Quoting Peace Phoenix, reply 9
I don't think that Gamestop and Stardock are partners. As they are both selling Demigod, they are competitors.
lol are you kiding me with this?
Stardock affiliates with resellers to do same what stardock does, sell the game. Gamestop gets their share of money for every piece sold(much much less then stardock). Gosh i cant believe i am talking about the most basic things of selling of almost any product in the world here.
While Stardock or any publisher needs to rely on retail stores to get there product out, I would not assume it is a super friendly relationship. It's more like an alliance of convenience as not everyone is okay with digial downloads yet and a great number of people still like physical copies (manual, box, etc). There is also the people who don't know about the game and having a spot on a store shelf can sometimes bring in a new sale.
Did you know that publishers have to pay for shelf space? Eye level shelf space is the prime realestate and it costs money if you want your game displayed at that location.
As digital distrubition becomes more popular, power and money is being stripped away from retailers and I'm sure that does not make them happy.
When a publisher or developer sells the game directly they keep a great deal more of the profit. If it's sold at a retail store, it is much much less.
Seeing as Stardock has a digital distrubtion channel it makes them closer to a Publisher and a retail outlet all in one, which is very much in the realm of a competitor.
