On Monday, Sins of a Solar Empire was released digitally. On Tuesday, the retail launch began. And so it's Wednesday. Where do things stand?

• As I type this, Amazon.com has Sins of a Solar Empire listed as the #2 best-selling PC game in North America.  Obviously, World of Warcraft and The Sims just can't stand up to the marketing juggernaut of the Sinners...cough.
  
  
• Meanwhile, Penny Arcade, which is extremely popular at both Stardock and Ironclad mentioned the game today. We're pretty excited about that and you'll be seeing a lot of Sins stuff over there as it's where the bulk of our web budget is going. Penny Arcade only allows games that they have tried and liked to be advertised there which I think is a really impressive stand to take.
  
  
• We are hoping to have the first post-release update out THIS WEEK. Now, those of you already familiar with Stardock won't be surprised by this. But for gamers who aren't used to getting lots of free updates that aren't just "bug fixes" you're in for a pleasant surprise.
  
  
• This week's update will add some new maps (maps without pirates for those who want pirate-free games).  It will also cure the annoying bug where games in progress wouldn't dissappear off Ironclad Online (ICO) and so you'd get a "rejected by host" message when in fact it should have disappeared or said "game has started". And the tutorials are fixed for users running at high resolution.
  
  
• Retail availability is spotty still.  I went to Best Buy today and they have it in the ACTION game area.  Sins is many things but it is not an action game. But it was well stocked at least. So if you're going to Best Buy, look in the action area...
  
  
• Next week we hope to offer a preview of the first significant post-release update. We're reading through the forums and considering everything from adding a "faster" game speed option for people who want a faster game pace option to new options regarding pirates to getting AI opponents to take over for disconnected players automatically.  Right now, you probably noticed we're all over the forums. 
  
  
• The first major reviews should start showing up early next week I imagine.  I read the Game Daily review and the Shacknews review (I'm a pretty big Shacknews fan).  I won't comment on the Game Daily one (it got an 8 but reads like a 9.5 so its score surprised me a bit).  I do recommend the Shack review even if I don't agree with all of it. I think people who play the game will really enjoy the visuals of the game a lot.  Let me put it another way (to use two of my favorite RTS's of recent memory) zoom in to a unit in Supreme Commander or Age of Empires 3 and ask yourself if they have the detail of a zoomed in unit of Sins.  One of the reasons Sins has become so popular so fast despite little publicity is because you can zoom out and see the entire map and zoom in fluidly to see quite detailed individual ships fighting it out.  But the Shacknews review is high quality IMO.
  
  
• The first of the Forge tools is now available. They're a free download in the downloads section. Go ahead and create your own maps and other goodies and upload to share with others. There's a ton of mods in the making and more tools coming!
  
  
• And lastly, the fun has only begun.  In all my years as a gamer, I've never seen a period in the game industry in which the right game showed up at the right time.  First, Sins is the only major new PC strategy game (that I know of anyway) coming out until, well next Fall/Winter time frame (feel free to correct me -- I've been looking pretty hard though).  And secondly, Sins will continue to evolve.  You think the game needs X, go ahead on the forums and make your case. Just be sure that you show you have played the game or aren't expecting Sins to simply be a clone of some existing game or something.

Stay tuned!