Impulse is very similar to Steam, but has a few important differences.
Firstly this is completely independent and separate from other systems, and for us gamers competition is important! Otherwise there would be no alternatives to choose from.
Secondly they're far more open about profit sharing with the developers and publishers who have games on the site. They proudly advertise their 70% figure on the developer page. This means that if you buy a game from Impulse the developer gets a far fairer share
Impulse came about in a similar fashion to Steam in that Stardock, who had just created "Galactic Civilisations 2" needed a way of distributing and keeping it updated. Galactic Civ 2 is famous for being one of the first big titles released without DRM (Digital Rights Management / Copyright protection) installed with it. At the time this was a big thing and earned Stardock a positive reputation within the gaming community.
Advantages:
Large Catelogue of games and applications
Weekend deals and savings
Strong community and community features
Only online platform to get Galactic Civilisations series
Gives a chance to more independent developers!
Better deal (70%) for independent developers
Some free applications available
Play games offline, or without impulse open
Help Support this site at no extra cost!
Disadvantages:
Not quite as big as steam (yet?)
Not many bundle deals so far
So for me this fills the gap where steam misses things. Most notably games like AI War: Fleet Commander and Democracy 2/Kudos. As stated it's not quite the size of steam, but it has a lot of potential and is a great place to check for a cheaper deal!
