Videogame enthusiasts are freaking out over rumors that Halo’s proud papa, Bungie, is disentangling itself from Microsoft. But would it matter? Losing a franchise that put the Xbox console on the map and recently sold $170 million its first day would be devastating for a Microsoft division still fighting to operate in the black. But if the two seperate, Bungie would walk away with its independence while Microsoft would walk off arm and arm with Master Chief, since it owns the rights to the Halo franchise. It could find another studio to pump out sequels. As with movie studios, the videogame-playing public pays attention to individual games, not the developers who make them.

Source:Valleywag

Brad Stone of the New York Times has picked up, belatedly, that the Industry Standard, the fast-falling standard-bearer magazine of the dotcom boom, will be reborn as an online-only publication. A source tells us that IDG, the publisher of the new Standard, had pegged a relaunch date in less than a week. One small problem: As Stone points out, IDG has yet to hire an editor-in-chief. In fact, we hear that the initial plan for the website didn’t even include a top editor. [Bits]

Source:Valleywag

Could it be true? Eric Savitz of Barron’s blogs about the apparent comeback of his former employer, The Industry Standard. The weekly tech trade magazine inflated, and imploded, more or less in sync with the dotcom bubble; shuttered by owner IDG, it’s seen a series of mostly pathetic attempts to resuscitate its website, all of which floundered. But the website now promises that the Standard is “coming back.” Odd timing, given Time Inc.’s shuttering of Business 2.0, and the discontinuation of the Red Herring’s print edition. Founder John Battelle tersely wishes the new Standard luck. I’m betting that the publication bypasses print and goes straight to the Web — just like Battelle’s current venture.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual videogame trade show, was recently downsized from 60,000 attendees to a scant 3,000 or so. Why? Because exhibitors were sick of the exorbitant costs associated with putting together a booth in the cavernous Los Angeles Convention Center, and wanted an insidery event, not one open to all comers. Seeing a void left, IDG Entertainment, publisher of GamePro and the now defunct GameStar (a sort of Maxim for videogames), swooped in to host E For All. It’s a public event, unlike the new E3’s restricted-access gathering, and tickets for the four-day show go for $90. There’s one problem: Exhibitors have no desire to attend.

Every day the list of companies planning to avoid the show expands — the number actually outnumbers confirmed exhibitors. So far Capcom, Microsoft, Midway, Sega, Sony Computer Entertainment of America, and Sony Online Entertainment have announced they will not attend. In fact the only confirmed, recognizable names are Electronic Arts, Konami, Namco Bandai, Nintendo and THQ.

There’s a valuable lesson here. Don’t try to fill a convention void created by fleeing exhibitors. The reason E3’s organizer, the Entertainment Software Association, moved the expo to an intimate setting in Santa Monica was to avoid the expenses associated with the LA Convention Center. Surely companies would be less than thrilled to return to the venue. E For All also comes at the tail end of a months-long trade-show circuit that began with E3, traveled to Leipzig for the recently concluded Games Convention, and finishing with the Tokyo Game Show at the end of September. Sheer exhaustion, if nothing else, seems as good a reason as any to avoid it.