Shanghai - China’s online video game market is expanding rapidly, with sales forecasted to grow from $1.7 billion in 2007 to $6 billion in 2012, according to a survey released by Niko Partners today.
“This market is attractive because it is leading the way for online games,” said Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of Niko Partners, according to VentureBeat.

New York - Sales of Blu-ray standalone players plummeted 40 percent from January to February, then rose only 2 percent from February to March in spite of winning the high def format war, according to a report by research firm NPD Group. This is bad news for the home entertainment industry, which has put its hopes into a drastic increase in adoption of the next generation high def DVD players after Toshiba dropped its support for the HD DVD format earlier this year in favor of Sony's (NYSE: SNE) Blu-ray format.

Tomorrow April 29, one of the most anticipated video games of the year, Take Two Interactive (NSDQ: TTWO) and Rockstar Games' "Grand Theft Auto IV," will hit store shelves. Analysts predict that it will top last year's record-breaking $300 million first-week sales of Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) and Bungee Studios' first-person shooter "Halo 3", according to the Associated Press.

Digg Dubb: Groove Is In The Heart from Trammell on Vimeo.
A new viral lip dub video has appeared (embedded above). This time courtesy of the staff at Digg. I would say it's a worthy follow-up to the video done at the offices at College Humor and Connected Ventures (see below). Revision3 has also joined the party with a lip bud video of their own (embedded at the bottom, gotta love INXS). Think about it, these videos are not just viral branding for the companies but also smart recruitment tools...

I'm on my soapbox again about the changing landscape for entertainment marketing and sales. I want to do a quick follow-up to my last article about the challenges that face Habbo Hotel, the popular virtual world for teens, when trying to cut a deal with the record labels to feature and sell their music. Today, the popular German teen rock sensation, Tokio Hotel, did an appearance in Habbo's Canadian Hotel and they are not alone. So far over 300 celebrity guests have visited Habbo to chat with fans and promote their projects. Clearly the artists as well as the record labels see the promotional value of following the fans to their online hang-outs. Habbo was subsequently the first virtual world to sign a deal with William Morris Agency. So why not set up a system to easily monetize music in this new media channel?