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Ever wonder what happened to Neal Hallford, one of the brains behind Betrayal at Krondor? Well, he has a < website that will answer all your questions. Especially interesting is Neal's history of BaK, its success, his work on the sequel, The Thief of Dreams, which was never made, and his assistence to 7th Level in the early design stages of Return to Krondor. He also lists some of his 'creations' that have appeared in Ray's novels. Neal and John Cutter (who was the other brain behind BaK) are now working at Cavedog on a game titledElysium.

GameSpot is reporting Cendent's confirmation that it will sell its software division, including Sierra.

Cendant Corporation confirmed earlier reports that it intends to sell its consumer software division to Paris-based Havas SA for US$800 million in cash and future contingent cash payments that could amount to another $200 million. The consumer software division includes Sierra On-Line and its six studios, Knowledge Adventure, Blizzard Entertainment, and Davidson and Associates. The deal, pending regulatory approvals, is expected to finalize sometime in the first quarter of1999. Cendant estimates that the sale will result in an after-tax gain of roughly $450 million in 1999. Cendant stock as of 1:30pm EST was up a half point at 14 15/16, though at one point within the last year Cendant had been enjoying a 40-point peak.

This should not affect the release of Return to Krondor or any future titles.

EBWorld is now saying that RtK is to be released on the 24th. Also, Sinjin posted this to the RtK Development Board in regards to the upcoming demo:

Here's the scoop on the demo. We have already sent it to Seattle for QA testing (what a novel idea) and approval. I am assuming it will be signed off on this week and then make it's way through whatever channels.

Here's the bad news... it's 290 MB! We were hoping for 200MB, but the 'problem' is that we wanted to make a really good demo, and to do this everything has to be 'in there.' The logical chapter for the demo is the first chapter of the game, this takes place in Krondor.

RtK is such a big game that even stripped down to nothing it's 300 MB, so the methods of distribution will be fairly narrow, but that is the trade off we decided to make to give you a really fully functioned demo.

As I become aware of specific ways to get the demo (other Sierra products it may be included with,net download locations, magazine demo disks, etc.) I will try and post asap. Hope this clarifies things a bit.

Electronics Boutique and other retailers are saying that RtK will be in stores on Thursday (11/19), at a price of 49.99. EB is also offering a $10 mail-in rebate.

John, the owner of the REF WebRing, sent me this notice:

Webring is growing , there are now 12 sites in the ring and one waiting!!

Being one of the founding members of the ring, let me congratulate John for pulling all this together - it wouldn't have been done without his effort.

Desslock's RPG News posted a mail from Sinjin about the completion of RtK. Here's what the game's Producer had to say:

As with every game these days, it took a lot of people working very hard to hit gold. We received a lot of valuable input and playtesting from some very knowledgable RPG guys and we hope the balance shows it. We really put it through the wringer in QA here, Seattle, and with some hardcore external playtesters. I just saw the packaging and man is it sweet! The marketing guys are going all out with various promotions at all the chains. Looks like we make the stores for Thanksgiving, as advertised. It remains to be seen if the earth has actually stopped spinning on its axis as a result of RtK hitting Gold Master... top scientists are currently verifying.

Yes, I also want to play the game. But we must wait for a couple weeks. And in case you missed it, Desslock moved his excellent RPG site from GamePen to recently.