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.)
Rumors started last month that Apple was making a hard push to begin offering 
streaming rentals of recent television programming for 99 cents. Now those whispers are beginning to solidify a bit.
Bloomberg reports that the Cupertino-based company is in advanced talks with News Corp. for 99-cent rentals – and CBS and Disney are engaged in similar discussions with Apple.
Hollywood’s relationship with the gamer – especially the 
PC gamer – is a tenuous one. Demographically, they’re right in the sweet spot for most big releases, but the tech savvy of those players always brings about piracy fears.
Now Steam, a popular game digital distribution retailer owned by Valve Software, is taking a look at what’s on gamer’s hard drives – well, at least in terms of installed programs.
Chris Morris: Journalist 