While not the complete family tree, this diagram will give you a good idea of how insane and large the history of development studios really is.

With the recent news of the acquisition of the 1up network by UGO and it’s parent company, the Hearst Corporation, the death of another historic publication has come to pass. When the “Games For Windows” magazine published it’s last issue April of last year, the signs that former 1up holder, Ziff Davis Media, was in trouble were definitely there, but who would have guessed that less then a year later the entire network would be sold to another company leaving a majority of the staff lost in transition? While certainly whenever an acquisition or merger takes place there is going to be redundancy that will usually be resolved with the firing of employees, the way in which Hearst has handed out pink slips seems rather counter intuitive on their part.

Each year brings new and exciting moments in video games. Be it experiences within actual games or pieces of news from the industry, 2008 was packed full of memorable moments. Below, in no particular order, are my ten most powerful moments of 2008. Read them over, share your opinions and tell us your favorite moments in the comments section.

When looking at the recent news coming out of Japan from Square-Enix, it is quite easy to become lost and not know which announcements are pertinent to US gamers. Spanning from a partnership with a US based studio, to Dragon Quest 10 being developed for the Nintendo Wii, recent press releases have been the talk of the Internet and have major implications for US gamers.

In an industry where decapitation and mutilation is a mainstay, as well as language that would cause your grandmother to suffer a stroke, one taboo remains…Sex. Much like television and film, nudity and the subject of intercourse remains a largely unexplored territory for viewers and gamers alike. Where restrictions on language and violence have lessened over the years, sexual content has continued to walk a very thin line in an effort to find its place within popular media. On a recent episode of the popular Sitcom “30 Rock,” Tracy Morgan’s character, Tracy Jordan, schemes and subsequently succeeds at the creation of the world’s first porn video game, Gorgasim: The Legend of the Dong Slayer. While the title is as equally awesome as it is absurd, it raises a few good questions (which is the mark of good satire) about the possibilities and inherent hindrances to a game like Gorgasim becoming reality.

At this years Tokyo Games Show, John Schappert got on stage touting the “New Xbox Experience,” or NXE for short, as “the first time in history, we will completely reinvent a device through the magic of software.” With NXE launching…

Depending on the type of person you are, you are either excited by or dreading the upcoming Watchmen movie. If you are in the latter group then you will probably want to stop reading now. However, if you are the…

The modern gaming input device has changed little over the years. Sure there have been the few specialized peripherals, light guns, guitars, dance pads and the like. However, the home consoles have been a parade of modified joysticks and buttons…

After extensive time with Fallout 3 I could not help but long for the bug-free games of yore. As any PC gamer knows, computer games have always had their share of problems. This has mainly been attributed to the problems…

DRM has become an ugly sore on the lip of gaming. While software publishers have always implemented measures to prevent the piracy of their games, those measures have gotten rather drastic in recent history. Gamers cried out against the use…