It is how you are suppose to install on computers that do not have an internet connection, I will try it with on of the games that is not already installed later.

The files are compressed, so unless you have a whole lot of large games 1 or 2 cheap-ish Flash Drives should do. Currently it looks like I will be able to fit all my games on a single 16-GB drive.

The switch has not occured yet, and will not till May. Plenty of time to shop around for a drive or a bunch of discs.

Define "near Future"... May?

Not that it matters.. cause we all know gamestop is going to ruin impulse, and all the money we have spent on games will be wasted once they file for bankruptcy or require us to sign over our first born children to keep access to our PURCHASED game licenses. but whatever.. guess i'll just hop on the stupid arse steam bandwagon, if i have to sign away my gamers rights to either gamestop or valve it may as well be valve.

So it will be a gradual change so people won't notice..and abandon ship so quickly.

Will we be able to continue to run our games impulse client free? or are we looking at a steam clone in the near future?

Do you actually know what gamestops going to do to impulse? Have you seen their plan for it? If not.. your speculation is as good as mine.

Lets be honest here.. once gamestop takes control.. nothing you or any other stardock employee/owner says matters.. they can do whatever they want.

Sadly, sometimes the information given during this time frame is accurate. 

One can only hope this decision isn't going to viciously bite everyone in the ass.  I still remember how happy some developers were to partner with EA, citing the enormous distribution potential offered by the mega publisher, only to later see their doors shut permanently once control was turned over to EA. 

Unless Gamestop is merely being pulled along for the ride, I certainly wouldn't discount Impulse becoming something that is somewhat reviled by portions of the consumer base, as functionality is stripped away and replaced with restrictive licensing agreements that read like something penned by EA lawyers. 

Sorry, but, I don't see how this is in any way, shape, or form "good for PC gamers". People supported Impulse because they thought SD is an honest company with high standards and principles.

Gamestop is none of these things. It's like getting a crook (Gamestop) to try and keep an already pretty straight guy (Steam) straight? It makes no sense. And now, SD is really none of these things either.

If Impulse had to be sold for financial reasons fine, necessary evil. But honestly trying to spin it as if it's some great boon to the PC gamer community is more of a slap in the face. Gamestop doesn't care one tiny bit about promoting PC gaming, their sole purpose is to bleed money in every way possible, their whole revenue model depends on screwing over publishers by reselling used console games. Even though Valve is a hungry money grabber, at least they do it by offering great value and standardization of services to both the developer and publisher, and don't make money at their expense.

I haven't bought anything from Gamestop for years, and now I wish I hadn't bought so much stuff on Impulse either, since in a month it'll all be tied to Gamestop. Yay.

I hope this is all an April fool's day joke. If so, you got me. I'll bite.

Digital ditribution is a vendor/customer relationship based on trust. The only reason many of us chose to use Impulse over Steam was based on the premise Stardock (owned by yourself) was a company with integrity for whom we could trust no matter how far forward we could forecast.

With the sale of Impulse to Gamestop, that future forecast just took a huge turn for the worse. Gamestop is a company I do not trust. Without trust, there is no way moving forward I will use Impulse for further software purchases.

Please understand, I do not hold anything against you or Stardock for selling out. You have worked hard, and sacrificed (risked) much to make Impulse what it is now. You have earned the (large I hope) payment that Gamestop will compensate you. Buisness is about making money. You have done what's right (and smart) for yourself and Stardock with this sale.

If you're looking to smooth over relations with Stardock's customers over this Impulse/Gamestop sale, do so with a stand-alone non activation update/patch for GalCiv2. An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure.

(Still though, I sure hope this is an April fool's joke. Please??)

No, not an April fools day joke.

I soooo wish I could see the terms of the deal.  Methinks the head honchos as SD just had a very nice payday.  Anyway, I've seen more than a few corporate acquisitions in the time at my company (us buying and us selling divisions).  Things can go quite well for all parties.  Generally what happens is that whoever is selling their company makes a simple arrangement with the purchaser so that the folks involved in the transition keep their jobs in the immediately future.  The scary part is what happens a year from now, but that has EVERYTHING to do with the management of the purchasing company (and its very difficult to predict how gamestop will handle things based on past decisions). The best thing, though, is that the turnover rate at SD is extremely low.  So, if something goes awry, I'd wager SD will likely rehire anyone that gets lost in the shuffle.

For fans of impulse, this means increased content on the distribution platform (most likely within the next 6 months).  SD was getting better with sales on impulse, while gamestop is still a bit behind the curb (but exceptionally profitable).  Anyway, I don't see impulse gaining any huge market share as a result of the acquisition.  The only way that will happen is if gamestop begins aggressive marketing along with aggressive sales. We'll start to see many more games that can be purchased and downloaded on the gamestop site.  As far as I know, there has been no announcement as to whether or not STARDOCK games will continue to be sold via impulse after the acquisition goes through (odds are yes, but perhaps they have something up their sleeves... as someone of no small importance mentioned with regards to object desktop). 

Anyway, I completely understand making the sale.  I'm a bit sad to see impulse move to another company's hands, though.  I realize that the acquisition will be good for impulse customers, but frankly, I only supported impulse because SD ran things.  So now, I suppose, it just goes back to supporting SD for the games/software they put out.  I can live with that.  Just sad to see the empire split up a bit with no huge (ANNOUNCED) gains. 

Anyway, congrats on the arrangement and I hope the payday enables you folks to have an even greater future and be able to fund more great games, etc (and not 2 yachts - you are only allowed to purchase 1 )

Edit - read in another post that SD games will still be available via impulse for the forseeable future.

And last, I actually would like to know if SD is getting some sort of back end deal on sales via impulse or if it was just sold outright.  To be completely honest, most of the time I'd find a better deal on steam due to how they market their games/sales.  If SD isn't getting any benefit from my buying from impulse anymore, I'd just as soon buy with steam as soon as a deal caught my eye.  I want to support Stardock financially, but obviuosly... only if I'm actually supporting stardock... methinks gamestop is doing OK if you bother to listen to quarterly earnings calls... that said, I'm not terribly worried about my GS stock. 

Actually, that is a really good point. The impulse platform will likely be developed at a more rapid pace as a result of this sale.  That would logically include voice chat, etc.  Perhaps GS would choose to neglect developing the impulse experience outside of being just a store/marketing tool, but it does make sense to add features that would compete with steam.

Am I wrong?  And here I thought Impulse just got a new set of corporate overlords.

Unless Impulse bought Gamestop, I believe that what happens to Impulse now is out of your hands.

If there are, in fact, contractual guarantees being made to current Impulse users, then it'd be nice to know about them.

When it's posted on the financials pages of a publically traded company (like Gamestop), you should believe it no matter what day it's posted on. Investors and the SEC do NOT have a sense of humor.

A friend of mine predicted that this forum would really loathe this news, and I figured it'd be no big deal. Shows what I know.

Still won't belive. If this stays up for a week, then i'll belive. I know some stuff said around the April Fools' Day is true but anything on the internet is not urgent and i can belive it later.