Looks like Gamestop purchasing Impulse has amounted to nothing for Gamestop in the end. I got this email on April 24th:

Hello PC Downloads Customers!

We're writing to you today because there are big changes coming to GameStop's PC Gaming area. We've heard your feedback over the past year and in order to serve you better, we are simplifying the digital PC game purchasing and redemption process.

Starting April 24, 2014, when visiting ImpulseDriven.com, you'll be redirected to GameStop.com. In addition, the GameStop PC Downloads App will be simplified down to a pure download and game library manager. From that point on, it will no longer be a requirement for you to download the PC Downloads App when making new purchases. But don't worry! We're still holding onto all of those past purchases that you made prior to 4/24/14. So when you want to download and play any of those games where we supplied the game files instead of Steam, Origin, or any of our other great partners, the updated version of the PC Downloads App will be there to do just that.

One last thing: Be sure to stay tuned to GameStop.com/PCGames and your local GameStop stores in the coming days and weeks! We're going to continue remodeling our new home to better serve you, and that includes serving up some of the best deals that PC gaming has ever seen!

Thank you for your loyalty and all of your fantastic feedback!

Sincerely,
The GameStop PC Digital Team

I can still access my previous purchases but for how long? I can't make any new purchases because I don't have a US address. They only give Steam, Origin and Uplay codes now. They could just've done that from the start, would've cost them much less.

It's funny how Gamefly moved to a download manager and Gamestop is moving away, based on "feedback".

(only slightly related)
I wonder if, given enough time, virtually all digital download companies will be sucked into the Steam black hole. Allowing "shovelware" might be part of their way of showing devs of all software that Steam can host more than just games.

Back when GameStop first acquired Impulse there were a lot of new releases using DRM that didn't attach to an account so sites had to provide their own download methods.

In principle the message from Gamestop sounds reasonable. They make a few things easier without giving up full download capabilities. And who cares about impulsedriven.com anyway.

This sort of scenario is precisely why I don't like Steam, Origin, Uplay and the like. Thankfully I bought Demigod, Sins of a Solar Empire and GalCiv 2 Ultimate on disc, and they're DRM-free, so I can continue to play them. But when the GameStop App is permanently sunsetted (and eventually it will be - rest assured, this is only a transitional measure), I will no longer be able to patch Demigod or SoaSE. And we all know about Demigod's patches.

The dude who wrote that announcement must've been crying because I can't make shit sense of it.

Does this mean if I go back to my Impulse account I can finally move all of those X Series games onto Steam now?

The short answer is "no", the long answer is:

Previously the PC client was a storefront (like the Steam client is). From this point on it's only a downloader and library manager. You can still use it to download games you previously bought, but you can't buy new games through it, you can only buy new games at gamestop.com.

That's my understanding of the e-mail (and it didn't look that complicated to me).
Anyway, would be interesting to see if I can download the game I have there. IIRC I bought two games on Impulse, one I have in my Stardock account (GalCiv2), the other was Shadowgrounds, which I got a thousand Steam keys for so don't really need, but it would still be interesting to see if I can get it from GameStop.

It means new games will give codes only and won't go into the download manager. Only previous purchases are in the manager.

Basically they are just going to sell Steam/Origin/Uplay keys from their main Gamestop page, just like Amazon and a bunch of others do. They're not going to do their own thing anymore with Impulse.

Wait, what?

So far, I understood the announcement as Gamestop turning Impulse into an optional download client, stripping out stuff like the storefront. Which wouldn't be such a big deal.

Are you saying that Gamestop will only sell downloads/keys for other platforms (Steam, Origin, etc.) in the future, and only maintain their own platform (Impulse) as a legacy service, with no new downloads becoming available ever? Because that _would_ be a bigger deal. Do you have other sources of information that I don't have? Because the announcement by itself doesn't seem to o that far.

At least GameStop is living up to its name.

Not sure if i'm gonna cry after Impulse. Wasn't a good service from the very beginning, so i'm not gonna miss it.

Why can't all distributors be like gog and just give you an installer to do what you want with??? You know, you buy a game, you download it, save it to a hard drive or thumb drive or make it's own DVD if you want, just like when we walked in the old brick and mortar stores and bought games back in the day.

Oh, right, all distributors can't be like gog because we're all criminals. I keep forgetting that.

Funny how when gog doesn't treat me like a criminal, I don't act like one. Funnier still that treating customers like criminals with clients and DRM ends up with them acting just like criminals.

There's a lesson in there somewhere, but I'm sure it's way over the heads of most publishers/developers/distributors.

Yeah, the story of Impulse is a bit of a warning to customers to not tie themselves to a service that keeps control of the customer's games ...

First it was called Drengin Net, and subscription based. Then the subscription fees were removed and the service was rebranded as Totalgaming.Net, with downloads handled by a client called "Stardock Central" (which was mostly optional). Then a token system was introduced for purchases. Then the tokens were removed (I don't think I spent a single one of mine). Then the service was rebranded again, into "Impulse", and games suddenly required the respective client to run. Then it was "upgraded" into "ImpulseDriven". Then it was sold to Gamestop, who completely revamped the client again, and kept stripping functionality out.

I bought about a dozen games in the early stages of TotalGaming.Net, and I basically had to learn a new client, new terms of use, and generally a new system practically every time I wanted to install one again. I suppose that I still could access these games somehow, but I have no idea how, somewhere along the dozen of changes and reinventions they simply lost me. I just tried to log into the Gamestop website to access my account but it seems that this isn't even possible.