versus the number of titles offered through PC titles. Nearly every major title PC/Console will often have a street date issue, and unfortunately many are not reported. Fines are heavy for violations and can cost any store breaching those rules quite a bit. I wonder where it went wrong, I'm sure there will be something disclosed via press release about the matter.

  • nurse_tsunami

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 9:17 pm PT

    I am glad that Stardock's CEO is not shying away from the problems and is coming out and talking about them with the public in an effort to get them fixed. I have always enjoyed Stardock's games and their support. That said, I think I am going to give this one a "pass". Between the mediocre score it got here on GS and the numerous problems it seems to be having to get a game going, it doesn't seem worthwhile. It's a shame, I was looking forward to this game, I really enjoy the RTS genre, but this one doesn't seem compelling to me.

  • Arcadius

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 9:11 pm PT

    Would you imagine another company doing this?

  • Jedi_Dad

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 8:28 pm PT

    @broncosfan

    I doubt that Gamestop cares a lot about Steam or Impulse. PC games are a small percentage of Gamestop's overall sales. In my store, there is one tiny little shelf of PC games and Walls of console titles and hardware.

  • Jedi_Dad

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 8:22 pm PT

    "creating an online game that works on day one shouldn't be that hard. In practice, it's a task that has stymied countless developers and contributed to the failure of many a promising game."


    There are two reasons for this:
    1) All their QA people (if they have any) are playing LAN games, not internet connect games. As such, the developers don't get a real feel for lag and server loads.


    2) TOO much time is spend trying to make the game look good instead of making it play good.

  • Franko_3

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 8:19 pm PT

    thanks for the quote GGCrew_basic. Atleast, this show that they care.

  • Giga1

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 7:45 pm PT

    Froggz, just cause the box does not say "Street Date" etc it is still the responsibility of the retail outlet to enforce street dates and the such. Hiding behind a the excuse of "not in the computer or on the box" does not mean Gamestop didn't do anything wrong.

    The game was sold before release date, plain and simple. Personally, I hate when retailers do this to try and gain an advantage over others. Gamestop has stopped caring about the gamer and about the bottom line. /shrug

  • Froggz656 posted Apr 15, 2009 7:06 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Froggz656

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 7:06 pm PT (hide)

    I work for Gamestop and this information is completely false. We recieve games instore a day after we recieve them in the warehouse, unless a game is noted to be street dated. in that case we recieved the game instore about a week before release. Anytime a game is street dated store level employees are notified in multiple ways to ensure that the game is not sold early. Demigod was not noted as a street dated title in the store computers and was never mentioned to be street dated in any of the daily in store email. I think stardock might have dropped the ball and wanted ot point the finger at the biggest target they have.

  • Flat_Line_____

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 7:01 pm PT

    I dunno... Shouldn't the servers have already been ready a few days before 'Official' launch anways? They didn't really have to let anyone on those servers before it was time either right? If they had been finished to begin with.....

  • Hazzerz

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 6:19 pm PT

    "Screw that. If I was them, I'd have made the players wait until the official launch date to get that stuff, and have directed any complaints back to GameStop for releasing the game early."

    Agreed. The fact that Stardock is even working on these problems now shows a lot of commitment on their part. Gamestop is the one that !@#ked up, not Stardock.

  • broncosfan

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 6:18 pm PT

    Actually Gamestop is usually very strict about street dates. More than likely because this was a smaller PC game, and the company didn't give it much fan fare, some stores just sold it early without checking.
    ---
    The only problem with this theory is that there are rumors that the date was broken on purpose due to GameStop's disdain for Steam and Impulse. Both cut into their profits and pretty much anything that does so for GameStop sends them into a tizzy (such as when publishers tried to block GS from selling preowned games, which threatened this fine pawn shop...um, I mean game store, from making tons of money).

  • broncosfan

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 6:16 pm PT

    Screw that. If I was them, I'd have made the players wait until the official launch date to get that stuff, and have directed any complaints back to GameStop for releasing the game early.
    ---
    The only problem with this would be public perception of Stardock. While I agree with everything that you said about Gamestop, Stardock is the sort of developer/publisher that cares about the customer enough that they generally bend over backwards to make their customers happy. So it's not surprising that they went ahead and got the servers good to go rather than just say "Too bad, wait until launch." Also, there were already people playing that got to play early due to being beta testers and preorders, so it probably wasn't that much of a challenge to get them up and running.

    Either way, Stardock continues to be my favorite game publisher due to their focus on the user, especially when it comes to the lack of DRM.

  • bleigh316

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 6:08 pm PT

    Can't help but also add that you don't need the serial number to actually install the game, only to register for an account to play online and get the updates.

  • mjc0961

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 5:58 pm PT

    "As Wardell (aka Frogboy) posted on the game's official forums, specialty retailer GameStop broke Demigod's official street date by a number of days. Wardell said that forced developers to come in on scheduled days off to set up and configure multiplayer servers for the early adopters."

    Screw that. If I was them, I'd have made the players wait until the official launch date to get that stuff, and have directed any complaints back to GameStop for releasing the game early.

    But hey, just another incident in a long line of incidents that shows that GameStop doesn't actually give a **** about anyone but themselves.

  • GGCrew_basic

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 5:53 pm PT

    Wardell (as online alias Frogboy) fromStardock's official Demigod forum re: multiplayer/networking issues:

    Frogboy wrote:
    We are working on it. However, we also do provide refunds regardless of where you purchased it (even retail in North America) so if we don't fix it, we'll refund you.

    That level of service + respecting the gamer via no DRM = MUST BUY tonight after work!
    .
    .

  • TheAustrian

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 5:34 pm PT

    @Foleman

    I agree with both parts of your comment. I work at Gamestop as well. A lot of the stores don't even sell PC games either, so a small little release like this just kind of slips through the cracks. Besides, how many national release date slips have we had compared to Target, Walmart, and other game chains?

  • Calmed_Fury

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 5:04 pm PT

    im suprised gamestop broke it. usually its target, kmart, meijer, or walmart...

  • Foleman

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 4:59 pm PT

    Actually Gamestop is usually very strict about street dates. More than likely because this was a smaller PC game, and the company didn't give it much fan fare, some stores just sold it early without checking.

    Trust me, I work at Gamestop and even I have to wait for a game to be out for general purchase before I can buy and play mine. And if you want to talk about breaking street date, you may want to talk to Target first, they are notorious for it.

  • endocrine

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 4:47 pm PT

    It seems like multiplayer games all have problems. Take Company of Heroes ToV. Their ranked mp content crashed so much they took it off until they could fix it. If it wasn't for the fact that I have been playing video games for a long time now, I would be shocked, but alasa I am not.

    The key to most mp games is wait a couple weeks and things will work well enough. Wait a few months and theyll be as good as they are gonna get. If you buy on day one (does not matter if it is an MMO or RTS), expect problems.

  • phase4illini

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 4:46 pm PT

    I'm not a fan of the fact that because they are the top game retailer that they just do whatever they please. There is already a decent industry, gamer, and authority backlash gaining momentum over their resale practices (inflated used games costs) and their illegal practices of selling "gently" used games as new.

    They aren't helping themselves here by breaking street dates. If they don't play buy the rules, I think we're going to see a massive number of publishers push towards digital sales and ditch retail efforts far more often.

  • Arctic_Grillz

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 4:43 pm PT

    Ofcourse gamestop is breaking the release date on purpose for more profit, they've got competition now which is digital download.

  • lolPawnt

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 4:22 pm PT

    At least they will fix it, and that's all that really matters.

  • dareough

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 4:10 pm PT

    how well does this run on normal pc's not gaming quality pc's

  • DontEatCream

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 4:01 pm PT

    "In theory, creating an online game that works on day one shouldn't be that hard."

    God, Gamespot hit it right on the nail for this one. This game was built from the ground up to be a multiplayer experience. Thus, getting online to work should have been a top priority. Yet, it seems during these last few months of beta-time, no one noticed how bugged up the online system was. The early release from Gamestop was unexpected, sure, but it only revealed how woefully unprepared Demigod was for release. I mean, Stardock didn't have any servers up even a few days prior to launch! What, were you gonna do it the morning of? This ain't high school; last minute efforts ain't gonna get you ****.

    I love and admire Stardock for their loyalty to the PC community, but they definitely screwed up here.

  • xgamer40

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 3:54 pm PT

    I had problems as well when I bought the game, but Stardock was very speedy and helpful in responding to my problems. The game may have problems, but I give large thanks and kudos to them for being so devoted to their fans and hearing their problems out.

  • SamiRDuran

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 3:46 pm PT

    if only every publisher was like stardock... The CEO hosting games and helping people at the forum? they deserve my money 100%

  • X3Warrior

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 3:44 pm PT

    Man Gamestop is stupid for releasing this early and giving Stardock such a headache.

  • TomBurnsRed

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 3:42 pm PT

    It is good that they are working on fixing these issues but I would have thought beta testing and pilots would have exposed these issues to them sooner.

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