Most companies ignore the rumor mill – 
sometimes to the point of it being embarrassing. Nintendo, however, is willing to admit when its secrets are spilled.
The company has confirmed the rumors that it plans to unveil a successor to the Wii at this year’s E3 (the annual trade show of the video game industry). The new system will be out in 2012.
Players hoping to play a multiplayer game on their 
PlayStation 3 haven’t been able to do so reliably for several days – and for the past three days, they haven’t been able to do so at all.
The PlayStation Network – the console’s online service – has gone down and at present, no one seems to know when it’s coming back. Sony, in a blog update about the outage yesterday, said it was investigating the cause, but “it may be a full day or two before we’re able to get the service completely back up and running.” Since then, the company has remained silent.
As digital distribution continues to grow in the 
entertainment field, insiders and investors alike are trying to find new methods to get some clarity about the dollars behind it.
At Valve Software, which owns Steam, the leader in PC digital distributor, however, there are no plans to help those parties out. The company says it has no plans to open up its digital sales data vault, noting “it’s not important” information for the industry or public.
While “Law & Order: Los Angeles” faces an 
uncertain future on the air, it’s ramping things up in the gaming world.
Universal Pictures has partnered with Telltale Games to create an episodic gaming series based around the Dick Wolf production. Due this fall, the title will see wide distribution, appearing on the PC, Mac, consoles, tablets and mobile devices.
HBO is teasing – if not outright announcing – its imminent 
arrival on the iPhone, iPad and other mobile devices.
The cabler has posted a YouTube video that shows its HBO Go streaming service running on a variety of tablets and phones, including Apple’s iconic brands. At the end, the HBO Go logo is shown with the date 5.2.11 shown underneath, presumably the mobile launch date for the service.
Apple’s legal team is certainly 
off the leash these days.
On the heels of suits filed against HTC and Nokia, Apple has filed suit against Samsung, accusing the company of using Apple’s intellectual property in several of its devices, including the Galaxy S 4G phone and Galaxy Tab tablet computer.
Andy Warhol mused that everyone 
got 15 minutes of fame in their life. Now a new Website is offering wannabe musicians 3-6 minutes of that.
Launched in January, TheStage.tv – a live streaming site, allowing performers to perform for whoever’s watching – has attracted more than 1,300 performers to day – who have put on over 50,000 performances.
The good news is Nintendo has a hit 
with the 3DS. The bad news is … well, pretty much everything else.
Despite a strong launch for the handheld device, retail software sales were off 16 percent in March, according to The NPD Group, which gathers sales data for the industry. That’s a lot more than analysts were expecting to see. (The general consensus on Wall Street was a decline of between 8-10 percent.)
Amazon is doing some 
fence mending with its music partners.
The retail giant will reportedly meet with executives at the major labels Thursday to discuss deal terms for its recently launched Cloud Drive, as the music industry continues to dispute the service’s legality.
Sony is leveraging Warner Bros.’s online 
distribution arm to build the audience for some of its unheralded classics.
Starting today, the Warner Archive Collection will add 150 on-demand titles from the Sony catalog, including “Genghis Khan,” “A Song To Remember” and “A Study In Terror”.
Chris Morris: Journalist 