Sins of a Solar Empire has become a financial success selling discs and digital copies without any copy protection. Stardock, the publishers, revealed how much of a success with half a million units sold including 100,000 digital downloads. For an independent, non-franchise game with a budget of only $1,000,000, it's a runaway success.
Stardock chief Brad Wardell attributed the success of Sins of a Solar Empire to the low system requirements, the game runs well on a budget systems, thanks to decisions made during the development process. "You make those kinds of design decisions, and you greatly increase the number of people who can play your game," he said. "You lose out on some piddly super-mega effect, but you get those units. The results come in sales." - Brad said.Sins of a Solar Empire falls into the definition of a hardcore game. Even short games take several hours to complete, and longer games with multiple players can reach over ten hours. But its success highlights one of the strengths shared by casual games that make them so appealing to a wide audience.
You don't have to worry about detail settings, graphics cards, what version of DirectX you're running, or anything like that - you just install Sins of a Solar Empire and play it!
Game developers can certainly stand to learn something from this philosophy.