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  • Armstrong Sells Estate in Austin, Texas

    Armstrong Sells Estate in Austin, Texas

    Lance Armstrong has had a rough couple of years. Once the most beloved athlete in the U.S. for his story of overcoming cancer to become a seven-time Tour de France winner, the cyclist has now fallen into disgrace. After years of litigation, the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency last year stripped Armstrong of his titles and banned him from the sport of cycling. Armstrong has lost the support of sponsors and is now facing several lawsuits related to the doping scandal. He recently gave an interview with Oprah Winfrey in which he issued an apology and admitted to doping.

    This week, the Austin American-Statesman is reporting that Armstrong has sold his 1.7-acre estate in Austin, Texas. The report stated that Al Koehler, the founder of Royalty Clearinghouse, has taken out a $3.1 million loan to purchase Armstrong’s estate, which includes a 7,850-square foot house.

    Armstrong bought the estate in 2004 and renovated it, hanging his seven yellow Tour de France victory jersey’s on the walls of the house. The athlete also owns a home on Hawaii’s Big Island.

    Armstrong was recently spotted in Los Angeles and is rumored to be in talks with movie studios over a biopic of his life. If the cyclist is planning a more permanent move to L.A., he could look into buying the infamous Playboy Bunny House, which just went up for sale and is located directly across the street from the Playboy Mansion.

  • Bethesda Opens a New Studio in Austin

    Bethesda Opens a New Studio in Austin

    Bethesda Softworks this week announced it will open a new game development studio in Austin Texas. The studio will be named Battlecry Studios and will be headed by Rich Vogel. Vogel was most recently the executive producer for Star Wars: The Old Republic at BioWare Austin, but left soon after a large round of layoffs hit the studio.

    “We are very pleased to have someone with Rich’s vast experience join us at Bethesda,” said Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks. “Rich has a history of building and managing talented development teams and bringing high quality games to market, and we look forward to working with him on a new exciting project.”

    What exciting new project, could Andonov be referring to? Vogel’s game industry credits include plenty of MMO experience, including Ultima Online, Star Wars: Galaxies, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Bethesda has already announced The Elder Scrolls Online, an MMO set in Tamriel, where the company’s Elder Scrolls franchise games take place. Vogel’s MMO experience would suggest that Bethesda needs experienced talent to develop future MMOs. Could this mean an MMO version of Bethesda’s other huge franchise, Fallout, could soon be in development. It’s always possible, and Fallout fans have been clamoring for and speculating about a Fallout MMO for years.

    Bethesda, through its parent company ZeniMax Media, already owns one game development studio in Austin. The company acquired French developer Arkane Studios in 2010, which has a branch in Austin. Arkane has just completed development on Dishonored, which will be released next week.

  • South by Southwest Evolution Through The Ages

    If you’re like a lot people you’re probably wondering how the South By Southwest (SXSW) Festival got to be such a big deal and who attends the event. The following infographic from Rocksauce answers that exact questions and gives us some fun facts about what goes on there as well.

    Before we get into the infographic I’ll give you a brief summary of the typical demographic which attends SXSW. A majority of SXSW attendees are between the ages of 21 and 50 and make over $85,000 per year. In fact, if you make under $55,000 per year there’s a slim chance you’ll be attending. Successful startups that have launched from the SXSW festival include Twitter and Foursquare. Most interactive registrants came from the West, Southwest, and Northeast.

    Here’s the facts according to Rocksauce:

    There you have it, it was planned small, turned out huge and has just kept getting bigger ever since. Sounds like Woodstock. Hopefully you are lucky enough to attend. I wonder what the future will bring for the festival?