Blockbuster hasn’t exactly had a lot of success in their
battle with Netflix in the movies-by-mail field, so now the company’s aiming to outmaneuver them.
Starting immediately, customers of Blockbuster By Mail are able to rent video games for all the major console systems. The company says it has over 3,000 titles available. Netflix does not currently rent games.
You don’t have to be a student of the video game
industry to know the Wii is king of the hill, but the company is now underlining just how secure it is in its reign.
Nintendo announced Tuesday that it has now sold 30 million Wiis in the U.S. alone. That milestone comes just 45 months after the device went on sale. To put that into perspective, the PlayStation 2, the industry’s best selling home console, has sold more than 50 million units – but took over eight years to do so.
Google and Verizon want to make one thing clear: There’s no 
truth to last week’s rumors that the search and telecom giants were discussing a deal that would effectively end net neutrality. Instead, they’re teaming up to try to push the concept further.
One week after gossip surfaced, suggesting Google was about to sign an agreement to pay Verizon for speedier Internet access to its services, the two companies held a hastily assembled press conference Monday, offering a joint proposal for ways to keep America’s Internet strong.
With over 50,000 games available on the iPhone, it’s hard
to pinpoint a single one as the iconic title of the platform. If you were going to do so, though, “Angry Birds” would make a strong case for the crown.
The title is addictive in its gameplay and is a regular presence in the Top selling app lists. Now, it’s expanding its reach to other platforms. Chillingo founder Joe Wee tells The Sun that the company is making versions of the game for the “Nintendo DS, Sony PSP and PS3.”
All in all, it was a mixed financial quarter for the folks at Activision. 
Earnings per share were higher than expected, but revenue fell short – which was somewhat shocking for a company that has a reputation for always meeting or beating the guidance it gives investors. The real story of yesterday’s earnings announcement, though, was the force that digital downloads have become for the company.
For the first time, Activsion’s revenue from digital sales topped that of retail sales, as “Modern Warfare 2” continued to flex is muscles.
Sezmi, a new TV service that has been competing with cable 
and satellite providers in the greater Los Angeles area since February is ready to expand its reach.
The company today announced it has now expanded to 36 U.S. markets, including Atlanta, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington D.C. Customers willing to spend $299 upfront for hardware can receive over-the-air TV stations (their high-def main channels, plus their digital subchannels), Web video, on-demand content as well as 15 basic cable channels for just $19.99 per month. (Customers who just want local channels and Web content can pay $4.99 per month.)
While 3D TV is getting the lion’s share of the media spotlight these days, consumers are showing considerably more interest in Internet-enabled sets, according to new research from iSuppli.
Global shipments of IETVs (TVs with built-in Internet capability) will hit 27.7 million this year, says analyst Riddhi Patel. That’s nearly seven times the number of 3D sets expected to ship – and a 125 percent increase over the 2009 numbers.
There are a lot of sites discussing the state of the video 
game industry today, but many just skim the surface. Well-respected video game industry analyst Scott Steinberg is hoping to change that with Game Theory, a new site launching today that will offer designers, executives and journalists the opportunity to discuss and debate the day’s top issues, while giving fans a deeper look at the inner workings of the game world.
The site is a mix of written columns (disclaimer: I’m contributing regular opinion pieces to the project) and video documentaries. The first video (embedded above) polls developers and executives about the dramatic changes the industry is facing these days.
If you still doubt the power of social media,
the Nielsen Company would beg to differ. New research from the ratings service finds sites like Facebook and MySpace are dominating nearly one-quarter of the time Americans spend online these days.
The sites are so popular that their usage is more than twice that of video games and triple that of email. And they’re growing at an incredible rate.
Nintendo’s still not ready to spill all the beans about the 
3DS, its handheld game system that projects stereoscopic 3D images without the need for special glasses, but it’s getting close.
The company cryptically announced it would give details of a ‘new product’ on Sept. 29. And while it’s possible the company has something unknown up its sleeve, most industry observers expect it will use that date to give the launch date and price for the 3DS.
Chris Morris: Journalist 