video game industry

... business is getting harder and harder. China's online gaming industry is undoubtedly one of the fastest ... the actual systems.

China's own products dominate online game sales China's online game industry generated 32.37 ...

... & Five-Year Forecast on China's video game industry, citing $3.57 billion in revenue from online games in 2009.

The annual review and forecast on online gaming and Chinese gamers shows strong growth by Chinese online game operators, despite a harsh regulatory environment particularly for foreign games, and a gamer base ...

Well, what a difference a couple of months and a holiday season can make.

With Microsoft continuing its attempt to strike a deal with Yahoo!, the company's top software executive said Wednesday that competition, including its fight with Sony in the video game industry, has strengthened the software giant.

Xbox Live was born out of the fight against Sony in the video game console business, Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, said at a Bernstein investor conference.

"Microsoft... by necessity had to build up a culture of crisis," Ozzie said.

As gamers around the world gear up for the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, which hits store shelves Tuesday, the highly anticipated title is not only expected to race into record books as the fastest-selling video game ever, but be awarded distinctions along the way.

"This is going to be the game of the year," said Edward Woo, video game industry analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities.

According to Woo, GTA IV's appeal is fueled by its captivating storyline and open-world format.

With Gibson Guitar Corp. suing Activision, several national retailers, Harmonix, MTV Networks, and EA over the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series of video games, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter has rang in on the issue.

"This is a poorly masked attempt to extort money," Pachter said. Like many other analysts, Pachter believes that the recent litigations are merely efforts to capitalize on the video game industry, specifically Guitar Hero's success, which surpassed $1 billion dollars in 26 months.

Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday that it is experiencing shortages of the Xbox 360 console in the United States, citing that the company failed to anticipate post-holiday demand.

"We are really running short of product here in the United States," Jeff Bell, head of global marketing for Microsoft's games business, said in an interview with Reuters.