While most videogame publishers are taking advantage of digital 
downloads to extend their profits these days, none are doing so as successfully as Activision.
The company on Monday announced that life-to-date sales for downloadable expansions to its “Call of Duty” games have surpassed 20 million units.
Game publishers and game retailers have, at best,
an uneasy relationship – so what happens when one becomes the other? It’s a growing question that should make for some interesting times in the years ahead.
Valve Software kicked off the hybrid developer/distributor model in 2003 with Steam, and it wasn’t long before Electronic Arts and Activision followed suit with their own online stores, giving them more control of (and higher margins from) the sale of their games and in-game content. Microsoft and Sony, meanwhile, straddle the fence with the storefronts that are built into the Xbox 360 and PS3.
There are a lot of sites discussing the state of the video 
game industry today, but many just skim the surface. Well-respected video game industry analyst Scott Steinberg is hoping to change that with Game Theory, a new site launching today that will offer designers, executives and journalists the opportunity to discuss and debate the day’s top issues, while giving fans a deeper look at the inner workings of the game world.
The site is a mix of written columns (disclaimer: I’m contributing regular opinion pieces to the project) and video documentaries. The first video (embedded above) polls developers and executives about the dramatic changes the industry is facing these days.
In a world where the demands for people’s 
attention grow exponentially, it’s hard to break through the noise, no matter how strong of a salesperson you are. And even if you do manage to capture their attention, getting customers to change their ingrained habits is even harder.
The brute force method can work – sometimes – but the hours you’ll spend on cold calls, mailings and learning the best methods to penetrate their walls is expensive. Smart sales leaders leverage their existing customer base and social contacts to build their business.
Read more in the July 2010 issue of Transaction Trends (PDF)
If you still doubt the power of social media,
the Nielsen Company would beg to differ. New research from the ratings service finds sites like Facebook and MySpace are dominating nearly one-quarter of the time Americans spend online these days.
The sites are so popular that their usage is more than twice that of video games and triple that of email. And they’re growing at an incredible rate.
For the better part of the last year, game industry 
pundits have shouted from the rooftops that social network gaming was the next big thing – but it’s starting to look like even they underestimated just how big it would be.
Major media companies, traditional game developers and more are gobbling up the developers of Facebook and MySpace games – and the price tags are escalating at a startling pace.
Chris Morris: Journalist 