Gaming Roundup 7/8/08: Brrr...There's an Actiblizzard Blowing In
Posted 07/08/08 at 06:15:27 PM | by Nathan Grayson
"Action-packed!" "A wild ride." "Nearly as exhilarating as the video game industry!" Ah, who am I kidding? The first two don't even come close to matching the third, and today serves as a large, billowing banner for that fact. We've got mergers, buyouts, children, slavery, drugs, and even CliffyB! If every day were this exciting, action movies would be out of a job. Now click that "Read More" link; you know you want to.

Fallout 3 to feature “slavery, children, drugs and addiction”
Video games are the new rock 'n' roll? Hah! Fallout 3 is, on the controversy scale, a comic book about rock 'n' roll that chronicles the adventures of a bumbling, but well-meaning Nazi. Kidding aside, though, Fallout 3 looks to cover some interesting ground. But don't get too excited about the chance to revel in filth; child-killing and nudity will both be calling in absent. Check out the rest of the interview, though, because that's far from all. It explores Fallout 3 from all angles -- from character creation to being able to conquer the whole game unarmed.
Id’s Hollenshead says tech advancement is key
High-end gaming's stalwart supporters number few these days, but they're certainly not tight-lipped about their position. id Software's Todd Hollenshead essentially said that he believes it won't be long before casual gaming's vice-grip on the industry shatters. "[Gaming is] a technology-driven industry, and I think people who say it’s not a technology-driven industry don’t know what industry that they’re in, and they probably won’t be here for very long," he said. Hollenshead's words may be wrong, but his heart's in the right place. As long as developers like id exist in the gaming industry, hardcore gaming isn't going anywhere. Of course, neither is casual gaming, but as long as both sides have ardent supporters, neither will crumble.
CliffyB: Fewer buttons on next Xbox pad, please
CliffyB knows his controllers. Apparently, he also knows his alien spaceships, as that's what he says the Xbox 360 pad most resembles. His solution? Remove all of the escape pods or buttons or whatever. Now, I don't know about you, but I rather like our current controllers. How about we just agree to not add any more buttons? Also, Cliff uses Mario Galaxy and Zack & Wiki (both on the Wii) as examples of a controller feature (waggle) replacing button-presses. Well, if the feature works so well, why can't Cliffy list any other stand-out examples?
UK is “most expensive” country in the world to develop a game
Eidos dev boss Ian Livingstone isn't too happy with the UK's government. Why? Because they're not doing anything to aid game developers in what he declares to be "the most expensive country in the world in which to develop."

Activision Blizzard Merger Official
Meet your new overlords. After roughly seven months of approvals and paperwork, Activision and Blizzard have cleared their final hurdle, and tomorrow, the merger will finally take place.
EA Clears FTC Hurdle In Take-Two Bid
Hooray. Now we can go back to hearing about EA's foiled buyout attempts every other day.
Blizzard Looking to sell...
Submitted by CadonMado on Wed, 2008-07-09 08:32
Sounds like someone wanted to sell High, so to speak.
Blizzard is sitting pretty with Diablo 3 & StarCraft 2 being developed and WoW still going strong. What reason would a company that is making money everymonth (residual income anyone) over 8 million players, even if only half of them are active that $14.99 a month from 4 million peeps (or $12.99 if they pay for a year in advance).
So why sell? ... O.o
Oh well, I am excited to see what changes are made, note* I am not part of the 8 million so good or bad I will be watching as a curious bystandard.
- Cadon Mado
Gaming industry
Submitted by bluedog98 on Tue, 2008-07-08 16:59
So what does this leave us with now, except Ea and Blizzard/Activison. It seems like whenever a standalone company makes something good you usually have someone else buy them and ruin the whole thing.
Buyouts
Submitted by Vahn16 on Tue, 2008-07-08 17:41
Gaming is a business foremost, so buyouts happen. Note that Blizzard/Vivendi was looking to sell -- not the other way around. In an interview, Blizzard said that they chose Activision. Point is, you can't always blame the big, evil corporation for this kind of thing.
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