Games haven’t been optimized for dual-core performance in years and with the multi-threaded CPUs of today, Sins is hardly the best running game of its kind. Sins is optimized to run on Intel Pentium CPUs, the old dual-core style. It goes without saying that computers have come a long way in the last eight to twelve years. If it isn’t for the story, then the game engine should be more than enough reason to consider a fresh start. Building something l that feels fitting of a sequel is important and perhaps there just isn’t enough there to justify a new entry. Sins doesn’t have a single-player story mode, but I could see a full-blown sequel having a campaign as a major selling point in addition to its current 4X formula. It is a story that, despite dripping with campaign potential, has been relegated to game manuals, websites, and intro cinematics. They’re on the run from some cataclysmic force that they are increasingly allowing to catch up as they fight a battle for resources against the other two factions. Sins has been hinting at a great threat since its inception, the very threat that forced the Visari into TEC territory. Given that the game was a critical success and, by all known accounts, financially successful, it would make sense to want to cash in on the game’s popularity with a fresh installment.

The long-term support would indicate to me that those impressive numbers continued and likely still do in some capacity to this day. So why hasn’t Stardock or Ironclad talked about a sequel? While I can’t speak to total sales as I wasn’t able to gather those numbers, Rebellion sold better than the original Sins over its first 30 days, pushing over 100,000 units (digital). Few games receive that level of long-term support, let alone a game that doesn’t have a long tail of microtransactions and the like. It has received new DLC as recently as December of 2018 and has also been given an important engine overhaul to make the game easier to mod. Ironclad and Stardock should be commended for continuing to support the game all this time after release. My question is, after all this time, where the hell is some kind of sequel? The modding community is strong and the game is regularly on sale and drawing in new players. The important fact here is that nearly 8 years after the release of Rebellion and a full 12 since its initial launch, Sins is still a fantastic game that draws thousands of players a month. Sometimes we are trying out a new mod, other times we just want to mess around with something engaging but mindless. Every few months I jump back into Sins of a Solar Empire for a dozen or so hours with a few buddies.

Sins of a solar empire save location