"Darwinia" was released on Steam on 14 December 2005. This helped solve some of Introversion's distribution problems, and allowed for localized versions to be developed; a German translation was included with the Steam release. A new patch was released on 10 March 2006 bringing the version up to 1.42 and adding difficulty settings ranging from 1 to 10. Higher difficulties increase the number, speed, and health of monsters. It also increases the speed of the player's own units. eGames-owned Cinemaware on 4 April 2006 issued a press release announcing they would bring "Darwinia" to US markets in June 2006. Beta testing signups for version 1.5.x started on 15 December 2006. A Windows Vista exclusive version of "Darwinia" with extra eye candy and 3 additional levels was released on 31 January 2007. Version 1.5.1.1 patch released on 18 June 2007, providing support for DirectX 9c, including extra eye candy and the "Launchpad" level.