"With Stardock Central, Galactic Civilizations players will be able to get seamless updates to the game. It's not just convenient for users; it's great for us developers. For example, I can be reading the message boards and chat and if someone has a good suggestion, we can put that suggestion in and copy it to a network directory here at Stardock and then it shows up as an alpha on Stardock Central. Users can then try out the alpha and eventually it'll get promoted to being a "Beta" and eventually made generally available once enough people have tried it out. It greatly shortens the time and effort between a user making a suggestion and a user seeing that suggestion implemented," said Brad Wardell, Project Manager of Galactic Civilizations.

When users download Stardock Central, they can enter the Galactic Civilizations serial number and an account will be created for them on Stardock Central that not only gives them instant access to updates but to the entire game itself. If the player loses their CD or damages it, they can retrieve the entire game electronically via Stardock Central by simply entering their CD key.

Each serial number is tied to the individual user and validation occurs on the server (as opposed to the client), so not only do players receive much greater free support than previously possible but piracy should be greatly reduced as the system can detect anomalous account usage.

To find out more about Stardock Central and its benefits to players, check here.