Source: videogamesblogger.com

Turner Broadcasting System and Metaboli have partnered to create a Global Online Gaming Service under the GameTap brand in the U.S. and Metaboli brand in Europe, the companies announced. GameTap will continue to offer arcade, console and PC games from a library of several hundred titles to broadband users in the U.S. The GameTap/Metaboli combination brings together two established leaders in the online gaming space that creates a global gaming brand with a presence on two continents.

Under the new agreement, Turner Broadcasting will continue to manage GameTap operations and provide technical and migration support through a transition period to conclude in early 2009, at which time Metaboli will assume direct management of the GameTap business and brand.

Launched in 2005 by Turner Broadcasting, GameTap delivers more than 1,300 authentic versions of console, computer and arcade games, including original and exclusive episodic titles such as Sam & Max, Seasons One and Two and American McGee’s Grimm.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

According to consulting firm Hudson Square Research (HSR), the video game industry’s recent surge has finally allowed it to catch up to the movie business on a global basis. Whereas the games industry surpassed this movie industry back in 2005 in America alone, as well as gaming surpassing the music industry in 2007.

Analyst Daniel Ernst reports that in the past year, from March 2007 to March 2008, global video game (software) revenues grew 38%. Global software sales reached $26.5 billion, only slightly behind the film industry’s $26.7 billion. The rest of the year he anticipates global software revenues to climb another 31% to $34.6 billion. Hardware revenue, on the other hand, will see a 5% decline to $18.9 billion.

To quote: “Gutenberg’s press supplanted the oral story, the television supplanted the radio, the Internet is supplanting the newspaper, and the DVR is supplanting the network schedule. Consumers are increasingly in control of their media experience - narrowing in on what they consume, where they consume it, and when they consume it. We see interactive entertainment (video games) as an extension of that control, where the protagonist, settings, and outcomes are dictated not by the author or screenwriter, but by the players themselves. While the film industry’s set of home movie windows provides another leg of growth equal to or greater than box office sales, we believe the rise of video games to the same revenue stature provides a notable perspective.”