{"id":1542958,"date":"2026-04-02T22:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/NFYQP8heXBzJtYXhRostyL"},"modified":"2026-04-02T22:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:35:10","slug":"a-former-gamestop-exec-thought-building-its-steam-competitor-would-be-his-forever-job-but-the-retailer-bet-the-house-on-digital-distribution-being-a-passing-phase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-former-gamestop-exec-thought-building-its-steam-competitor-would-be-his-forever-job-but-the-retailer-bet-the-house-on-digital-distribution-being-a-passing-phase\/","title":{"rendered":"A former GameStop exec thought building its Steam competitor would be his &#8216;forever job,&#8217; but the retailer bet the house on digital distribution being &#8216;a passing phase&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<p>Before a career second act at Nightdive Studios, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/gaming-industry\/nightdives-larry-kuperman-retires-after-25-year-career-in-games-we-never-looked-at-games-as-products\/\" target=\"_blank\">recently-retired Larry Kuperman<\/a>&#8216;s big project was Impulse. It was to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/gaming-industry\/an-architect-of-gamestops-long-forgotten-steam-competitor-explains-why-he-thinks-valve-came-out-on-top-what-steam-did-better-than-anybody-else-was-to-create-a-community\/\" target=\"_blank\">GameStop&#8217;s answer to Steam<\/a>, but it went the way of the dodo in 2014. Kuperman went into his personal history building up Impulse&#8217;s catalogue when we spoke at this year&#8217;s Game Developers Conference.<\/p>\n<p>Kuperman came to the games industry about halfway through his professional career, with both his story and that of Impulse beginning at Stardock, a software company that was branching out into games. Stardock&#8217;s management was thinking in terms of digital distribution early\u2060\u2014Kuperman started in 2001\u2060\u2014and the company was laying the groundwork for its own service.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We reserved the rights to electronically sell the game,&#8221; Kuperman recalled of his first game with Stardock, economics sim <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/351080\/The_Corporate_Machine\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Corporate Machine<\/a>. &#8220;It was part of the contract negotiation that we could sell the game electronically. I&#8217;m sure the lawyer at Take Two [was thinking], &#8216;It&#8217;s electronic distribution. Who cares about that?&#8217; That moment was kind of pivotal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The first iteration of this online store was a website called <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.stardock.com\/products\/drengin\/\">Drengin\u2060<\/a>\u2014its archived form is a real hoot, with a throwback layout advertising the hottest games coming in 2004. &#8220;Back in those days, it was not the same game experience,&#8221; recalled Kuperman. &#8220;You got this thing to download and the serial number that came in your email.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Around 2004 to 2005, when the Canadian publisher Strategy First (Jagged Alliance, O.R.B: Off-World Research Base) collapsed while working with Stardock, the software company walked away with electronic distribution rights to Strategy First&#8217;s games. &#8220;That launched what would become Impulse, which was a Steam competitor from Stardock. It was a similar platform,&#8221; said Kuperman.<\/p>\n<p>Impulse first launched in 2008, and was then sold to GameStop in 2011. &#8220;I joined GameStop for two years as their head of electronic distribution on the PC side,&#8221; recalled Kuperman.&#8221;I thought that was going to be my forever job. Ironically, that didn&#8217;t work out. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I guess, back in that time, [it was] completely different management than is at GameStop now, but GameStop thought that electronic distribution was just a passing phase, and brick and mortar was going to come back strong: &#8216;I&#8217;ve seen the future, it looks just like the 1950s.&#8217; But that really didn&#8217;t happen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The rest, as they say, is history. GameStop seems to have reached an equilibrium after years of turmoil: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/gamestop-says-ceo-has-been-terminated-as-revenue-falls-and-stock-price-plunges\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Meme&#8221; stock manipulation<\/a>, layoffs and store closures, even the untimely demise of GameInformer\u2060\u2014though that last bit <a href=\"https:\/\/gameinformer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">does have a happy ending, at least<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a bit of brick-and-mortar hubris reminiscent of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inc.com\/minda-zetlin\/netflix-blockbuster-meeting-marc-randolph-reed-hastings-john-antioco.html\" target=\"_blank\">Blockbuster refusing to buy Netflix in 2000<\/a>. Though Kuperman had no illusions of Impulse having true Steam-killer potential, the company giving up on digital distribution altogether was clearly the wrong move in hindsight.<\/p>\n<div class=\"product\"><a data-dimension112=\"ad7f308d-adbf-44aa-b158-de7231fbbddb\" data-action=\"Deal Block\" data-label=\"2026 games\" data-dimension48=\"2026 games\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure \" >\n<div class='image-full-width-wrapper'>\n<div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:661px;\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:98.94%;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"6offQUY4CXebir2TC27dMd\" name=\"kingdom come 2 square\" caption=\"\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/a-former-gamestop-exec-thought-building-its-steam-competitor-would-be-his-forever-job-but-the-retailer-bet-the-house-on-digital-distribution-being-a-passing-phase.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"661\" height=\"654\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" credit=\"\" class=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/new-pc-games-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-dimension112=\"ad7f308d-adbf-44aa-b158-de7231fbbddb\" data-action=\"Deal Block\" data-label=\"2026 games\" data-dimension48=\"2026 games\" data-dimension25=\"\"><strong>2026 games<\/strong><\/a>: All the upcoming games<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-best-pc-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best PC games<\/strong><\/a>: Our all-time favorites<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-50-best-free-pc-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Free PC games<\/strong><\/a>: Freebie fest<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/best-fps-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best FPS games<\/strong><\/a>: Finest gunplay<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/best-rpgs-of-all-time\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best RPGs<\/strong><\/a>: Grand adventures<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-best-co-op-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best co-op games<\/strong><\/a>: Better together<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/gaming-industry\/a-former-gamestop-exec-thought-building-its-steam-competitor-would-be-his-forever-job-but-the-retailer-bet-the-house-on-digital-distribution-being-a-passing-phase\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before a career second act at Nightdive Studios, the recently-retired Larry Kuperman&#8216;s big project was Impulse. It was to be GameStop&#8217;s answer to Steam, but it went the way of the dodo in 2014. Kuperman went into his personal history building up Impulse&#8217;s catalogue when we spoke at this year&#8217;s Game Developers Conference. Kuperman came to the games industry about halfway through his professional career, with both his story and that of Impulse beginning at Stardock, a software company that was branching out into games. Stardock&#8217;s management was thinking in terms of digital distribution early\u2060\u2014Kuperman started in 2001\u2060\u2014and the company was laying the groundwork for its own service. &#8220;We reserved the rights to electronically sell the game,&#8221; Kuperman recalled of his first game with Stardock,&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-former-gamestop-exec-thought-building-its-steam-competitor-would-be-his-forever-job-but-the-retailer-bet-the-house-on-digital-distribution-being-a-passing-phase\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1542959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[5491],"class_list":["post-1542958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pc-gamer","tag-gaming-industry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A former GameStop exec thought building its Steam competitor would be his &#039;forever job,&#039; but the retailer bet the house on digital distribution being &#039;a passing phase&#039; | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Before a career second act at Nightdive Studios, the recently-retired Larry Kuperman&#039;s big project was Impulse. 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