Diplomacy is the last micro expansion.

"Gamers can complete their Sins of a Solar Empire experience with the final micro-expansion of the series."

Oh well.  Hopefully it means they are gearing up for another masterpiece

thx for the interesting link. there were rumours it would be the last, to bad it turned out to be true, I wonder what the third would have been about. but we shall see what project will come instead.

hm, different treaties, embassies and envoys ... not bad. though I was kinda expecting a bit more, but then we have no idea yet what all these things do.

Well let's see what the future brings.

It's quite possible Ironclad will create a non micro expansion that includes Entrenchment and Diplomacy with features originally planned for the 3rd micro expansion and an upgrade for us micro purchasers.  That way they can get retail sales and get more out of the top selling game.

Or it is simply a misunderstanding by PAX people.  I'd wait for an official announcement if I were you.

Right. Until a Fraser says it's so, it's not to be believed.

That's our site, not PAX's.

So it must be true then, i was hoping that third expansion would be the campaign..

Oh well, it just means we'll get Sins 2 faster

Hum. That's too bad. Was looking forward to the third.

That's an awesome image for E:WoM, btw.

I'm guessin the $ 9.95 wasn't covering development costs.

I think that's a bad assumption.  Entrenchment sold very very well.

I wonder what the behind-the-scenes reasons are for this.  I can think of a few possibilities:

(1) Entrenchment really didn't sell all that well and so they aren't projecting sales for Diplomacy that would make the production of a third expansion worthwhile.  Perhaps the hundreds of thousands of people who bought Sins have started to lose interest in it and would thus not care about expansions.  <Edit>  According to Like the Whirlwind, Entrenchment was very worthwhile.

(2) They just can't think of anything to add in for a third expansion, but I doubt that that's the case since it seems like they'd think of something as long as there were still money to be made.

(3) They want to start working on Sins 2 or some other new product.

(4) Ironclad and Stardock have had a falling out or some sort of a fundamental business disagreement and plan on parting ways soon.

It could be they've run out of ideas that can be practicaly done for an expansion.

This is great news. Sins has lasted a long time with a wonderful expansion Entrenchment. This next expansion won't be fully released for another 6 to 9 months i'm guessing. By that time it would be reasonable to let Sins be and focus on new developments.

You can only do so much with an expansion, where starting on a completely new game would allow numerous possibilities. Also, with the experience under Ironclad's belt, their next product is sure to show many more improvements and hopefully lower costs of development... meaning a better game!

Can't wait to hear what their next idea is and I'm gonna be around for beta!

Solar systems, not planets!! woot woot.

This is what I'm guessing.  It could be like what happened with Guild Wars.  When that development team sat down to do their fourth expansion, there was so much they wanted to do that instead they rolled things forward into a sequel.

Just because they can think of things to put into a third expansion doesn't mean that they SHOULD make that third expansion.  There's a point at which a game feels complete, and any new major systems begin to feel tacked on.  In WoW you don't get spaceships, but if WoW suddenly announced an expansion where everyone got magical ships that flew through the ether between worlds, it'd seem a little out of place and unnecessary.  (See also: Spelljammer.)  Sure, some people might love it, but it wouldn't feel like it was completing the core experience.

The original Sins was a very good game, with just a few glaring issues: the weakness of static defenses, the crude diplomacy system, the crude pirate system, etc.  Entrenchment and Diplomacy seem to be addressing most of those; while I'd love a Sins: Piracy expansion (turn the Pirates into a real threat, with custom capital ships and less metagamable raiding), I'm not sure it's important enough to justify the time and effort needed to do it well.

One other rationale for not making a third expansion might be, simply, that they would rather take their ideas for a third expansion and roll them into a Sins 2.

While I find Sins to be a wonderful experience and I feel that the Diplomacy add-on will flesh out the parts that needed it, the idea that no more will be forthcoming is quite disheartening.  Reading that blurb gives me the impression that not only will the third micro expansion not come out, but that also SoaSE 2 will never find it's way onto our PC's. 

Perhaps I'm reading a little too much into it?  I don't know - "complete their Sins of a Solar Empire experience " and "final ... of the series" both sound like they're cutting it off.

My hopes were for a campaign .... a fourth race .... the discovery of whatever that great evil was that chased the vasari ... pirate threats that actually had to be accounted for in mid- to late-game ... mini empires with coalitions between a few neutral planets that allowed them to grow and travel, but not colonize further.  I hope someone can at least keep my hopes alive.  Someone?  Anyone?

Companies make descisions for financial reasons, they obviously didn't see the possible profit of a third expansion would be large enough to justify using resources on that task instead of others. The good news is that this basically confirms there is something else, i doubt it is sins related, but there's something.

I can't imagine that they wouldn't want to produce a Sins-2, especially now that the game's name is established, unless Sins-1 was unprofitable, they've decided to just go out of business, or there was some sort of a major fallout between Ironclad and Stardock that involved intellectual property issues that would make the production of a Sins-2 impossible.

It probably wouldn't be too tough to make a Sins-2, especially since all of the mods that people have produced provide excellent fodder for new features that could be added to a Sins-2.  All they need to do is to include the conent of the Entrenchment and Diplomacy expansions, add new planet types (Sins Plus mod ideas), add another two races, improve the graphics, perhaps add some extra winning conditions or additional game types, fix the lack of auto-download for custom maps and mods in online games and improve the online multiplayer aspects a bit, and make a campaign.

While the lack of a third expansion is rather sad, at least this might give more time to balancing the existing game.

Perhaps that they feel that Sins, though great, has too many problems, and they want to start fresh.

Choas theory in effect.

The ballance is my primary example.

It has been changed so much, perhaps they feel that thier is no way to right the wrongs. (I doubt this is so with ballance, but perhaps they feel that way in other aspects of the game)

If thier is a sins 2, I DESPERATLY hope that they drop the rock-paper-sisors style, and go with a more Homeworld type approach.

There's a ship that can one shot anything larger than a Transport anywhere in the battle every fifteen seconds. It also has hundreds of secondary heavy guns and spawns hordes of fighters. It's balanced, too. If you're prepared, you'll come out ahead against it. Everything has a use.

OH HELL NO! keep rock paper scissors at all costs.

Well, alright - I'll keep hoping.  Maybe the rousing success of the second expansion will reignite things and will be shortly followed by an announcement that Sins 2 is slated for a 4th quarter, 2010 release

I'm sorry to hear this.  I really love the game and was looking forward to both of the remaining expansions.