GameStop Acquires Impulse Digital Distribution Service

Specialist video game retailer GameStop has announced that it is buying up the Impulse digital distribution service that was created by Stardock and that it is also aiming to purchase Spawn Labs, a company that specializes in the development of streaming technology.

The acquisition includes the Impulse Reactor suite and the Publisher middleware software elements, which allow publishers to tailor their product for the platform.

The deal will apparently be completed in May of this year and the value of the transaction has not been revealed by either of the two involved parties.

The Impulse acquisition is a sign that GameStop is very serious about establishing a presence in the digital distributional market, where it will have to compete directly with Steam, which dominates the PC space, Direct 2 Drive, the service that has the backing of IGN, and GamersGate.

J. Paul Rainer, who is the chief executive officer of GameStop, has stated, “With these important acquisitions, we will continue to make appropriate investments related to our multichannel strategy. GameStop is uniquely positioned to be the leader in both the physical and digital gaming space.”

In 2009, Brad Wardell, who is the CEO of Stardock, estimated that his company had about 10 percent of the digital distribution market, with Steam coming in at around 70%.

Spawn Labs aims to create a video games streaming service that can go toe-to-toe with similar initiatives OnLive and Gaikai, although it’s not clear when its product could be launched.

Stardock says that all the people currently working on Impulse will move over to GameStop and that the fundamentals of the service and the accounts of registered users will not be affected in any way in the coming future.

The acquisition of Impulse opens up the possibility that GameStop could also introduce second-hand sales to the digital space.