Stardock’s CEO Brad Wardell has announced that Elemental: Fallen Enchantress will be given away for free, as restitution for the buggy release of the original Elemental: War of Magic.
In a letter sent to customers, Wardell wrote:
Dear Stardock customer,
My name is Brad Wardell. I’m the President & CEO of Stardock. Two years ago, you bought a game from us called Elemental: War of Magic. We had great hopes and ambitions for that game but, in the end, it just wasn’t a very good game.
Elemental was an expensive game. You probably paid $50 or more for it. And you trusted us to deliver to you a good game. $50 is a lot of money and companies have a moral obligation to deliver what they say they’re going to deliver and frankly, Stardock failed to deliver the game we said we were going to deliver.
While we did update Elemental: War of Magic (you can still download v1.4). Its design just wasn’t adequate to make it into the kind of game it should be. So we decided to start over. From scratch. We made a new game called Fallen Enchantress.
So even though it’s been two years, we haven’t forgotten about you. This week, we released Fallen Enchantress. It is a vastly better game and, we believe, lives up to the expectations set for the original Elemental. This game is yours. Free. It’s already been added to your account.
You can download and play it by going to http://download.stardock.com.
We hope you enjoy Fallen Enchantress. Please feel free to visit the Elemental forum at www.elementalgame.com if you wish to talk to me and the rest of the team. We’re there and very interested in your feedback.
Thank you for being our customers and your patience.
Sincerely,
Brad Wardell
President & CEO
Earlier this year, the publisher promised to give away a free game due to Elemental’s bugginess.
It’s also interesting in light of the recent lawsuit exchange between Stardock and former employee Alexandra Miseta. Miseta filed a sexual harrassment suit over Wardell’s vulgar behavior, while Stardock filed a counter-suit at her destroying Elemental-related PR materials and data.
Elemental: Fallen Enchantress was released on the 23rd October.
