Home Entertainment Budget: $150

APRIL 16, 2009 • Based on a tracking study of 10,000 consumers, the NPD Group found that Americans, on average, budget $150 a month for entertainment, much of it spent on subscription-based services, many of them online. In addition, 51% of those who responded said in the past three months they purchased a DVD or B.....

Best Buy Plans Significant Cuts

APRIL 15, 2009 • Employees with Best Buy were notified that the retailer was planning significant pay cuts and/or staff reductions. After conversations Best Buy, Investment firm Sanford Bernstein estimated as many as 1,000 assistant managers may lose their jobs in the latest cost trimming, and as many as 8,.....

Netflix Coming to PS3 & Wii?

APRIL 13, 2009 • Netflix published an employment advertisement expressing interest in hiring personnel to facilitate video distribution across gaming platforms. When the advertisement was reported on, Netflix announced that its relationship with Xbox Live remained exclusive, for now. Impact:.....

Will Wright Leaves Maxis

APRIL 8, 2009 • Developer Will Wright left the Maxis brand he founded in 1987 to launch a new think tank, Stupid Fun Club. Maxis parent Electronic Arts said it would make an investment stake in the venture. Wright hopes Stupid Fun Club can incubate new innovative IPs. Impact: As a founder of Maxis, Will Wright is a pioneer game designer, first with SimCity and later with The Sims. His latest big name project, Spore, was the victim of over expectati.....

Amazon Launches XBL Store

APRIL 8, 2009 • Accelerating its forays into online game distribution, Amazon.com launched a beta Xbox 360 Live store. Selected Live Arcade and Marketplace games are available for purchase, as well as Live gift cards and Microsoft Points. Impact: Historically, Amazon.com is very much a tr.....

Nintendo Preps Video Service

APRIL 7, 2009 • Nintendo Co. Ltd. president Satoru Iwata told the Wall Street Journal that the gamemaker will be launching a downloadable video service in Japan. A major feature Iwata mentioned was downloading video through the Wii and passing it along to the DSi for mobile viewing. If the video service does well in Japan, he said Nintendo will launch it overseas, as well. In other news, in the three days after its April 5 launch in North America and Europe, Nintendo said 300,000 units each.....

Quebec Wants French Games

APRIL 1, 2009 • No April fools. A new law put into force by the Quebec provincial government prohibits the sale of new English-only video games if a French-language version is available. Therefore, if a French version is distributed in France, the English version cannot be sold in Quebec. Given that Europe often gets i.....

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