Analyze That: How Impulse Could Out-Steam Valve

PCs are dying. You'll hear this mantra many times and you might read it even more often on various gaming sites. There are those that love PC gaming and upon hearing such news, try to move their player base away from personal computers and towards consoles. Epic has recently done it and Crytek is also announcing that it plans to abandon PC exclusive developments. But there are other companies which are trying to make PCs more attractive for gaming and offer the services and initiatives to back up their personal computer love.

One of them is, of course, Valve, the people that created Steam, then Steaworks and Steamcloud. And now, Stardock is trying to build something similar by launching Impulse, a digital distribution platform which has evolved out of its TotalGaming.net initiative.

Brad Wardell, the Chief Executive Officer of Stardock, sees similarities between how Steam Impulse began. He says, "The real innovation of Steam was to go out and get third parties onto their system. Originally, Steam started out very much like Stardock Central - a download manager for their own games. But then they expanded out into third party games which seems obvious in hindsight but was very innovative on their part at the time".

The similar origins point to the same destiny - that of bringing third party titles to PC gamers. Videogaming companies like Epic, THQ, Gas Powered Games and AVG have already announced having games which would be distributed and supported through Impulse. Titles that are expected to be launched by using the platform in the near future are Demigod and Star Siege from Gas Powered Games and the upcoming expansion for Sins of a Solar Empire.

The future of Impulse seems bright for Wardell. He says that "In the long run, I want to be able to get a new computer, install Impulse, log on, and press a button to get all my stuff installed while I go out for a run. And by 'my stuff,' I don't mean just things I've purchased but rather all my software, whether it be Firefox 5, Office 2010, Corel X5, Supreme Commander 2, Civilization 5, Unreal Tournament 4 and so on. And it shouldn't care where I bought these programs or got them originally".

That's a seriously impressive program and in the coming months, we will see if Impulse can deliver it.