Watch Mercenaries Online Mic' title='Watch Mercenaries Online Mic' />As the medieval world gave way to the early modern around 1500, European warfare was utterly transformed. Mounted knights and castles gave way to cannon, firearms. Watch breaking news videos, viral videos and original video clips on CNN. GameTrailers is your destination to see official trailers first. Powered by IGN, you can expect to see worldfirst exclusive gameplay and the hottest new tra. A Meme Shared on an Internal Google Meme Network Depicted a Leaker Being Beaten. A Google engineer was fired yesterday after he wrote a memo arguing that women are biologically less suited for software engineering jobs compared to men and that Googles diversity efforts are misguided. The engineers memo was circulated widely inside the company on Google and on an internal meme generator, Memegen, before Gizmodo published it on Saturday. Shortly after Gizmodo published the memo, a new Memegen post threatened physical violence against Googlers who leak to the press. Watch Mercenaries Online Mic' title='Watch Mercenaries Online Mic' />The meme remained live for three days and received hundreds of upvotes before Google removed it, Gizmodo has learned. The meme remixed a popular cartoon by Steve Napierski that shows a Mac user and a PC usernormally opponentssetting aside their differences to beat a Linux user with a baseball bat. The first two dialogue balloons in the internal Google meme said I agree and I disagree, in apparent reference to the contents of the memo. The third dialogue ballon, associated with the character being beaten, said, I leaked. A Google spokesperson did not respond to a phone call or an email requesting comment on the threat and the companys policies regarding violent threats in the workplace. In a statement before the memos author was fired, Googles Vice President of Diversity, Integrity Governance Danielle Brown said the company aims to support diverse opinions, so long as they are expressed in ways that fall within the companys code of conduct. The description of this meme sounds quite disturbing, and its sad to see some at Google are against more transparency on vital issues of public interest. Though its also heartening to see that many at Google were brave enough to go to media organizations with this story in the first place. As weve seen from recent leaks from Uber and Facebook, accountability at tech companies can benefit from more transparency in the press, not less, Trevor Timm, the executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told Gizmodo. Googles CEO Sundar Pichai is expected to address the memo and the issues it raised at an all hands meeting this week. Bio. Ware Montreal Closes Will EA kill this brand like it has these Part 1 Origin and Westwood. Bio. Ware Montreal, developer of the divisive Mass Effect Andromeda, will be closed and folded into EA Motive. In May, the studio was downgraded to a support studio and assigned to work on Star Wars Battlefront 2 and provide long term support for Andromeda. During this switch over, some employees were transferred to EA Motive. Now, according to EA CFO Blake Jorgensen during the Q1 2. Watch Crimson Tide Online. EA earnings call, the entire studio will be shut down, and the Bio. Ware Montreal name retired. With the closing of the Montreal studio, that only leaves Bio. Ware Austin, which provides development and support for the ongoing Star Wars The Old Republic MMO, and Bio. Ware Edmonton, the original Bio. Ware studio and the one responsible for the upcoming Anthem. With Star Wars The Old Republic looking long in the tooth, the Bio. Ware name seems to be riding on the success or failure of Anthem to determine its fate. EA has consistently had a habit of buying up big name studios through the years and punishing any failure by ending their legacies. Below are four studios that EA purchased that used to be industry icons and are now just ghosts living on through the descendants of their original intellectual properties. Origin Systems Founded 1. Defunct 2. 00. 4Origin Systems found its success when the majority of the gaming industry was in turmoil. The year 1. 98. 3 was terrible for giants like Atari, but those making games for the Apple II, the Atari 8 bit and other early PCs were having much better luck. Richard Lord British Garriott de Cayeux n Garriott and his brother Robert formed the company and quickly released Ultima III Exodus which sold well enough for the company to be considered a success. Eventually, Origin would go on to release seven more main Ultima games, a host of ports and spin offs, including the very successful Ultima Online. The studio was also responsible for the much beloved Wing Commander space sim series, and dozens of other classic games. Electronic Arts bought Origin Systems in 1. EA clipped the Wing Commander series wings as soon as it took control of Origin Systems. Jason FaulknerMic. However, in 1. 99. Ultima IX. EA had previous already decided to make the company focus on online only development after that games release, and with its failure, EA canceled a slew of projects that Origin had planned. Ultima Online Origin, Privateer 3, Harry Potter Online, and other games were all put on the chopping block. In fact, Ultima IX would be the studios last full game release, though it stayed active to support Ultima Online until 2. Richard Farriot de Cayuex left Origin in 2. Destination Games, and after that, the studio was on life support. The studio quietly withered away until EA finally closed it in 2. Now, Origin is the name for EAs PC digital marketplace, which given the criticism the software has faced in the past, is an ignominious fate for such an influential name in gaming. Westwood Studios Founded 1. Defunct 2. 00. 3Westwood Studios was formed in 1. Epyx and Strategic Simulations, Inc porting 8 bit titles to newer 1. Ironically, their first original title was Mars Saga, which was published by Electronic Arts. The studios first big success was 1. Eye of the Beholder, published by SSI, and through the early 1. In 1. 99. 2 Westwood cemented its place in gaming legend with the release of Dune II. This game was the first modern real time strategy title and introduced many of the conventions we still see in the genre today. Mouse based unit selection and management, fog of war, and the interplay between resource gathering and base building all combined to form the progenitor to great names like Star. Craft and Command and Conquer. EA has all but abandoned the Command Conquer series. Jason FaulknerMic. In the same year, Dune II was released, Westwood was acquired by Virgin Interactive, but this only seemed to bolster the studios success. In 1. 99. 5, the company released the first game in the franchise its best known for, and one of the icons of the RTS genre Command Conquer. This game built on the foundation set down for Dune II and added cheesy, but awesome, live action cutscenes, and pre rendered 3. D models for in game sprites. It also had a killer soundtrack, which was facilitated by Westwoods decision to only release the game via CD ROM. Westwood would go on to release the spin off series Command Conquer Red Alert, and other successful and influential titles. In 1. 99. 8, the studio was receiving around 5 of the combined revenue from the entire PC gaming market, and this made them a target for a buyout. In that year, Electronic Arts purchased Westwood for 1. In response many Westwood employees quit, leaving many internal projects without proper staffing. After EAs acquisition of the studio, things get a bit hazy. With Westwood, EA also got Virgin Interactives North American assets and Burst Studios. All of these were placed under operational control of a new company Westwood Pacific. In early 2. 00. 3, EA combined its Los Angeles, Irvine and Los Vegas studios into one facility which fell under the new EA Pacific branding. As for Westwoods legacy, the studios name was discontinued after the combination of West Coast studios under the EA Pacific umbrella. EA Pacific itself would be disbanded after only developing one title, Command Conquer Generals, in August 2. EA Los Angeles. Both studios were moved to a new combined campus and continued under the EA Los Angeles moniker until 2. Danger Close Games. Danger Close was formed to focus on the Medal of Honor franchise, but after the lukewarm reception of Medal of Honor Warfighter in 2. In 2. 01. 3, Danger Close Games had yet another name change, this time to DICE Los Angeles. DICE LA hasnt developed any titles of its own and exists to support EA DICEs overall operations. More to come. Weve talked about how two of the biggest names in gaming faded away under EAs watch, but weve just hit the tip of the iceburg. In part 2 well be looking at Maxis, the creators of the monolithic The Sims series, and Pandemic, who made the successful Mercenaries series, the cult classic Destroy All Humans, and the original Star Wars Battlefront and Star Wars Battlefront II. More gaming news and updates. Check out the latest from Mic, like this deep dive into the cultural origins of Gamergate. Also, be sure to read this essay about what its like to cosplay while black, a roundup of family friendly games to play with your kids and our interview with Adi Shankar, producer of the animated Castlevania Netflix series.