OH YEAH, AND OSI SHUT DOWN UO2, VERANT SHUT DOWN WHINEPLAY, AND DEREK SMART THINKS JEFFK IS REAL [Author: Lum the Mad]

As always, April 1 was an exciting day for news from the gaming industry.

First up, Asheron’s Call and Asheron’s Call 2 got cancelled. A Canadian web site (using the @IP URL redirect trick) “got the scoop” on that one.)

Thankfully it wasn’t all gloom and doom in the MMO field – Shadowbane has a new publisher! That’s right, Valusoft, maker of fine products such as Floorplan 3D and Wild Turkey Hunt, will surely give Wolfpack Studios the support they need in these trying times. That one from the official Shadowbane forums, so it must be true!

Also, Star Wars Galaxies revealed their newest playable race: Gungans! Meesa no like dat.

And finally, Horizons went on about their quest for rideable mount design, which I’m told is considered funny if you’ve been following Horizons. If you haven’t been following Horizons, the only conclusion you can draw is that they’ve been drinking heavily while you weren’t looking.

When I showed up with his new mode of transportation, he thought I was joking; but once he got going, I couldn’t get him off – “This is awesome! I haven’t felt like this since I was eight years old!” I specifically remember him shouting out strange and unusual sentences during the first hour of testing the device, but the most memorable was “this reminds me of Debbie Reynolds!” Once he bounced off around the corner and didn’t return for five hours, I knew that this was the mount of choice.

Oh, and our moving to a new host and promptly being raped with rusty barbed wire? Not a joke. Sorry.