Activision goes straight up

One of the announcements we missed during the chaos of E3 a couple of weeks ago was Activision's absorption of yet another development studio. Z-Axis, the company behind the Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX series, will now become part of Activision's rapidly expanding in-house development stable, with $20m exchanging hands as part of the deal, along with assurances that key staff will stay at the company instead of jumping ship with their windfall. Despite the fact that Z-Axis is now part of Activision, they're still working on the bizarre sounding Dave Mirra BMX XXX for Acclaim. Described as the world's first "adult" (and we use that word in the loosest possible sense) extreme sports game, it adds scantily clad female bike riders into the mix, complete with "realistic physics for their hair, body and clothes" and FMV sequences of strippers being promised. And you thought Dead Or Alive Extreme Volleyball was bad... Related Feature - Activision grabs Shaba