Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Activision/HMX Settle Out of Court and Atari Jumps on the Steam Bandwagon

The News: HMX has dropped a lawsuit against Activision-Blizz that was claiming 14.5 million dollars in unpaid royalties from Guitar Hero 3. HMX left the GH name with Activision when they left to go make Rock Band for MTV Games. There will be an out-of-court settlement.

My View: Good thing that an olive branch has finally been extended between these two warring factions. This can only lead to good things within each of the companies. Activision isn't really losing a whole lot of money and HMX is getting the money it deserves. Also, this may be a sign of things to come; soon there may be an agreement for an official patch that allows the PS3 GH controllers to be compatible with Rock Band.

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The News: Atari is now a part of the ever-growing family of companies that are selling their games on Steam. The games that are being sold in this initial wave are: Act of War: Direct Action, Act of War: High Treason, ArmA: Combat Operations, Atari: 80 Classics in 1, Death to Spies, Desperados 2, Indigo Prophecy, and Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. The Witcher and Neverwinter Nights 2 (and it's expansion) have been announced for release at a later date.

My View: I think that Direct-to-Drive game purchases are definitely a technology advance that needs to be made throughout the industry. It's a win-win situation for both the consumer and the publisher; The publisher doesn't need to make hundreds of thousands of discs (which cuts costs, and thereby prices), and the consumer has more time to indulge in his leather computer chair without having to run off to the store to buy games. Laziness is the way of the future, I say! I'm off to go invest in my flying car now!

EDIT: Be sure to check out my good friend, Nukesniper's blog at some point!

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