Stardock.  I'm not a heavy hater of Gamestop, but if I had to choose, I would pick Stardock. 

No, I already did the Stardock's own DD thing. They then morphed it into Impulse, then sold that off.  Not particularly interested in having yet another DD service at this point, particularly a company specific one (and a small company at that).

IMO it'd make a lot more sense if they used what's already out there and focused on making games, instead of apparently going back into something they  just got out of.

At this point, GOOD OLD GAMES @ gog.com is the *only* service I will purchase an online game from. Stardock could (but probably won't) pursue gog as a distribution channel unless they retain a financial, legal, or "spiritual" interest in impulse. 

However, since I still buy games as a physical product, Stardock has nothing to worry about in terms of losing my business.

PS: Sorry, digital distribution heralds: been burned too much by "digital distribution" to go down that road again without complete confidence in the provider's product.

As much as I would love to have a downlaoder directly with SD, as a way to cut down (hopefully) the survailence built into gamestops's Impulse (ads, and interruptions from other sites has increased significantly since Impulse went from SD to gamestop), I would wonder two things  1) as above, concern about SD eneregies going into another distribtution platform being shyponed from resources currently directed to game development, and 2) would this new platform just become another  'product' for SD to 'sell' out from under us?   I am a bit cynical... but, perhaps SD does not deserve that cynicism at this pont....

To me, it doesn't really matter all that much.  Either place works. 

I don't much care either, as long as I am not denied the games and apps I purchased in the past via Impulse and Stardock (which I think should not happen in any case).

As for spyware elements built into such clients - be my guest. I use Windows only for gaming and casual browsing, so spy away. All important and serious stuff is on my encrypted Linux partition.

Yeah - I guess in a perfect world concept, I'd prefer to have all of my digital items at one location.  I'd prefer to just have 1 client installed.  But perfect world aside, its all the same to me. 

What ads/interruptions are you talking about?  I've noticed a few more ads on the store page, but that's what a store page is for.  Then again, I tend to check Impulse daily, then quit, I don't leave Impulse on unless I need to have it on.

As for Stardock, the next SDC would be (As Brad said) only Stardock stuff, no 3rd-party stuff (I'm unsure if games like Sins/Demigod would be on there), for the main purpose of their application side of things.  I'm operating under that assumption.  There would be no reason period for Stardock to sell that off.

Don't know. I'll see what happens.

Given the choice, I'd rather support Stardock.

For a good while, Steam was the ONLY digital distribution service I would use.  But then I started reading these forums and learning more about the little Michigan company.  It became obvious that Stardock treated its customers as people, not ATM's.  (I don't know of any other software company that stands behind its product so much that they are willing to offer a money-back guarantee!)

On the retail side of the world, I watched as GameStop purchased other software retailers and could almost see my local stores change overnight - the primary change being a significant drop in the amount of stocked PC software.  And as their shelves became cluttered with the dinged/scratched/generic boxes that are endemic to used-game sales, the PC section collapsed into a small shelf in the back of the store.  I can now purchase Barbie's Horse Adventures, World of Warcraft, and a handful of games in between.  And their inventory doesn't seem to make any sense: multiple copies of Taito Legends, a collector's edition of Guild Wars, a $45 Viva Pinata, and NHL 09.

My conclusion: Stardock cares about PC gamers, and GameStop doesn't.

But looking at the recent growth of the PC independent gaming scene (which thrives because of digital distribution) and the success of Valve Software's Steam digital distribution platform, GameStop is suddenly after a piece of the PC gaming pie.  Specifically, our wallets.

I'll use whatever makes sure the developer gets most of the cash. If they want to build their own platform, MORE POWER TO THEM. There's NO reason to request that the developers part with +-30% of the revenue just because I want their product from this store or that.

That said, I'm getting it for free. So I really don't care.

I sympathize with Tridus' take, but I'd prefer Stardock Central Redux for both the reasons Alstein lists and because I never wanted the 'store' version in the first place. A direct customer-producer connection just seems superior, even if it might not always be the most efficient way of doing business.

I won't buy games that I can't buy through impulse or steam.  No more clients.  I don't even use amazon's feature even though they have smokin prices unless it's a steam activatable game.

Moot question for me seeing as if FE sucks after our EWOM experience, I'll not buy anything from them again...

...unless I come to the forums to find that The Next Big Thing really is good.

In the end, I could care less as long as what I buy is a good product at a reasonable price.

After thinking about it a bit more, I want something that integrates with Steam (hours spent on it and as much other things as possible).