Last I read, Atari had the rights to Total Annihilation (both Cavedog and GT Interactive no longer exist, after all). They don't seem to be actually doing anything with the rights though, from all I've heard.

You see, Stardock, Ironclad, and Gas Powered Games are doing something that, to my knowledge, has never been done before. We three are combining our experiences and talents to build a unified multiplayer architecture.I understand that its three separate companies doing this, but please, battle.net did this a long time ago. They may not have had clan support but how useful will that be when a simple clan tag in your name will suffice already?Not to say this partnership doesn't excite the hell out of me, Supreme Commander and Sins are both high on my list of respected game titles.So how does this affect the updates for sins?Heh, I was thinking precisely that when I saw the 'big announcement' on the front page.

{Demigod having only an SP experience that's intended to train for MP} was prior to our involvement. We're discussing a lot of things.

This troubles my little heart.I used to be a big fan of Gas Powered Games and had a prolonged love affair with Supreme Commander last year (which was released at about the same time as Sins of a Solar Empire, but a year earlier). But GPG's support really disappointed me, within 6 months of the game's release they were pointing towards Forged Alliance when asked if they were to fix the game's economy system or if there would be improvements and patches basically ground to a halt. It was just so sad that they were willing to abandon the game and the people who supported them so quickly. I understand developer's need for more revenue, and expansions do that, and I actually support them (and even, to some extent, booster packs and the like, whatever keeps the company going). But I think first thing is first, get all of the things that need fixing with the product currently on the market, keep it up to speed, and leave extra content for expansions.Forged Alliance is good from all I've heard, and improves much that just didn't work in the original, but I couldn't bring myself to purchase from them again. I don't trust them to stand behind the products long.I hope Ironclad doesn't take this route and keeps supporting both Sins of a Solar Empire and any future expansions they have in the works for at least a reasonable period of time before moving on. So long as they do, I think they deserve everyone's support.

I wish Stardock would keep news items not related to Sins of a Solar Empire off sinsofasolarempire.com - when I first read that "epic" announcement it was a serious anticlimax. Won't even say about that Political Machine item from earlier. At least this time it has something that does affects this particular game so it's not all bad.

It's like going to TheAllAboutFordCarsWebsite.com and they have news articles about bananas mixed in with their articles about Ford cars... well, it is Stardock's perogative, just an unusual one