Firaxis Studios, the home of video game legend Sid Meier 
and the developer of the forthcoming title “Civilization V,” is the latest game maker to face significant staff cuts.
The studio on Wednesday laid off 20 developers as part of what parent company Take Two Interactive Software calls a “realignment of development resources at the studio.”
Facing an onslaught of negative feedback from players, Blizzard Entertainment has reversed its decision to require users to use their real names in forum postings. Since announcing the new policy earlier this week, fans of Blizzard games have complained loudly, pointing out that they enjoy the company’s products because it represents an imaginary world in which they can escape reality.
Hulu is finally expanding beyond your PC’s monitor, but
if you want to take advantage of the service, it’s going to cost you. For the past week, we’ve been running Hulu Plus, the site’s subscription service, through its paces as it ramps up for a broad launch. And we’ve come to a few preliminary conclusions.
We say preliminary since this is a service that’s still in beta – and there’s still time to improve some of the bugs. On the whole, though, Hulu Plus is a content-packed service that gets a lot of things right. And its portability, especially via the iPad, is a welcome and long overdue feature that might be enough to get some people to pony up the $10 monthly charge. It’s far from perfect, though, and there are a few stumbling blocks that could keep others sitting on the fence even after Hulu opens the service up to everyone.
Significant staff cuts have hit Firaxis Studios, the 
home of gaming legend Sid Meier and developer of the forthcoming “Civilization V”. The studio has laid off 20 developers as part of what parent company Take Two Interactive Software calls a “realignment of development resources at the studio”.
That works out to roughly 15 percent of the company’s employees, if recent staffing estimates are correct. The company says the layoffs will not affect ongoing development of “Civ 5” or the upcoming “Civ” Facebook game.
Microsoft has always led the video game pack 
when it comes to online integration of its console services. But it recently turned a particularly impressive corner.
For the year ending June 30, sales of online products, such as movies, TV shows and downloadable game levels, were higher than revenue generated by subscription fees. Together, the company estimates that revenue for the Xbox Live service topped $1 billion.
There are a lot of “Best of show” awards given out 
at E3, but none carry the weight of the Game Critics Awards. Respected journalists from major publications team together for these honors, voting on the best games and hardware collectively.
This year’s winners have been announced – and it’s Nintendo’s 3DS handheld gaming system that walked away with the “Best of Show” award. id Software’s “Rage” and Valve’s “Portal 2” both earned multiple awards in sub-categories. (In order for a game to be eligible for an award, publishers are required to give judges hands-on time with the E3 demo. This is to ensure that games are actually playable and not just canned video presentations.)
The Internet is a fascinating thing. Under the cloak 
of anonymity, people often toss off societal niceties and gleefully rip into each other with abandon. No subject is taboo and the most innocent comment (i.e. “Boy, I’m really enjoying this game…”) can make you the subject of some brutal retorts.
Leave it to Blizzard Entertainment, arguably the biggest game developer in the industry, to try to tame the wild, wild west that is the online forum. The company has announced a new policy to its forums, informing users that starting July 27, all posts will be made using a person’s real-life first and last names.
DXG has established a good niche for itself in the budget camcorder 
segment – but how does it stand up when it tries to take on the big boys of the video industry?
The company is taking aim at Canon, Sony and Panasonic with the DXG-A85V, an ultra-affordable 1080p HD camcorder that’s loaded with features, including 12X zoom, touch-to-focus, Eye-Fi Wireless ready and a 10MP still camera. And while it may find notable success with non-discriminating consumers and entry-level shooters, discerning lensmen and pro-ams can pass this one by.
Disney hasn’t been a big force to date in the mobile gaming 
space – but that’s about to change.
The company has acquired music rhythm game maker Tapulous, makers of “Tap Tap Revolution” for an undisclosed sum. It’s a deal that’s not dissimilar to the acquisition of Wideload Games last September in that it give the company an individual who’s a leader in his segment of the industry.
The good news is video game software sales were up 
4 percent in May. The bad news is people were expecting them to be about twice as high. The OTHER bad news is that video game hardware sales were down 20 percent in May – dragging the industry as a whole down 5 percent compared to the 2009 figures.
While any improvement is a good one, it’s becoming clear that the video game industry is not going to be able to easily shake off its ongoing slump. May was a month loaded with potential blockbusters, including “Red Dead Redemption,” “Alan Wake” and “Super Mario Galaxy 2”.
Chris Morris: Journalist 