The time of Diplomacy is over. The length of the war and differing opinions on what should be done to bring the war to an end has led to a splintering of the groups involved. The controlling powers-that-be have depleted arsenals and seemed to have exhausted all efforts of diplomacy. Trapped in a stalemate, sub-factions have rebelled and broken off the main alignments. Rebellion is upon us.

In the original Sins of a Solar Empire, you are the leader of one of three civilizations embroiled in a galactic war, fighting for survival of your entire race against relentless foes. Your success will depend on your ability to manage your empire and command your vast fleets of starships to victory. Players will colonize new worlds, develop extensive trade networks, conduct research, fortify their empires with powerful starbases and fleets of ships, plus control the galaxy using the unique diplomacy system that reacts dynamically to the players’ actions.

"When we combine our direct sales of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion with the sales from GameStop, we see unit sales similar to what we've seen previously when at retail. This contradicts our projection that sales via Steam would share the overall digital pie we'd previously seen," said Brad Wardell, president & CEO of Stardock. "Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion on Steam didn't cannibalize its GameStop or direct sales."

Wardell continued, "Normally, when you get sales figures, the publisher is talking about overall sell-in, not sell-through. But that figure is largely irrelevant, other than sounding awesome because anything that doesn't sell at retail later gets marked down or returned."

The company has sold more than 100,000 copies digitally to date of Rebellion

The company’s internal projections factored in a large “cannibalization” percentage of its own direct sales through its web site and sales from its former digital distribution platform Impulse (now owned and operated by GameStop.)

• Sale stats showed that Steam sales did NOT cannibalize those sales
• Steam sales instead replaced what Stardock has usually seen via sell-in at retail

Stardock is in the process of re-evaluating its global retail strategy with future games. As a result of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion's success, The Political Machine 2012 and Elemental: Fallen Enchantress will be released digitally through Steam, GameStop and other digital distributors, skipping retail.

"I remember it was somewhat dramatic in the community when we announced that Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion wasn't going to be at retail," said Wardell. "The reason was because we have moved away from having set release dates, which are largely announced for to kickoff presales, or for shareholders and retail distributors. Now we don't plan a release date until the game has reached a quality level where we feel comfortable doing so."

He continued, "Retailers require a six-month lead-in to reserve shelf space for indies, and that's if you can get in. By contrast, with Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, we didn't set a release date until after the public BETA feedback was universally positive."

New features of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion include:

• New Factions: Players decide whether to become Loyalists or Rebels, which unlocks a unique new tech tree granting them new technologies and ship variants.
• New Titan-class ships:  Massive warships for each race that dwarf capital ships, these deadly new monsters are capable of wiping out entire enemy fleets single-handedly.
• New Capital Ships:  A new capital ship class arrives, giving players new strategic options.
• New Corvette-class ships:  Small, highly maneuverable light ships that are adept at a variety of tasks.
• Loyalist and Rebel versions of some of the existing Sins’ frigates and cruisers, each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses.
• Updated lighting and particle effects for enhanced visuals.
• New Victory Conditions to allow for more variety, differing strategies and shorter game sessions.
• Additional capital ship ability levels, for greater strategic choice.
• Impulse::Reactor support for chat, friends, achievements and more.