Judging 
by the lines at Nintendo’s E3 booth, Nintendo’s Wii U is a hit, but the system could have been a lot different if Nintendo had listened to its inner demons.
Global President Satoru Iwata says the idea of a two-screen video game system was something the company went back and forth on—and didn’t finalize until nearly a year and a half into the development process.
Zynga 
will participate in E3 for the first time. But instead of using the media-saturated event to showcase its titles, Zynga’s there with another goal in mind: capturing the eye of some of the industry’s best talent.
“It was an easy decision,” says Rob Dyer, vice president of partner publishing at Zynga. “We have a number of potential partners who will be there. … We did this very purposefully. We knew when we signed up for the space we would have launched Zynga Partners and would have Zynga.com up and running.
Sales 
in the videogame industry have been declining for more than three years, due in no small part to competition from mobile devices. Yet it’s still a field that’s creating high-net-worth individuals at a rapid clip.
On average, rank-and-file videogame professionals pocket more than $81,000 per year, according to a study by Game Developer Magazine. That alone is nearly double what the typical American takes home. But a few game-box heroes (who undoubtedly weren’t part of that study) blow the curve. Click ahead for some of the industry’s most affluent individuals.
Nintendo
is coming late to the world of high definition gaming, but it’s hoping its often-unique take on the industry will be enough to turn heads.
The videogame company on Tuesday rolled out a string of top franchises that will support the launch of Wii U, its next generation home console system and gave fans a better idea of what will make that system unique.
As 
Nintendo prepares to launch the Wii U later this year and Microsoft andSony gear up for expected 2013 launches for their next generation consoles, there’s a sense of excitement building in the videogame industry — but there’s also a sense of fear.
The market has changed considerably since the launch of the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 — and while new console launches used to be a surefire way to reinvigorate both core and casual gamers, nobody’s certain if that will happen this time.
Every 
industry has down cycles, but for several companies in the videogame space, 2012 can’t end soon enough.
While the year is likely to finish stronger than it started, with the launch of Nintendo’s Wii U console and the return of popular franchises like “Halo 4” and “Call of Duty Black Ops 2,” pretty much everything that could go wrong in the first half of the year has.
For 
the past several years, Activision’s Call of Duty franchise has been the videogame industry powerhouse — dominating the sales charts not only during the critical holiday sales period, but also carrying that momentum well into the following year.
In 2012, though, the franchise is showing signs of weakness.
There 
aren’t a lot of sure bets in the video game industry, but for the past few years the “Call of Duty” franchise was a pretty safe place to put your money.
The past three installments of the game have set consecutive entertainment-industry sales records at their launch. And even after the holiday season ended, they’ve led the sales pack for at least the first few months of the following year — but not this year.
E3 is 
usually the video game industry’s big party of the year — a chance to celebrate its strengths and showcase the titles it expects to drive sales forward for the rest of the year.
But as the game makers gather for this year’s event, a cloud hangs over the soiree. Retail sales are down 27 percent compared to this time in 2011. Mobile devices are stealing the spotlight from traditional consoles. And naysayers are openly questioning the long-term viability of the console industry.
Chesapeake 
Bay Candle never thought twice about offshoring its manufacturing when the company started 17 years ago. To make the product it wanted, each candle had to be handmade, and there was no cost effective way to do that in the United States.
Four years ago, however, the company reversed that thinking, centering its operations domestically, and betting that as the global economy changes, the move will actually save it money.
Chris Morris: Journalist 