Apple is certainly the biggest music/tech company
around, but Amazon has been very clear in its intention to up the stakes in the fight with the company – and today, it threw a haymaker.
Amazon is offering a daily special for Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” offering the entire album as a digital download for 99 cents. That’s less than the cost of a single track on iTunes.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment 
is expanding its digital rollout, today announcing an agreement to buy the popular Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes websites.
The deal, which encompasses both sites, is part of Warner’s ongoing studio-agnostic initiative to grow digital content ownership. Both sites will continue to operate independently.
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.
Stardock’s recent sale of its Impulse digital 
distribution service to GameStop is in the history books now, but the retailer was hardly the only bidder for the service.
Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock, says there were conversations with dozens of companies – with roughly a half-dozen of those presenting term sheets – before Stardock made its final decision. And even then, it took a lot of convincing on GameStop’s part.
GameStop might be the retail sales leader when it 
comes to video games, but the company’s lack of a strong digital arm has always worried analysts.
The announcement, then, that the company has purchased Impulse, a digital distribution service, as well as game streaming service Spawn Labs, is being met with cheers. And GameStop’s prediction that it will see digital revenues hit $1.5 billion by 2014 is receiving an even warmer reception.
While it rules the retail sector when it comes to video 
game sales, GameStop hasn’t exactly been leading the pack when it comes to digital distribution. Now, it’s starting to play catch up.
The company plans to buy Stardock — and its Impulse digital delivery service — as well as the game streaming service Spawn Labs to prepare for its future. In other words, GameStop is putting Steam and OnLive in its crosshairs.
Roku has been something of a trailblazer in the 
cord-cutting world, but it has had a relatively small following since it has historically only been sold online. That’s about to change.
Starting today, Best Buy customers are able to purchase the Roku XD in stores. So are shoppers at BJ’s Wholesale club, Fry’s Electronics and Radio Shack.
While Wednesday’s announcement that 
Activision-Blizzard was pulling the plug on “Guitar Hero” might have turned heads in the gaming world, it was the company’s other announcement that might have bigger repercussions for investors.
As it cancelled games and the long-standing franchise, the publisher also announced plans to double down in the digital space and increase its focus on the lucrative “Call of Duty” franchise, two steps analysts say could significantly raise the company’s margins.
Those pundits who have been 
focusing on the threat OnLive, a video game streaming service, poses to the traditional video game industry might want to expand their focus a little.
The company now says it plans to expand into subscription video streaming in 2011. And Amazon could be right behind it.
[Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris talks to game industry analysts on 
what 2011 might bring for the struggling Western retail game biz — with predictions of another slump in retail sales that might only be forestalled by the launch of Nintendo’s 3DS, a “primary driver” of any possible retail rebound.]
There’s good news aplenty from gaming companies these days – but as financial analysts begin crunching the numbers for next year, many fear that the holiday cheer could be short-lived.
The shifting business models of the Western video game industry will continue to impact retail sales figures, even with the relatively easy comparables 2010 has established, say many analysts. The good news is that digitally downloaded content should continue to grow – and help make up some of the difference.
Chris Morris: Journalist 