It looks like Stardock's strategy of ignoring game pirates has paid off, as the publisher has announced that it has sold around 500,000 units of Sins of a Solar Empire. Broken down, this number includes 400,000 via retail, with the rest being sold through digital distribution.

Part of the reason for the games success in the supposedly struggling PC market is its low system requirements, explains Stardock CEO Brad Wardell. "Sins of a Solar Empire was explicitly designed to work on a wide variety of machines," Wardell told Gamasutra. "It will run on a four-year-old video card, and it looks great."

"You make those kinds of design decisions (to lower systems specs), and you greatly increase the number of people who can play your game," he added. "You lose out on some piddly super-mega effect, but you get those units. The results come in sales."

It looks like Sins is becoming an example of what it takes for a hardcore PC title to be successful in today's market. Low system requirements, no annoying DRM, and multiple venues of distribution are all vital to generate the kinds of sales that the game has been enjoying.