Because companies are getting ready to announce new cards, new development tools, and new games at next week's Game Developer Conference (GDC), this week turned out to be a fairly quiet one. For the first time, GDC (renamed from CGDC - Computer Game Developer Conference) is embracing games rather than just showcasing development tools and new hardware. There has been a great deal of discussion in the gaming community that the GDC is trying to become "pre-E3." And it many ways, it looks like it is. Will the programmers with PalmPilots turn riotous on game marketing folk? We'll find out on Tuesday.

　　But there's one game we're happy to see in any form: Quake III Arena. While id hasn't said anything about showing the title at GDC, we can assume that we'll see the title emblazoned on monitors and video screens at id's booth. If there are any playable versions on the show floor, we'll be there to give you an idea of what is to come. In the meanwhile, id released some shots this week showing off some of its Quake III Arena prowess. This will be the title to beat once it releases.

　　In business news, GT confirmed this week that it will be moving to Los Angeles, California. The rumblings of a GT sale to Disney still exist, and new rumors that GT may be selling its distribution business to the highest bidder make the Disney rumors even more interesting. With Disney's massive distribution, if GT were to come under Mickey's rule, GT probably wouldn't have to look at other distributors. We just hope that Duke will remain the same foul-mouthed fighter he's always been. A Disney deal could certainly land GT some major licenses. Stay tuned.

　　Intel's closest competitor AMD is enduring some rough times, and it appears that its life expectancy could be a little shorter than originally intended. Because it missed the ship date of its K6 processor by several weeks, the company won't meet its intended 5.5-million-units-shipped forecast. To save some bucks, the company will trim 300 employees from its payroll. AMD says that the problems lie in the fact that it missed several weeks of manufacturing time. Intel, on the other hand, has been stepping up its marketing with a full line of Celeron and Pentium II processors. The fast new Celerons are aimed squarely at AMD-prone consumers, and it looks like Intel may be chipping away at AMD's overall push into the marketplace. We'll have to see what AMD announces at the quarter's close in March.

　　Best known for the recent Heretic II, Raven Software announced that it will leave Corvis alone for the time being and shift attention to its Star Trek: Voyager license. The license was acquired by Activision when Virgin bombed out and Raven was asked to build a first-person shooter for the license. When we spoke to Raven, the first thing we had to say was, "Please don't make this anything like Klingon Honor Guard." Raven, having seen Klingon as well, says that gamers should have nothing to fear. GameSpot will get a closer look at what Raven intends to release at E3 this May.

　　The force behind the full-time talk-and-shoot game FireTeam is looking to get out of the gaming business and into the technology business. Multitude says that more interest in the company's technology has pushed the company to give up on the gaming business and take on its Team Talk software. It will still support FireTeam, so gamers who do play the title won't be left out in the cold.

　　Everyone appears to be addicted to eBay, and if we told you about all the stuff the GameSpot staff has purchased on the service, well, you'd truly be amazed. So it comes as no surprise that an Ultima Online player is auctioning off his account with three houses, a castle, and a boatload of other items. Sounds silly at first glance, but people are willing to pay a premium for a top-tier account like this. Plus, where else could you actually buy a castle for only US$1500. We wonder if Origin is thinking about adding this as a feature in the next version of the environment.

　　The current bid price at 12:30 PM PST on Friday had risen to $1575.00

　　Lucasfilm released the real trailer for its upcoming continuation of the Star Wars series: Episode I. If you want to see it in high-quality QuickTime 3.0 format, we'd encourage you to take the time to download the big 25MB file. If you're on a slow connection and want to see it in the theater, it is attached as a preview with the Wing Commander movie that hit theaters today. From all early reviews of the Wing Commander movie, you may not want to stay, so don't buy any popcorn.