Paradox Puts GOO on Games

- Stardock’s DRM technology “GOO” protects PC games from piracy -

PLYMOUTH, Mich., June 24 /PRNewswire/ — Stardock (www.stardock.com) announced today that publishing partner Paradox Interactive has adopted Stardock’s Game Object Obfuscation (GOO) to protect Paradox PC game titles from piracy. Beginning with the Paradox title Majesty 2 and continuing on with other titles for both retail and electronic software sales, Paradox will wrap the games in GOO.

Announced by Stardock earlier this year, GOO is a new technology that developers can use to protect their game executable. When a protected game is run for the first-time, the player simply needs to enter in their email address and serial number. Once validated, the game can be played normally and typically never needs to connect to the Internet account.

Fredrik Wester, CEO at Paradox Interactive, said, “Stardock and Paradox have a long history of successfully working together, a history that dates back to our publishing Stardock’s Galactic Civilizations II in Europe. We were among the first publishers to come on board Stardock’s Impulse platform when that launched. Consequently, it was only natural that we tried Stardock’s new DRM technology.”

“In our testing, we found GOO to be very effective in protecting our titles, while at the same time offering a less obtrusive user experience,” continued Fredrik. “GOO meets our needs while protecting the rights of our consumers.”

Brad Wardell, CEO at Stardock, continued, “Stardock has been outspoken in advocating solutions that protect consumer’s rights. At the same time, we also recognize that many publishers are going to seek to protect their properties via some type of DRM solution. Our goal in developing GOO was to find a middle-ground solution, a technology that would treat consumers not as criminals, but instead with respect. It is great getting feedback from partners like Paradox that we have succeeded in our goal.”

More information about GOO can be found here: http://www.impulsedriven.com/developers.aspx.

For more information about Stardock or Impulse, please visit www.stardock.com or www.impulsedriven.com.

About Stardock

Stardock is one of the world’s leading developers and publishers of PC games and desktop software. Its PC games include Sins of a Solar Empire, the highest rated and best selling PC strategy game of 2008 as well as the critically acclaimed Galactic Civilizations series. Its desktop software includes Object Desktop, WindowBlinds, and a host of other programs for customizing the Windows experience. Learn more about Stardock by visiting www.stardock.com.

    Stephanie Tinsley Schopp
    Tinsley-PR
    stephanie@tinsley-pr.com
    (323) 512-7975

SOURCE Stardock