Ok I reckon I have figured this out now. In the long term development thread Brad has revealed that the Fantasy Strategy game is scheduled for release in 2010. This is odd, as previously it was slated for release in 2009. Now instead we have a mysterious "Game X" scheduled for release in 2009, taking precendence over the Fantasy TBS that supposedly everyone is working on at the moment, now pushed back to 2010. Very interesting news as there has been no previous talk about this "Game X".

I can think of only one game that would cause the ancient Altarian game to be pushed back. I am predicting that today's announcement will be that Stardock, having entered re-negotiations with Atari, have secured the rights to develop the sequel to Master of Magic! As the majority of work on the Fantasy TBS game at this point seems to have been on the graphics engine, it would be easy to go ahead with making this game using that same engine, whilst the Altarian game is temporarily put on hold.

How would either of those things change the gaming industry?

I guess I'll find out when I get back from work. Exciting!

sorry, double post.

and yet here iam still waiting....its monday.

Sadly, it's still "Monday EST" for another ~looks at the clock~ 14.5hrs

I think all it will be is the official release of Impulse with at least one if not more major modern games available on it.

Its after 11 now come on spill the beans. Whats the news... I have to work soon so TELL ME!  

I'd say it's Impulse, but I guess we will find out soon.

http://tgnforums.stardock.com/174783/page/3


http://draginol.joeuser.com/article/305737/Try_the_Impulse_Preview

http://www.impulsedriven.com/

"FAQ:

1. What is Impulse? Impulse is Stardock's successor to Stardock Central. It is designed to merge all of Stardock's various digital networks into a single platform (TotalGaming.net, WinCustomize.com, and Object Desktop.net). With it, users can buy, download and update a wide variety of software.

2. Will Impulse replace Stardock Central? Eventually. But we expect to keep both going for a long time so that fans of Stardock Central don't feel pushed to get Impulse.

3. What will be on Impulse? Eventually, everything. Right now, it's mostly Stardock titles and a handful of indie games. With Impulse, we are opening it up to all publishers of all venues - games, utilities, applications. On the games side, we expect parity with Steam and Direct2Drive by the end of 2008. On the non-game side, we hope to have most major utilities and a number of major applications available on it.

4. Does Impulse have DRM? Impulse does not use DRM as it's traditionally thought of. It uses a technology called SSD (Secure Software Delivery) which ensures that the content is transferred to the user in secure form. Users are able to install their games onto multiple machines using their accounts within reason (the system does evaluate geographic locations of multiple installs and a number of other metrics to flag possible "warez" accounts). Stardock is also working on a new technology tentatively called Secure Virtual Machines (SVM). More information on SVMs will be released later. Overall, Impulse is largely invisible to users. They do not need an Internet connection to play games, they can re-download the full retail game from it even if they purchased it elsewhere, and there is no "phoning home" during the launch of games.
"

Sounds cool

Not sure about Stardock and Ironclad merging, as their relationship right now seems to work, but I woulnd't be shocked by it.

Brad already said on his GFW podcast that it will be a game published by them, but developed by some other house.

You can already download Impulse if you want to try it:

http://storage.stardock.com/files/Impulse_setup.exe

-HM

Well, it used to be a beta so far, Hollow, maybe it will be released with the marketplace being expanded. Let's wait for the official announcement, though, as I agree with Ceylin.

Ceylin already said what it is. Fits exactly what Brad said in the podcast: game from another developer.

And unlike him, I have no problem publishing the link.

-HM