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VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY WATCH

Wii Shoots for the Stars, PS2 Aims for the Basement

Even as the recession grinds on, the gaming industry continues to draw in consumers' entertainment dollars. Nintendo hit a console shipping milestone last week with the Wii, while retailer GameStop announced a monster of a sales quarter. Sony made a price cut that may have some players scratching th...

Software giant Microsoft announced Wednesday that it will offer a stripped-down version of its server software, targeting small businesses with fewer than 15 employees. Windows Server 2008 Foundation, priced at $1,000, provides small-business customers with the ability to run business applications, ...

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has launched an App store for its iconic device. BlackBerry App World went live Wednesday morning with some 1,000 applications available. The site gives developers the option of setting up their own stores -- an interesting differentiator from other carriers' ap...

Social networking has left an indelible mark on consumers in terms of the way they connect and interact with each other. Sites such as Facebook are adding users at an incredible rate, and the online dating site Match.com reported good growth in the latter stages of 2008. Parks Associates has found ...

You do not need another diatribe on how tough the economy is and how the next tsunami is hitting IT departments. You have seen the signs and have to take necessary actions: budget cuts, pay cuts. You know the drill. However, bad times need not be all doom and gloom -- they can be times of opportunit...

There's good news and bad news in the latest Internet Advertising Revenue Report, newly released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The good news is that Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. are still growing, topping $23 billion in 2008. The bad news: That growth...

The employment picture for high-tech workers is changing dramatically. Last year, the U.S. high-tech sector added 77,000 jobs, mainly in the software services and engineering sectors, according to "Cyberstates 2009," a report published by TechAmerica. However, high-tech manufacturing and communicati...

Search engine powerhouse Google has launched a new venture capital fund, Google Ventures. The new fund will invest in early-stage companies across a broad range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, clean tech, biotech and healthcare, according to a company blog posted Tuesday. "This...

Layoffs are an unfortunate but predictable byproduct of an economy in decline. As the global economic crisis stretches into yet another month, companies in nearly all industries continue the painful process of purging employees in an effort to reduce costs. After the automotive and manufacturing sec...

Google has launched a new music search service in China in conjunction with Top100.cn, one of mainland China's top Internet music sites. The new Google Music Search provides users with links to free, legal music downloads. Google, Top100.cn and several major American record labels will share revenue...

Even if you were to limit yourself to the iMac product line -- as opposed to the heavy artillery computer graphics workstation, the Mac Pro -- you could easily spend $1,600 to $3,200 for a souped-up machine. Mac addicts will tell you the price is worth it. What about everyone else, though? The price...

Google is laying off about 200 staff worldwide in its sales and marketing organizations. The announcement was made in a blog post written by Omid Kordestani, the online search giant's senior vice president of global sales and business development. In his post, Kordestani said Google's rapid growth l...

It's been clear for some time that print media has to adopt a new business model or basically face extinction. What wasn't so clear, even a few months ago, is how fast the industry would decline. Recent events are a dramatic illustration of what appears to be a tailspin. On March 16 of this month, t...

There are reports that Cox and AT&T have begun cooperating with the Recording Industry Association of America's new antipiracy strategy -- first announced in December -- of targeting illegal file-sharing activities through Internet service providers instead of through the courts. Once the RIAA i...

Twitter has announced its intention to start making money through the introduction of premium business accounts sometime this year. The San Francisco-based social network provides users with a free service that lets them post 140-character notifications, or "tweets." Unique visitors to Twitter incre...

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