Stardock Debuts Publishing Division, Gal Civ II Expansion

Independent game developer Stardock Entertainment announced its new worldwide publishing division, which will focus on marketing and distribution of independently developed games. In addition, the company also announced an upcoming expansion for Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, which will be released digitally this fall. With a revenue-sharing model and dedicated advertising, marketing and public relations services, as well as worldwide online and retail distribution, Stardock Entertainment aims to be a reliable partner for game developers, according to the company. The company, which also created Windows applications such as WindowBlinds and Object Desktop, has seen notable indie success with Galactic Civilizations II, which was given a postmortem by Stardock CEO Brad Wardell as an exclusive recent Gamasutra feature. “With Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, we proved that we could leverage our internal resources — such as TotalGaming.net — and our external partnerships to create a successful product launch online and at retail,” said Brian Clair, director of Stardock Entertainment. “We now want to help other leading independent developers, providing marketing and distribution services to get their games to market and ensure widespread awareness and sales.” In addition, the company also announced the first expansion to Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar. The new expansion will add several new features, as well as a new single-player campaign that will see the elimination of two of the game’s alien races and the introduction of several others. Dark Avatar will also allow players to create their own custom opponents, tweaking their behavior, what they look like, what their ships look like and play style to develop truly unique enemies.