UPDATE: A well-placed and reliable source has confirmed that Todd Porter and Jerry O'Flaherty have been fired from ION Storm. The source stated that the two were fired spontaneously by John Romero after a heated argument in Dallas.

　　Eidos and ION Storm won't make any official comment about the goings on at ION until Friday when one or both companies will deliver an official press release regarding the situation. Both companies are currently trying to negotiate how much money Porter and O'Flaherty will walk away with in their severance packages. Considering the virtual nosedive ION Storm has taken in the eyes of gamers with Dominion (a game which Porter worked on at 7th Level), Porter and O'Flaherty may not be walking away with all that much money (Porter may only have four months worth in his severance package). But a changing of the guard at ION may be just what the company needs to get back on track.

　　Eidos Interactive publishing director, John Kavanagh, will take over operations at ION Storm and another GameSpot News source claims that Kavanagh has already bought a house in the greater Dallas area. Kavanagh has long been with Eidos since its early days when it was still called Domark and helped the company to acquire US Gold.

　　As all this is going on, there is still no word on whether Eidos will take over ION in a 51 percent acquisition but with Kavanagh moving to the Dallas area – the deal seems to be in the near future.

　　ORIGINAL STORY: Late this afternoon, the long-held rumors of Eidos Interactive stepping in on game development at ION Storm came to its apex today as the Gaming Insider site claimed that ION's Todd Porter and Jerry O'Flaherty will be escorted from ION this afternoon.

　　GameSpot News contacted Eidos Interactive representative Heather Hawkins, who said that she hadn't heard of any goings on between Eidos and ION, and after checking with Eidos employees, she found no proof of any of the rumored business deal.

　　ION Storm's Mike Breslin was more definitive by saying that both Todd and Jerry are still employed at ION and have "not been asked to leave" by the company. Breslin finished by saying he knows the rumor has been out there for a while, but that rumor "doesn't bear any fruit".

　　So the official word is that both Porter and O'Flaherty are still employed. But several GameSpot News sources say that the deal is indeed done, and the two companies are just working out how much the deal is worth.

　　The Dallas gaming arena has been buzzing about the rumored departure of Todd and Jerry after allegations made in the Dallas Observer stated that several ION business deals that had gone were blamed on Porter. Since that time, rumors flying around the gaming industry are that Eidos was looking at buying a 51 percent stake in ION - effectively giving the publisher control of ION development. The second half of the rumor is that Eidos would make its first change by firing both Porter and O'Flaherty.

　　So right now, it's a battle of words. If there is any information regarding deals going on between Eidos and ION, you'll read it here.

　　Special thanks goes out to Ken Brown from Computer Gaming World.