A great article here from the Economist about the gaming industry, a $20 billion a year market. You may have heard that the Xbox 360 was released last week to lines of people and even some social unrest (when customers at a Wal-mart attacked the manager after he changed the rules for getting one of the entertainment consoles).
The article goes into some detail about the video game industry, especially the strategy behind the big three players (Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft). Microsoft is in second place, but the jump needed to take first is formidable.
One factor I thought interesting, was that the manufacturers usually sell the consoles at a loss hoping to recoup their investment through the sales of peripheral devices. Another interesting fact is that the fight over standards (blu-ray or HD-DVD for example) seems to be what is really initiating Microsoft's forays into this market.
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