Stardock recently released an expansion for their strategy title Sins of a Solar Empire called Rebellion exclusively through digital means. With sales of over 100,000 units, a better sell-through than the original game’s release during the first month, the studio is considering ditching retail for good for GameStop’s digital platform, Steam and directly on the Stardock website.

“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.”

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

These results are pushing Stardock to re-evaluate its future with launching its games at retail at all. As a result, the company’s remaining titles in 2012, The Political Machine 2012 and Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, will be released digitally through Steam, GameStop and other digital distributors, skipping retail entirely.

“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.”

“Retailers require a six-month lead-in to reserve shelf space for indies, and that’s if you can get in,” he noted. “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.”

Source: Stardock.com