Stardock Signs Nival Interactive For TotalGaming.net

Officials from PC publisher/developer Stardock Entertainment have announced a new deal with Russian-founded developer Nival Interactive to bring the PC titles Etherlords, Etherlords II and Evil Islands: Curse of the Lost Soul to the TotalGaming.net digital distribution service. Each title will be available at $10 (or 1 token for members). TotalGaming.net is a division of Galactic Civilizations creator Stardock Entertainment, which has recently established a new worldwide publishing arm, which will "focus on supporting and assisting the growth of independently developed software titles." Digital distribution services for full-sized PC games continue to grow, with Paradox's Gamers Gate portal also recently adding a number of titles. The TotalGaming.net business model does not rely on Digital Rights Management (DRM) but is closer to that used by Apple’s iTunes. The technology, called Secure Software Delivery (SSD), was developed and used for Stardock's corporate software products for several years. Once the game is downloaded, gamers can burn their titles to CD, allowing customers to keep the games indefinitely. "We're excited to work with Nival Interactive to bring their excellent back catalog of titles to TotalGaming.net," said Brian Clair, director of TotalGaming.net. "Our new partnership helps to solidify the trend of independent developers working together to bring value to consumers through digital distribution."