I think Shaun McInnis hit it right on the head with his response to what's wrong with the industry. Well, I guess it's not exactly what's "wrong" with the industry, but these conglomerations and huge mergers are going to be the end of a lot of great innovations on the software side. Take a look at Madden; it seems to me that every year, EA pumps more money into advertising than any actual improvements. I blame this on the monopolizing NFLPA deal they made years back, eliminating the competition. Since then, I've bought one new madden game, simply to refresh the features that they've trickled out over the previous 5-6 iterations. I fear that if these companies continue to merge, all we'll see are sequels built off years-old engines with very minimal tweaks to gameplay and new box art. Of course, there's also the counterpoint that these mergers are not all bad for the industry. With a larger pool of collective resources, developers should have the budgets and technology to truly innovate in the software side of things. It'll just take some faith on the publisher's part that in the end, they won't end up in the red. But for that to happen, we as the consumer have to start acknowledging that a tried-and-true sequel does not always deserve a purchase over a risky, unknown title.

What a great trip down memory lane this article was. It makes me miss the forgotten games of previous generations. I still laugh when I think of how Eternal Darkness had me searching for the remote I thought I sat on when my tv flickered off, only to come back on moments later or how pissed I was when I got the "To be continued...Coming Soon: Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Redemption" after about 1/4 of the game. Even though it was a little gimmicky and the story line was fairly weak, it was definitely entertaining. Can't wait to see the new big reveals from E3 next week.

From what I read, AVG isn't shutting down the free service. It will still offer a barebones version of its browser app free of charge but will be releasing a paid version that has the added features of IM scanning, rootkit protection, a firewall, and spam controls. It's supposed to be priced around $55 for 2 years. Maximum PC just did an article about all the choices out there.