It’s no secret the video game industry is having a rough 2009 here in the United States — but that's not the only place it's struggling.

While there are now over 100,000 apps in the Apple App store, the vast majority of them were created on a shoestring budget. With customers flocking toward lower-priced program, it just doesn’t make business sense to spend big development dollars—especially on games, the App store’s most crowded category.

Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick said a change in the video game maker's release schedule caused the company to forecast a weaker than expected fourth quarter, but he spoke confidently about the upcoming release of games such as DJ Hero and Band Hero.

Video game publisher Activision Blizzard reported a quarterly profit that matched analysts' estimates and revenue that was higher than expected, led by sales of the company's latest "Guitar Hero" offering, and its shares rose 1.5 percent in after-hours trading.

For decades, the Walt Disney Company has largely kept Mickey Mouse frozen under glass. Now, however, concerned that Mickey has become more of a corporate symbol than a beloved character for recent generations of young people, Disney is taking the risky step of re-imagining him for the future.

The third quarter of 2009 was a pretty horrendous one for the video game industry. Year over year sales plummeted amid a lack of ‘must have’ games. Now, as earnings season draws near, game makers are about to face the consequences.

Following a disappointing quarterly report card from gaming giant Nintendo, Hiroshi Kamide, gaming and software analyst at KBC Securities, believes the firm will do better next year.

Streaming movies are coming to the PlayStation 3. Netflix (NFLX) and Sony (SNE) on Monday announced a partnership that will let owners of the gaming system instantly watch roughly 17,000 movies and TV shows.

Despite an extensive marketing campaign, positive reviews and some of the most widespread media attention ever given to a video game, “The Beatles: Rock Band” had a relatively lackluster first month on store shelves.

While the demographic for video games and action movies is basically the same, the track record for films based on games has been a pretty dismal one. For every “Tomb Raider”-sized hit, there are a handful of flops like “BloodRayne.”

The November 2005 launch of the Xbox 360 marked not only the beginning of a new cycle of video game hardware, it also launched a new era in video game pricing.

IPhone downloads count both free demos and paid games — and free is always more popular. So how does a small developer make a profit?

One of the video game industry’s most consistent hitmakers is taking things to the next level.  PopCap Games, the creator of titles such as “Bejweled,” “Zuma,” “Bookworm” and “Peggle” – has raised $22.5 million from venture capitalists.

The issue of whether minors should be legally prohibited from buying violent video games may soon be settled – once and for all.

Unlike its predecessors, the new portable gaming system from Sony does not run on traditional packaged software. Any game or movie the user wants has to be downloaded — and that leaves retailers out of the loop on the most profitable part of any gaming system.