Stardock sets up new fund for start-ups

A new investment fund will be available to software and game developers, paid for by Stardock.

Stardock sold its Impulse digital distribution platform to GameStop in 2011, and acts as publisher for several popular PC strategy titles like Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Civilizations.

Speaking with Gamasutra, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell said the funds would be in the "mid-eight-figure" range.

The company owns a few studios, but the goal of the fund is to grow its third-party library by investing in start-ups.

"I don’t want Stardock to become a big company," Wardell told Gamasutra.

"The bigger Stardock gets, the more time I end up spending with accountants and lawyers and business managers. Plus, we’re in Michigan and it makes more sense to have these start-ups form where the founders are already located."

According to the company’s customer report, Stardock plans to invest in the next generation of developers by helping to found new studios that will help future tech industry start-ups.

Stardock plans to keep a long-term minority share in these companies, with Wardell starting out as interim CEO before moving to an advisory role.

"We’ve done a few already but they’re not far enough along in what they’re working on to publicize anything," said Wardell.

"We’re focusing on both games and software with this fund. But the game industry is on the cusp of a really amazing era where you can do truly great stuff as an independent developer again and the move to 64-bit and powerful, touch mobile devices are allowing for completely new types of games to be made."