Stardock’s massive RTS Ashes of the Singularity was recently updated with the Escalation standalone expansion late last year but now the two are being merged into one game.

This is great news for anyone who already owns Ashes of Singularity because they will find they now have access to Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation. So why is this being done?

Stardock CEO Brad Wardell explains that there were features planned for the original release, such as strategic zoom, that didn’t make the cut for technical and gameplay reasons. However, the community wanted to see these features make it into the original game and felt they shouldn’t have to pay the discounted price of the expansion to have access to them. Finally, and probably most importantly, having two version of the game means the community is split. CEO Brad Wardell explains:

“Hence, I have decided to merge Ashes of the Singularity and Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation into a single product: Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation. We will update the game to have a “simplified rules” option for those who do preferred the more streamlined game mechanics and unit types (anyone who has ever tried to get a LAN party going with an RTS knows what I mean) but going forward, Escalation is the only version of the game.

“The base game will be discontinued. If you have a copy of it, you can still play it and we will still support it. But we won’t be selling it anymore. Everyone who had Ashes of the Singularity now has Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation as well. And anyone who already upgraded to Escalation from Ashes now has an automatic season pass to the DLC for Escalation.”

With more PC gamers owning a PC that can now handle the demands of Ashes of the Singularity, this a solid move by Stardock and one that should be welcomed by all players.