When it comes to digital game sales, GameStop 
is still an also ran – but the company is making a series of moves that are starting to raise eyebrows among industry observers, who say it seems on track to become a powerful force.
Valve’s Steam service is still far and away the category leader, but GameStop (in a meeting with analysts) said it expects to see digital sales jump from $500 million this year to $1.5 billion by 2014.
It’s not that often that you 
can definitively point to the beginning of a trend. But when it comes to really bad video games based on movies, there’s a pretty clear starting point.
It was 1982, and Atari was hoping to capitalize on the monster success of Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.” It gave the game’s developers less than six months to create the title — and the rush-job showed. Wise players bypassed it and Atari ended up burying thousands — if not millions — of unsold copies in a New Mexico landfill while ushering in what would become known as the great video game crash of 1983.
Nearly 30 years later, things really haven’t changed that much.
It’s too early to call 3D TV 
a disappointment, but given the hype surrounding it and the accompanying marketing push, it certainly hasn’t lived up to expectations.
The price of the sets is partially to blame (and those wonky, dorktacular glasses aren’t doing the industry a lot of favors, either.) But what it really comes down to is a lack of content — and that’s where television manufacturers are counting on video games to come to the rescue.
Most people don’t look too 
much further than the BBQ or pool on July 4, but the Revolutionary War app puts the story of the War of Independence in perspective, offering a mix of informational essays with videos, biographies, and original documents in the form of the Journals of the Constitutional Congress. It’s good for kids and a nice refresher for adults who have forgotten their grade-school history. The app is laid out fairly well, but parts of it seem rushed. Freezes and crashes happen occasionally and some of the graphics are more simplistic than they should be. At the time of this review the $4.99 price is about a dollar more expensive than we’d prefer, but as an educational tool, it’s first rate.
Intel’s introduction of its Sandy Bridge 
chip technology in January was a breakthrough for the computer industry. Suddenly, transferring HD video between devices wasn’t an arduous affair and the chip came with security protocols that were enough to impress even jaded studios – who agreed to begin offering HD versions of film online the same day they hit DVD and Blu-ray – a first for the entertainment industry.
To quote Bachman Turner Overdrive, though, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
The days of having to own pro-level audio 
equipment to produce a professional sounding podcast may be far behind us, but a bad mic can still ruin your credibility and cause an audience to flee. Fortunately, Blue Microphones has produced a pair of pro/am mics that are not only affordable, but produce an audio quality that comes within shooting distance of systems that cost thousands of dollars.
The company offers two mics – the less expensive Snowball and the higher-priced Yeti. Determining the best for you will largely depend on your needs.
I’m off to recharge my 
batteries for a week and see just how much sun this Irish-descended body can handle. Because I’m not the type who can unplug easily, I’ll be doing this in an area that has no good Internet coverage, so posting will be light this week.
Look for a couple of features and product reviews – things that I’ve been meaning to do more of, but the steady flow of news this year has kept my focus elsewhere.
Having established partnerships 
with both Netflix and Hulu on the Xbox 360, Microsoft might be gearing up to compete with them.
The company is reportedly planning to roll out a streaming video service of its own under the Zune brand later this year.
After hitting a few speed 
bumps, the big screen adaptation of Sony’s blockbuster Uncharted is moving forward once more.
Director Neil Burger, best known for Bradley Cooper’s “Limitless” and the Edward Norton film “The Illusionist,” has taken over the directorial reins after David O. Russell walked away from the project due to “creative differences”. And fans of the game are breathing a big sigh of relief.
We certainly have no problem getting 
caught up in the fun of playing games, but the people who create them have their pocketbooks to worry about, too. In this column, finance expert and GameSpy contributor Chris Morris guides you through the tricky corridors the gaming industry’s financial side, touching on big-time business decisions and how they matter to the common gamer.
After being subjected to political and legal attacks for years, the gaming industry got one hell of a shield last month as the U.S. Supreme Court definitively stated “Video games qualify for First Amendment protection.” It was cause for celebration — for investors, for developers, and for gamers. But it hardly meant that the attacks were over… or less dangerous. For several publishers, a new fight is already looming.
“I don’t think this puts an end to it, ” says Dan Offner, a partner with law firm Loeb & Loeb, who specializes in the video game industry. “It may put a pin in it for a short period of time, but I see the regulation of mature content with respect to minors as a hot-button issue for the Federal Trade Commission and the various state governments. It’s the end of round one, but round two is about to start [and] I don’t see the industry getting a big breather.”
Chris Morris: Journalist 