THE RUMOUR MILL has it that Sir Richard Branson is about to get back into the computer games market.

Branson was once a big name in the computer games market, having been a bit of an industry pioneer by setting up Virgin Games in 1984. The outfit bought Mastertronic and rolled Sega's Master System across Europe.

When Sega Europe then built its own operation, Virgin Interactive Entertainment became one of the gaming powers on both sides of the Atlantic before being acquired by Blockbuster in 1994 for $250 million. At its height in 1997, VIE earned $210 million. From 1994 to 1998, VIE often took turns with Electronic Arts for market leadership in the UK and other European territories.

While it has dropped back a lot, one of Branson's many businesses has been Virgin Games, which focuses on prize-based online gaming websites.

However word on the street is that Branson will be at next month's E3 games show in Los Angeles. According to MCV, the new video games venture will be online-only.

An online launch is likely to tap in to the huge success and growth of networks such as Xbox Live and the Playstation Network, as well as multi-player PC gaming.

We asked Virgin to confirm all this for us, but it didn't return our call by press time. µ