Retail video game sales might be 
floundering in 2009, but Steam, the largest digital distributor of PC games, is have a banner year.
Valve Software, maker of the “Half-Life” franchise and the owner of Steam, say active accounts at the service have topped 30 million – with new growth of 178 percent in the past 12 months. At its peak, the number of simultaneous players has reached 3 million.
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.
When Nintendo announced the price of the 3DS, jaws dropped. 25,000 Yen converts, as you undoubtedly know by now, to just under $300 — a figure the gaming world howled was too high. Many gamers initially assumed the system would carry the same price tag when it hit the states, and the outrage increased. Analysts and industry observers predicted (after currency conversion and other factors) that the U.S. launch price would likely be closer to $250, but this did little to mollify people.
What many people tend to ignore or forget, though, is that Nintendo made some enormous pricing mistakes with the Wii — leaving millions of dollars on the table. And with the 3DS, the company’s taking steps to ensure it doesn’t repeat those gaffes. $250 (or even $300, if the company decides to surprise everyone and roll the dice) is, admittedly, an extraordinarily high price for a handheld gaming device… particularly one that has a single function. And this pricing strategy could backfire and give Apple a window to increase its market share. But from a pure business standpoint, it’s a sure way for Nintendo to regain the confidence of its investors.
Having established a position of power in the film 
rental industry, Redbox is deepening its move into the videogame world.
The company, which has been running a limited test of game rentals, is substantially expanding the experiment, adding game rentals to thousands of its self-service kiosks in the West, Midwest and East Coast.
Chess may be known as the sport of kings,
but tChess Pro isn’t first in line for the crown. While the chess engine is a good one against which to practice your skills, a clumsy menu system detracts from the experience. That could drive away fans of the game. Beginners, meanwhile, will probably get frustrated fast, since (despite a tutorial mode) there’s not a lot of handholding. The app’s $4.99 price tag is also a bit high, given its lack of polish. With some interface updates, though, tChess Pro could shine.
Grimm’s Rumpelstiltskin – 3D Interactive 
Pop-up Book brings the digi-novel to children, not only telling the classic story, but adding interactive pop-up elements that children will love to play with. The art is very well-done and the presentation is well-paced. The current version of the app, though, lacks a few features — most notable, it does not read the story aloud. Children or parents will need to do so (and the dense language of the Grimm Brothers may slow some kids down). An update is being worked on, though, that developers say will add narration – and could boost the app’s educational elements.
September’s retail sales numbers for the video 
game industry might have stunk up the joint something terrible, but there’s one bright spot to be found.
The NPD Group, for the first time, has released a new spending report that incorporates not only retail sales, but used games, game rentals, subscriptions, digital full game downloads, social network games, downloadable content, and mobile game apps.
[How might the latest industry decline in September’s NPD U.S. 
game retail results affect video game stocks? Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris, a financial journalism veteran, examines the plight of the major public-traded game firms in the wake of the disappointing U.S. retail numbers.]
I’m not a stock market analyst. And I’m not a psychic. So seeing as I’m writing this before the market opens on Friday, I’m obviously venturing out on a limb when I presume that video game stocks are getting hit.
It’s not a bad guess, though. Thursday’s NPD numbers were down yet again – and investors who were hoping for a little good news in what has been a gloomy year are likely to lash out. It’s not hard to see why.
Even “Halo: Reach” couldn’t bring 
the video game industry out of its slump in September.
Software sales at retail stores were down a shocking 6 percent last month to $614 million, according to The NPD Group. That’s vastly worse than analysts were expecting and could scare investors, who were holding out hope that September would be a bright spot in an otherwise dismal year for game sales.
Dora the Explorer Coloring Adventures 
is a fun diversion for kids, but doesn’t have a lot of depth to it. Five scenes are available for children to paint, and there are a number of different stickers, but to restart a painting, you first have to erase all the work that was previously done, which could annoy some kids. (You can, however, save images in the iPad’s photo album.) The app won’t really give kids a true creative outlet, and may not hold their attention for long.
The consensus among 
analysts and industry observers was that strong sales of “Halo: Reach” would be enough to bring video game sales into positive territory in September.
The consensus was wrong. Very, very wrong.
Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog
Chris Morris: Journalist 