NEWS & NOTES

EPYX GOES DISKLESS

Epyx, once among the largest producers of entertainment software for personal computers, announced major layoffs in late September. Besides reducing staff, Epyx switched its focus from disk-based software to cartridges for dedicated videogame machines. Future Epyx products will be licensed to and distributed by other publishers.

For more than a decade, Epyx received high marks for publishing colorful, action-oriented software. Perhaps the company's best-known titles were those in its Games series, including Summer Games and California Games.

In recent years, much of Epyx's attention had been aimed at new media, including a hand-held color videogame machine. Created and developed at Epyx, that product proved too expensive for the company to market, so Epyx sold it to Atari earlier this year.

Current Epyx titles will remain on sale through the end of 1989.

—KEITH FERRELL