'Tis the season for gaming, and as it happens every year, as the air gets a little chilly here in the US, new games begin spouting from the metal and wood racks of local retailers. At the beginning of this season, there are games aplenty due, and this week saw the release of Age of Empires Expansion: The Rise of Rome, Combat Flight Simulator, Grim Fandango, Fallout 2, and Ultima Online: The Second Age. At the same time, the gaming industry has gone through the pink-slip blues and the apparent death of Virgin's multiplayer galactic shooter, SubSpace.

　　The gaming industry has been going through some growing pains lately, so it was bound to happen - Interplay killed the anticipated adventure title, Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan Fury, and its adventure division, Tribal Dreams. The company has been making some big strides in the gaming universe but hasn't had any stellar retail sellers like Diablo or Myst. Gamers will remember Tribal Dreams' first (and last) release, the surrealistic Of Light and Darkness. Interplay appears to be adjusting to its latest money woes, and word on the streets is that the company is on the selling block for the highest bidder. What company would be able to purchase Interplay? We'll leave that to your imagination.

　　SegaSoft handed out ten pink slips this week in a restructuring plan to help the company set up for Sega's upcoming Dreamcast console's ability to play Internet titles through its Heat.net service. The company is already working on a patch for the recently released action-adventure Vigilance. In other news, GameSpot News broke a story last month about the demise of Radical's US operations; looks like the company's Canadian headquarters is following the trend and has given 40 employees the heave-ho.

　　Last week, readers made us aware that the once-mighty SubSpace may be getting close to death, and we've had a load of letters thanking us for getting players the dirt on what's really going on. Since Virgin's US operations shut down, there's been a lot of talk about what's next. So after some digging, we received the unfortunate word that SubSpace will most likely die in the US. Virgin Interactive's UK office said that it is still firmly backing the European version of the game and has an agreement to build a SubSpace server with a large UK-based ISP. US players will still be able connect to the UK servers with a little lag. Virgin UK says that after all the shake-ups subside in the next few months, the company may "start to address issues like the SubSpace server in the US and hopefully get it up and running again." As we get more information, we'll keep you informed.

　　In a strange flurry of announcements this week, Interplay released the highly anticipated Fallout 2 to the world to see if it would follow the path of its predecessor in winning the praise of the gaming industry. Three days later, Sierra Studios announced that it had signed a publishing deal with Fallout creator Tim Cain's new company - Troika Games. Wonder what the first title will be... an RPG of course.

　　In other gaming news, last week's demo release of Heretic II took the Net by storm, and gamers replied to the release with several game enhancements, tips, and thumbs up for a great-looking game. Those waiting for Diamond's MP3 player - the Rio - breathed a sigh of relief this week as a preliminary injunction ordered against the sale and manufacturing of the device was tossed out. Unfortunately, the suit could continue against Diamond.