Boy would I love to be a fly on the wall during the Ziff Davis Game Group takeover and transition meetings. As anyone who reads this blog knows, I hate 1UP.com. Its conversational editorial style has been showing up in its printed publications more and more each month, to the point they lack any journalistic quality and, as I’ve said, professionalism.

I don’t know how I missed this, but what was once threatened last year is now becoming a reality, as GameSetWatch reports the ZD Game Group is officially on the block. Here are some things we have to look forward to when this ultimately comes to fruition:

• The 1UP.com website actually starts working, for a change.
• Shane Bettenhausen goes back into retail where he belongs, after an unsuccessful stop working for his heroes.
• The 1UP.com news group (Luke, Patrick, et al) are sent packing in favor of some real journalism. Luke’s cackling giggle is thankfully never to be heard from again.
• James Mielke has to pay for his own vacations.
• Che Chou’s laughter can be heard all the way from Washington.

Believe me, there are some good people at 1UP and the ZD Game Group: John Davison, Mark MacDonald, Shawn Elliott and Bryan Intihar to single out a few. These people I hope will land on their feet at a better managed media outlet and continue to provide interesting insight on video games and their veiled industry. The others, to put it kindly, probably should never have had the opportunity to call what they did at 1UP a “career”.

Let’s be clear – no one has even indicated 1UP and its publications are going anywhere. But whomever decides to take over would be better suited cleaning house rather than working with the existing group of egos.

Here’s to 2007!