Microsoft’s Zune media player may not be 
making any noticeable impact on Apple’s dominance of the personal media player space, but it does have at least one corporate fan: United Airlines.
The Redmond-based tech giant and United are extending the Zune partnership they kicked off a couple months ago. On the Zune Insider podcast, product evangelist Dave McLauchlan noted that the airline will be providing Zune HDs to passengers on flights to Hong Kong and Australia as part of the expanded test.
Who needs modern day street thugs when you’ve got old west 
outlaws?
Not Take-Two Interactive Software, it seems. “Red Dead Redemption” continues to be a retail bonanza for the publisher and is doing so much better than expected that the company is now forecasting it will turn a profit this year. That’s the first time in recent memory that it has done so in a year that didn’t have a “Grand Theft Auto” release.
There aren’t a lot of surprises in the video game world today. 
With the torent of leaks that comes from partners, publishers and developers, gamers rarely get that excitement that comes with a major, unexpected announcement – which makes today’s bombshell in Seattle all the more tasty.
2K Games revealed the presumed-dead action game “Duke Nukem Forever” was not only alive, it was playable on the show floor – and it would be hitting stores next year. And jaws are still dragging.
Apple certainly wasn’t lacking for news at its press 
event today. We’ve got a story up on the front page of Variety, focusing on Apple TV, right now – and an analysis piece will be in tomorrow’s daily edition.
One thing that has seemingly been lost in the shuffle is Apple made it clearer than ever that it was gunning for Nintendo and Sony – and it’s not afraid of either company’s gaming legacy. In the meantime, here’s a recap of some of the other news that Jobs & Co. unveiled.
After shooting out of the sales gate, things aren’t slowing down for 
“Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty”. Activision-Blizzard has announced the game sold 3 million copies in its first month on shelves.
That secures its standing as the year’s best-selling PC game – and is letting analysts (who were a bit concerned with the early sales numbers) breath a sigh of relief. By the end of the quarter, it’s quite possible that “Starcraft II” may be the industry-at-large’s best selling game year to date.
Amazon may be riding high in the eReader rodeo these days
with the release of the new Kindle, but it doesn’t own the market – and it’s feeling pressure from the competition once again.
Effective Wednesday, Borders will lower the price of its two eReaders, the Kobo and the Aluratek. The Kobo is falling from $149 to $129. The Aluratek will drop from $129 to $100, putting it in the sweet spot for consumers.
Nintendo has announced plans to shave $20 off the price 
of two versions of its best selling video game system – the Nintendo DS. Effective Sept. 12, the DSi will drop from $170 to $150 and the DSi XL will move from $190 to $170.
The move follows price cuts in several other regions, but the timing could raise a few questions. We’ve got three theories as to why Nintendo decided to make the move now.
Hulu Plus is still in its limited preview mode, but if you 
can’t get an invite – and you just can’t wait watch Hulu on your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, there’s now a way to do so.
Hulu is inviting people to download the free Hulu Plus app to help them test the experience – meaning a limited number of show episodes and clips are viewable by anyone with an iDevice.
Another big title by Rockstar Games could be arriving 
at retail later than expected.
Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia, in a note to investors today, said it appears Take-Two Interactive Software has pushed “L.A. Noire” back from the fourth quarter of this year to early next year. (Retail site GameStop, which has a so-so history of accuracy on predicting release dates, currently says the game will be available on Feb. 1, 2011.)
Chris Morris: Journalist 