Another week of up and down profits for game-related companies has seemed to flood us with accountant speak, but despite all the number crunching in news this week, there was a load of action.

　　Going along with the current churning of staffs going off to start their own development houses, on Wednesday we confirmed that James Phinney, a producer and designer for Starcraft, had left Blizzard with ten other workers to join a newly formed start-up company. Blizzard claims that the only effect it will have on the company is with the Warcraft II Platinum development schedule. In the rumor mill, we've heard that another employee from a separate publisher has also left to join the start-up, and we've heard several other extremely interesting rumors. If these rumors are true, we'll let you know what we found.

　　At the beginning of the week, Dave Taylor began talking about his company, Crack Dot Com, and the fact that it is just about out of money. Crack is still completely focused on perfecting Golgotha, and on Wednesday, Dave spoke to GameSpot News about Crack's financial crisis and where he thinks the problems began.

　　Acclaim's Turok II: Seeds of Evil is definitely one title that will take gamers by storm when it releases. Running on a Voodoo2 board, Acclaim showed off a variety of weapons, new creatures, and a series of new lighting effects.

　　Sierra had two game announcements over the course of the week. Trophy Buck will be Sierra's first title for the popular shotgun hunter genre. The company will also be releasing a special edition of Lords of Magic rather than build an expansion pack. The special edition will sell for US$40 with a $20 rebate for current owners of the Lords of Magic.

　　In the latest hardware news, Creative Labs has finally nailed down a date for its Sound Blaster Live! audio card. From what we've heard about the card, it could bring 3D audio to a whole new standard. Since the company hasn't really made significant leaps with 3D audio capabilities (although the company's new SBPCI 64 and Ensoniq AudioPCI do support DirectSound 3D). While the new Live! card was in development, competitors like Aureal, with its A3D sound technology, have won over several hardware and software developers. To make up for that lost time, Creative has taken a different road. Rather than just evangelizing about the product to everyone, Creative has worked closely with Microsoft to make sure that its Environmental Audio is incorporated into DirectSound 3D so developers will only need to code to one API instead of two.

　　Shifting from the inside of the PC to the outside, Immersion stopped by to show off the latest Logitech WingMan Force and an early version of a force-feedback mouse. The idea for a mouse that shakes in your palm may sound a little strange, but after playing with the prototype device, we think that it will bring more force-feedback devices into the gaming realm.