A new report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers expects an accelerating growth in the global entertainment and media industries that will propel the sales from $1.3 trillion in 2004 to $1.8 trillion in 2009 (average growth of 7.3%). Of this, the global video game market will reach $55 billion in total software revenues by 2009, with the U.S. video game market making up $15.1 billion of this amount.

China’s Shenzhou VI is scheduled launch two Chinese taikonauts into Earth orbit at 3 a.m. GMT on Thursday, October 13th. The Chinese government has not released details but those close to development say the flight will expand on China’s first manned flight, which took place in 2003 and allowed for 14 orbits over 21 hours.

The Shanghai Morning Post reported in September that Zhai Zhingang and Nie Haisheng are in the running to be the taikonaut to pilot the flight.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill that will ban the sale of any video game to those under 18 that “depict serious injury to human beings in a manner that is especially heinous, atrocious or cruel”. This bill is similar to other laws recently passed in Michigan and Illinois. It is also similar to laws being challenged and already defeated.

Lawmakers believe laws of this nature will protect children from experiencing the “interactive nature of video game violence”. They point to studies that link violence in video games to violence and hostile actions in teenagers and preteens. There are numerous independent studies dispelling this connection as being no stronger than other forms of entertainment/media and even the positive effects of video games.

Segway, the company best known for its two-wheel Human Transporter, will begin to license its smart-motion technology and know-how to other companies, and it will jointly develop new products with them.

The first technology license for Segway will be with Hong Kong-based Wow Wee. Wow Wee will use the Segway technology in its next generation of robotic entertainment products such as Robosapien, Roboraptor and Robopet.

U.S. automakers are complaining about the federal government’s plan to raise the average fuel efficiency of vehicles. A L.A Time article quotes Reg Modlin, head of environmental and energy planning for Chrysler Group, who claims that the proposed new bill would require fuel efficiency improvements of 2% to 2.2% per year and that this would be a “significant challenge” from the 1.5% per year seen over the past two decades.

In early September, we reported on the government’s proposed “symbolic change” to the fuel efficiency standards and asked you to contact your representatives asking for real changes. Many of you did (thanks to those that copied us on your letters and mentioned us) as did countless others that read our article thanks to bloggers spreading the word. It is good to see the government responding to the pressure from voters and not listening to lobbyists on this topic, but this is only a first step.

MFORMA, a publisher of mobile entertainment, has raised $30 million in its third round of institutional financing. Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) led the round of financing, which included participation from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and General Catalyst Partners.

Player X, a London-based mobile game publisher founded in early 2004, has raised $7 million in its first round of venture capital funding. Investors in this round include venture capitalist Arts Alliance and sports licensing firm Bullion International.

In addition, Player X has added SEGA veteran Nick Alexander as Chairman of its board of directors and Fox Kids Europe founder Ynon Kreiz as a non-executive board member.

Midway Games, based in Chicago, will acquire The Pitbull Syndicate, based in Newcastle for 199,385 shares of Midway (roughly $3.1 million based on current share price) to Pitbull owners.
In addition, Midway has agreed to provide 25,146 in additional shares to key employees as retention incentives. Pitbull employees who will receive retention incentives […]

Autodesk, creator of 3D Studio Max, has announced that it will acquire Alias, creator of the competing 3D tool Maya for $182 million in cash.

Paul Glen has a great opinion piece on ComputerWorld about executives being constantly connected, through cell phone and “crack-berriers”, and the actual need to be constantly on-call.

The article talks about a need to help with problems or provide information, be seen as engaged, and a likely addiction to constantly monitoring their staff. Paul continue the article by pointing out that this “hyperconnectedness” can actually hurt projects and the team environment.

In a likely response to Google’s book scanning project, Yahoo has announced that it will work with partners to make electronic versions of books available online. The project will be run by the new Open Content Alliance (OCA) and books will be hosted by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group created to offer access to historical collections that exist in digital format.

Most news organizations are reporting that Yahoo is taking a more cautious step than Google by announcing that it will only scan and digitize texts in the public domain, except where the copyright holder has expressly given permission. However, this leaves open the question of what “in the public domain” actually means.

While most game retailers are offering Xbox 360 Bundles, most of these are random assortments that tend to be more focused on increasing sales than satisfying gamers.
Enter Costco. Costco has announced (edit: link to Google Cache of page, as Costco has removed the page) a Xbox 360 bundle that will sell for $479.99 (for […]