Anytime you see a game released early, it's probably safe to say it's due to people pirating and playing it already. 

i read the interview on Firingsquad and it sounds cool to bad for all the problems

Mmm, janky.

" I think market-wise, it would have been better for SD to release Elemental next year since Civ5 is coming out in a few weeks :| "

" Yeah, the game has issues, but goddamn if it doesn't have a shit-ton of ambition and a wealth of great ideas at work. It sucks that it shipped with so much baggage, though, but I kinda get a Troika vibe here. Yeah, it's bugged to shit, but once it gets a little stable and everyone calms down, there's still a pretty interesting game there. "

For as much as I like GalCiv 2, I have the feeling that Stardock isn't a very competent developer in terms of initial build stability. Not just this, mind you, as the first version of the second GC2 expansion had a bug where tech costs would occasionally increase exponentially, making it borderline impossible to research anything. However, they are good at patching the hell out of things, so in 6 months I will pick this game up during the inevitable sale on Impulse (which, by the way is also kind of janky)

This is the first I hear of this game. What a sad way to get aquainted with it. I feel bad for Stardock.

wow ... as a PC gamer I consider myself rather informed on new releases, but this is actually the first time I heard about this game. It looks cool and there are not many turn based games out there which makes it, in theory, even more interesting.
 
But it sounds like they would have needed a couple of weeks to polish the game which would set the release date right next to Civ5. Maybe they didn't want that and released the game early.

Well, the game certainly has promise. I'll give this one a month before I consider playing it. 
 
And I'll agree with a few other users and say that this article is quite good.

" I realize this is a news article, but I do not have any faith what so ever in PC gamers reviews and will withhold judgment until I either try the game for myself, or I see a giantbomb QL or review of it. And to be honest I think Matt should have tried the game out for himself before posting this to confirm if he had the same problems himself. "

Agreed. I have to add that usually when news sites blast a game about its bugs, I don't even notice them ingame. For example the original stalker, didn't crash once, for me.

On the other hand I can't believe Empire. Total War got such high review scores when the campaing AI was TOTALLY busted.

Good to have a heads up, i guess i'll pick this up in a month or two.. It's always sad to see a game released like this when it has great potential (which i'm kind of assuming it does), because many wont give it a second chance. But after its patched i have confidence in stardock to deliver a quality experience.

Elemental was released early as retailers broke the street date, and we wanted to offer the game to digital customers early since people were picking them up in stores. The pre-0day version did have issues, but were quickly discovered and subsequently fixed within a day. Right now, version 1.05 fixes a great majority of issues some users were experiencing, and any other reports of bugs are being addressed as they come in. Elemental is a game we plan to support for years to come, including feedback from players. -Spencer Stardock

Well I got the game last night. Had been wanting to get it at launch but didnt have the money yet (waiting to get paid by late paying clients is always fun). Anyway...I downloaded i last night as I said and fired it up expecting a bunch of problems....it ran perfect. 
 
I played for about 2 hours without one issue. Im playing on a pretty new system.... one of hte ASUS G73 gaming laptops. (i7 quad, 6gb ram, 5870 ATI, Win7 64bit) Game seems very promising. I of course had some issues with a few interface items not being very intuitive etc. But the game itself seemed to run just fine. 
 
Looking forward to playing some more. Stardock has a good track record for supporting a game over the long term. Unlike practically every other company....for instance EA who supports a game about 2-3 months then moves on.

*sarcastic slow-clap*

Thanks for this insightful article about what PC Gamer thinks of Elemental.

I've bought every Stardock game since Galactic Civilization for the OS/2 operating system and this is easily the worst game Stardock has ever put out. I have high hopes Stardock will be able to patch Elemental into a decent game but as it stands now, its a terrible game that is very broken.

I did not know about this game and I will surely keep an eye on its patching progress. 

Maybe they should adjust their release dates so that their team can be fully rested and the game fully confirmed to be working by people who are not exhausted before putting it up for sale. Just sayin'...

" As a die hard Sins of a Solar Empire guy it broke my heart to read that article. I had been following this game for some time now and couldn't wait to play it as everything they said about it sounded god dam amazing. I hope these fixes get ironed out asap. "

I got the game on release, and was really looking forward to it (Master of Magic is one of my all-time favorite games).  But I've been really disappointed so far.  I haven't encountered any game-killing bugs (and it has only crashed on me once), which I guess makes me pretty lucky, but the game itself just feels very unpolished.  For instance, I tried initially playing on the easiest setting, and consistently get smashed.  Diplomacy is pretty uneven; interactions with other sovereigns feel very stilted, and most of them are incredibly aggressive.  Combat seems to have made no major improvements since Master of Magic.  Etc.

Sounds like they got desperate or greedy and wanted to release the game asap.

I just don't understand - how you release the game, that is actually, as you say, not ready to be released.... WTF?

 Game looks nice, i will wait to buy it till its patched more but i will totally buy it! 
i was surprised by Brad Wardell's comments and am glad he has apologized because as the article points out the customers are all these companies have and Stardock always seemed to be on the customers side, that being said I kinda hated them after i legally bought galactic civ and the expansion on ebay, well their "no DRM" model means you have to register a code still to install the expansion (basically almost defeats the whole idea of "no drm") and I could not use the expansion without paying for a new code from them.... Well I still installed it but i am not sure if it really worked or not.... Now I respect the fact that to their servers, my cd might look like a pirate copy since i am entering a used code, but then I gotta say that all these games put out by other companies that have protection on them will at least realize i have the actual disc that i bought off ebay... kinda an odd set up to boast "no protection" yet they really do still have protection and its the only game i was never actaull able to use after buying on ebay :) 

All this mess. They should of just made another GalCiv. I really enjoyed that game.

Ouch!  Very critical piece.  I'll wait a few months and hopefully it will be a solid, polished gem of a game like GalCiv II is.

GalCiv II started like this and turned into the best 4X of the last decade.  
 
So I'm not so worried.

Unfortunate it launched in this state, I skimmed the official forums and saw more than a few posters with these issues, so it's not isolated. On the other hand, Stardock are among the few guys doing classic simulation style games and it sounds like they're working hard on fixing things, so it'll probably all work out in the end.

" @HypoXenophobia: /insert cute RTFM snark here.  Sure, I could go online, find the pdf of the manual and scour it for hours to figure out how to play, but this isn't 1998 (and do they even have one?  I can't be bothered to go look). 

Publishers have to make it easier for their paying customers to play their games.  If every other developer can include some sort of basic tutorial mission, why does Stardock get a pass for not doing so? 

What I can't tolerate, with the limited time I have to play games, is to spend hours working and fighting the product trying to figure out how to play.  I want to have fun.

 Anyways, clever jpgs are always a good time.  Got any others? "

" @HypoXenophobia: The thing is, Demigod has sold only something like 65k copies at retail (US), plus what I'm sure is a good chunk digital.  Still, you gotta imagine that they're under 250k copies for the US.  I ain't no math whiz, but for a company to make money on a game with multi-million dollar development, you gotta sell some more copies.  I'd like to see them succeed and get more mass market acceptance.  But releasing games in the state Elemental was when the press reviewed it caused tremendously bad PR (warranted or not, people will stay away from this game because of it), and because they don't try more things (like tutorials) which will help appeal to the mass market, they're not likely to survive long-term. "

So here is the deal: When you develop for a market, you don't go by the user base. You go by the potential customer base.  That's what most software companies do. They base what they want to create on the size of the market they're developing for. But not PC game developers.

PC game developers seem to focus more on the "cool" factor. What game can they make that will get them glory with the game magazines and gaming websites and hard core gamers? These days, it seems like game developers want to be like rock stars more than businessmen.  I've never considered myself a real game developer. I'm a gamer who happens to know how to code and also happens to be reasonably good at business.

So even though Galactic Civilizations II sold 300,000 copies making 8 digits in revenue on a budget of less than $1 million, it's still largely off the radar. I practically have to agree to mow editors lawns to get coverage. And you should see Jeff Green's (Games for Windows) yard. I still can't find my hedge trimmers.

Another game that has been off the radar until recently was Sins of a Solar Empire. With a small budget, it has already sold about 200,000 copies in the first month of release. It's the highest rated PC game of 2008 and probably the best selling 2008 PC title.  Neither of these titles have CD copy protection.

I bought the game and have not experienced any game crashes or the inability to battle.  However, what I can tell you is that the game is wicked boring.    Heroes of Newerth, which does have a steep learning curve, comes with much higher rewards and than Elemental.  Overall at this point I'm fairly disappointed with the purchase.  I've actually started a new Space Empires 5 game since getting Elemental if that tells you anything.

Runs fine on my laptop, didn't patch yet. 
 
No excuse for a developer to start discussing like this in forums, not very professional.

1.06 and its still pretty buggy for me.

" I just don't understand - how you release the game, that is actually, as you say, not ready to be released.... WTF? "

@YoungFrey said:

" @eproo said:

" I just don't understand - how you release the game, that is actually, as you say, not ready to be released.... WTF? "

With PC games, defining "ready to be released" is extremely difficult.  Ever since internet became ubiquitous, it became a fact that games could be shipped with bugs.  It's even become common on consoles with the current generation.   It really sounds like this game failed, but the list of good games that shipped broken is very long.  And I'm not even counting MMOs.  When the money is running out, and you have to do something, do you cut features, cancel it, or push that leaky boat into the harbor and bail like hell.  I sounds like Stardock thinks they have mad bailing skills. "

Ye. You right, that's why I like companies like BLIZZARD. They have much money and always try to do best of it even if the game is made for 5 years, they still not gonna to release it before it is not done. Or for example last hit from RockStar Red Dead Redemption, it actually was finished last summer, but RockStar sad that they gonna take one year to polish it. Ye but as you sad for that there is needed lot of money (Red Dead Redemption cost 100 million backarus to make).

" I bought the game and have not experienced any game crashes or the inability to battle.  However, what I can tell you is that the game is wicked boring.    Heroes of Newerth, which does have a steep learning curve, comes with much higher rewards and than Elemental.  Overall at this point I'm fairly disappointed with the purchase.  I've actually started a new Space Empires 5 game since getting Elemental if that tells you anything. "

" All this mess. They should of just made another GalCiv. I really enjoyed that game. "

This game looked interesting. I think I'll wait for a post-fix redemption sale to pick it up.

   
Originally they would not offer me a refund because it was a pre-order.  
 Now they have offered me a %75 refund.  
 
I am going to happily take it and apply it to Civ 5.  
 Elemental sounded promising but so far it is not living up to that promise. Maybe it might be worth a look in the future.  

Now Lay-Offs 
 
http://forums.elementalgame.com/394855/page/2/#2753014    

 “I don't think people yet fully realize the completeness of Stardock's fail on Elemental's launch,” Wardell wrote on Elemental’s public forum. “Elemental's revenue was anticipated to provide the revenue both for our main games team's next project as well as a second team. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen so we've had to start laying people off.

" @HypoXenophobia:   Been a while, but yeah...
 
Since we discussed, Stardock first laid off a bunch of people and now Wardell is saying that Elemental will "end up losing money".  Again, add some tutorials and stop releasing product that's not ready for release just to make your quarter.  So they're "not doing fine in both" as you mentioned.  "