M
ichael Bay is accusing Microsoft of backing
HD DVD just to keep a format war raging. In
a forum post on MichaelBay.com, the director con-
tends that Microsoft ultimately wants both Blu-ray
and HD DVD to fail. If consumers are so confused
and fed up with the competing formats, they’ll
embrace digital downloads, such as those offered
by MS’s Xbox Video Marketplace, says Bay.HOT COFFEE SUIT SETTLED
It’s been more than two years since Grand
Theft Auto: San Andreas created a stir with
its “Hot Coffee” mod—a third-party hack that
unleashed hidden sexual
content in the game—
but the issue is just now
being settled. In response
to the outrage and legal
issues that ensued over
the racy material and the
rating misrepresentation,
Take Two, the game’s
publisher, has agreed to
give offended parties a
revised version of the game or $35 in cash.DRM-FREE MUSIC FOR
THE MASSES
In a bid to lure consumers to its DRM-free
digital music store, Amazon is teaming up with
Pepsi to give away 1 billion MP3s. Coupon
codes found on the underside of Pepsi bottle
caps will be redeemable for music tracks at the
online music store—five codes are required for
a single song. Expect a huge promotion for the
giveaway during this year’s Super Bowl.NATIONWIDE WIMAX NO MORE
Citing “business complexities,” Clearwire and
Sprint Nextel have abandoned plans to jointly
build out a nationwide net-
work to deliver wireless
connectivity via WiMax. The
news should be especially
disappointing to folks in rural
areas, as this was seen as a
promising means of provid-
ing “last mile” broadband
service to places that cable
and broadband don’t reach.
Both companies will con-
tinue with their own local
WiMax deployments.MPAA IRONY
The Motion Picture Association of America
found itself on the other side of the fence
recently when it was served a DMCA takedown
notice. A Linux-based software toolkit that the
organization distributed to universities for the
purpose of tracking illegal file-sharing appar-
ently ran afoul of the open-source General
Public License. The GPL requires that source
code be made available to end users, some-
thing the MPAA failed to do.Vivendi, FUNSIZENEWS
Activision
Mega-Merger
In December, Vivendi, the
French media conglomerate that
owns Universal Music Group
and Blizzard Entertainment,
announced it would merge its
games division with U.S. pub-
lisher Activision. The $18.9 bil-
lion deal would create Activision
Blizzard, a new publicly traded
company utilizing the strengths
of Blizzard’s online presence
and Activision’s successful
game franchises (Guitar Hero
III alone made $115 million in
its fi rst week of release). While
Vivendi will own a majority 52
percent stake in the new pub-
lisher, Activision’s current head,
Robert Kotick, will be the CEO of
Activision Blizzard.
The deal is scheduled to be
fi nalized in mid 2008, pending
approval from shareholders and
regulatory commissions. Once
established, the new entity’s
worth would rival that of current
gaming monolith Electronic Arts,
which has a market value of $17.
billion after recently purchasing
independent developers BioWare
and Pandemic. A rep for EA stated
that “[the Activision/Vivendi
merger] doesn’t change our strat-
egy. Our CEO has been encourag-
ing senior managers to think of
all other publishers as one large
competitor—he’s been encourag-
ing them to think like challeng-
ers.” EA also owns a 25 percent
stake in rival publisher Ubisoft.
Most gamers won’t be
affected by the largest merger
in game-publishing history.
Blizzard’s game-development
programs will remain autono-
mous while the company con-
tinues work on StarCraft II and
the upcoming World of WarCraft
expansion, and existing brands
such as Sierra and Vivendi Mobile
Entertainment will still exist on
store shelves. Activision Blizzard
did reveal, though, its commit-
ment to annually “exploit” suc-
cessful Activision franchises,
including Tony Hawk, Call of Duty,
and, of course, Guitar Hero.Is MS Plotting against HD Discs?
TiVo Branches Out
DVR company will enter a host of new markets,
including the PCT
iVo has partnered with software developer Nero to
bring its DVR features to the PC. Next-generation Nero
media software will include the popular TiVo interface and
features, but a release date for the product has yet to be
announced. The partnership with Nero is just one of many
new ventures for the company. Although DirecTV dropped
TiVo in favor of its own product, Comcast has begun to
offer the service as a $2.95 upgrade above standard DVR
service, and an agreement with CableLabs means TiVo will
soon be able to offer cable subscribers on-demand pro-
gramming through its own set-top boxes. Additionally, the
company is working with Amazon and Rhapsody to bring
movies and music, respectively, to its DVR platform.quick start THE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALL
12 MAXIMUMPC (^) | FEB (^08) | http://www.maximumpc.com
Transformers director Michael Bay
thinks Bill Gates is the real villain.