A maker of occasionally good games (Interplay) and seller of generally bad games (Wal-Mart) announced a direct distribution deal this past week. Interplay can now cut out the middleman and sell directly through Wal-Mart's vast (and rumored to be unredeemably evil) network of stores throughout America. Interplay used to deal directly with superhero Hawkman and his wife Hawkwoman but that deal apparently fell through as Hawkman and wife were limited in the amount of games they could physically carry. Hawkman is apparently selling his services to Southpeak Interactive now. "Carrying just a couple copies of BreakNeck to a store now and then is much easier on my back," claimed the winged hero. His avian wife just nodded in agreement, and squawked.

New York and the Rat Problem: New York City announced that there are approximately 70,000,000 rats living there. Numerous plans for dealing with this problem are being discussed. Plans involve poisons, biological pesticides and inviting hordes of EverQuest players to come deal with the mess. EQ players are well experienced in the art of rat slaying.
Oregon Lumber Company Ordered to pay $11.2M Clean Air Fine: Ion Storm ordered to pay as well, Daikatana is stinking up the place.
Wal-Mart Announced German Expansion: Industry giant Wal-Mart will invade Germany soon, so finally Germans will gain access to great games like Deer Hunter and other fine WizardWorks titles (and, given the previous story, Interplay games too!)

According to Brian Eiserloah's recently updated .Plan file at PlanetQuake.com it wasn't Eidos who cut the upcoming Anachronox in half. It was instead the developers at Ion Storm. The game was apparently too big, providing too much value for consumers to be considered an Ion Storm product.

Eiserloah, who calls himself 'Squirrel,' went on to explain that there was too much art and story to go around. They could skimp on the detail and art or stop the story at a handy halfway point climax. So, why did certain industry news sites report that Eidos cut the game in half to get two games for the price of one? Squirrel speculated: "I assume this is just a case of some uninformed folks picking up some (very) old news and, true to form, not bothering to check it out before publishing it."

Very possible, my rodent friend. It also seems to be a case of a developer promising more than they could deliver. And that, my friends, sounds like Ion Storm to me!