Achronos has posted up at Bungie.net that the Seventh Column will be shut down next week, on September 7, for major upgrades including a new look, new forums, and a new user database. Some important notes:

• Chapters with less than three members will be deleted
• All existing forum posts will be deleted
• Data resource limits are being reduced; instead of each chapter having 100 resources with 1000 data rows each, chapters will have one resource per group for five types, with limits of 250 rows of data per type
• Guest books, Contact Info, FAQs, Links and Articles will function as before
• No shirt, no shoes, no service and no exceptions

Be sure to read the full article if you run a Seventh Column chapter or plan to.

There's mention of the Wideload - Aspyr deal today at Evil Avatar (story, press release) and at SPOnG.

There's some interesting language in the release that might give a small hint to the nature of the game, or at least its advertising campaign:

Aspyr will work closely with Wideload to make sure that the vision and feel of the game is reflected in all aspects of bringing this title to market. Furthermore, Aspyr is leveraging its music and film ties to create a campaign that is just as twisted and off the wall as the game itself. Stay tuned (and we mean tuned) for some interesting developments.

Perhaps Wideload is making Jet Set Radio Tuner?

UPDATE: MacWorld has picked up the news as well. Off-topic: isn't that G5 iMac cool?

Wideload Games has signed its first publishing deal with Apsyr Media, according to IGN. Aspyr Media is an outfit that publishes Mac games as well as some music CDs and movies on DVD. The article goes on to further narrow the unofficial launch of Wideload's first game to Fall of 2005.

The article quotes Seropian as being persuaded by Aspyr's promise of focusing on his new company.

Thanks to Louis Wu at HBO for the heads-up on the story.

Gary "Dolbex" Williams of Been Mawed and Halo50k3.com is announcing a new Halo tournament, Halo50k3, will be held on July 24 and 25, 2004, in Atlanta, Georgia, and will be presented by Major League Gaming.

According to their press release, these are the tournament details:

• A minimum of $10,000 will be presented to the winners. This will be increased by the number of teams entering the tournament. Based on past numbers the tournament is sure to become the biggest ever.
• Totally new formats will ensure that the greatest team will be crowned victor. If you are tired of the same format and facing the same teams, 50k3 will be sure to shake things up.
• State vs. State sides games Saturday night to find the greatest of the 50 states. 8-man teams will be created to take states on head to head.
• Special appearances by members of the Halo Community, Nokia, and other surprises.
• Thirty-two TVs of the same make and model. Imagine the sea of screens with the Halo logo being broadcasted. With double the stations, that means more free play, more game time, and less waiting around.
• T-shirts, merchandise, and giveaways will be available to purchase and win.

Largeunit at Halo50k has this to say about the upcoming tourney:

This won’t just be a tournament, this will be a Halo Circus. All things Halo will congregate on the sacred grounds of the venue and explode with yummy Halo goodness for players of all skill levels, playing styles, and ages.

More information is available at http://www.halo50k3.com/ .

Achronos has posted on Bungie.net again about the site, which they expect to be down for perhaps as long as 6 hours on Monday morning starting at 8 Pacific. This covers all official Bungie websites.

Bungie is having another Bungie Fan Fest at E3 this year, but there are only 50 spots, so go and register-- quick! For details, read SketchFactor's post on the Fest.

Gamespy is reporting that the long-rumored price cut for Microsoft's Xbox, bringing the unit under $150 in the US, has been announced by MS and will finally happen in April of 2004. The Xbox is now cheaper than the leading next-generation console, the PlayStation 2 from Sony. A second-generation Xbox is widely rumored for release in 2005.

Rapture of cookedgamers posted in the HBO forum that Gearbox Software, the company that ported Halo from the Xbox to Windows, has announced a new project, apparently called WarStory. He's linked to a single page at http://www.warstorygame.com which appears to be registered to Gearbox.

Randy "DuvalMagic" Pitchford has posted in the Gearbox forum, linking to that site, and saying an official announcement is due "very soon".

There's no information on the new site itself save for a single quote:

"The problem with these games is that they promise to let us live the life of a soldier in combat, but they're not really putting us there. Real soldiers know that in combat, you live and fight as a team. Leadership counts. Good tactics win. Poor leadership and bad tactics get you slaughtered."

The quote is attributed to US Army Airborne Ranger Colonel John Antal. Sounds like they're going for realism in this one.

The Bungie Studios page has what looks like two new job entries on it today; one for an Environment Finishing Artist, and one for a Character Animator.
UPDATE: These are most likely old. Louis Wu of HBO let us know that he wrote about the Finishing Artist position last January; we didn't find it because we were looking for the full title 'Environment Finishing Artist'. However, one might assume that because they are still listed on Bungie's page, that the jobs might still be open, even after all this time.

Deimos Fawkes of Subnova writes that their file and game hosting activities may have to be curtailed in the future due to financial considerations. More detail if we get it.
Emil at CobaltNova seems to be retiring-- we saw this a few days ago but weren't sure it was for good, since the news post was so short. However, it looks like it is.

News.com's David Becker is reporting that M-Systems, a maker of flash memory, is announcing that they've signed a contract with Microsoft to provide memory systems for future Xbox products.

M-Systems currently makes a line of flash-based drives called DiskOnKey. Their CFO, Ronit Maor, says in the article that what they will be doing for the Xbox is "significantly higher capacity" than the 8Mb memory modules used now to plug into Xbox controllers.

This, along with the addition of online storage as part of future Xbox Live plans, is being touted as a way to decrease Xbox production costs and reduce the liabilities caused by having a standard hard drive in the box (i.e. hacking and Linux). However, if the flash drive offers the same capabilities, I don't see how it won't get hacked, too, and if it doesn't, I don't see how this won't cripple the box.

Cost reductions are speculated to be driven by a desire to reduce the home and entertainment unit's losses, which were $394 million last year, down from $412 million the year before, according to News.com.

Thanks Blackstar for pointing this out.