VIDEO

In the latest antics of The Simpsons, Bart chases a giant ape through a video game factory, Lisa destroys a logging camp and Marge storms city hall with an angry mob.

Verizon Communications Inc reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday driven by strong wireless subscriber growth, though analysts were unimpressed by its Internet subscription sales. Verizon Wireless's customer growth exceeded Wall Street expectations and made up for slowdown in Verizon's landline, or wireline, business.

When the annual trade show once known simply as E3 kicks off this week, attendees will discover a distinctly downsized event.

U.S. sales of video game hardware and software jumped 75 percent in September, driven by Microsoft Corp's Halo 3 and Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii console.

Video game developers, eager to please all consumers, are increasingly including features that let gamers play with or against their friends.

Derrick Bulawa, who runs a small phone company in North Dakota, was getting worried as he began to lose some of his 6,000 subscribers to cable companies offering bundled TV, Internet and phone services.

Video game aficionados lined up before dawn on Monday for the midnight release of Halo 3, the acclaimed alien shooter game that Microsoft Corp hopes will widen its lead over Sony Corp in the battle for industry dominance.

Electronics retailer RadioShack Corp will start selling video-game software in its stores, a Citigroup analyst said on Friday.

President George W. Bush's homeland security adviser said on Sunday al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is virtually impotent and can do little more than send videotaped messages.

Movie-on-demand service Vudu, which launched on Wednesday, aims to lure customers from video rental shops and digital cable television with over 5,000 movies from major and independent studios ready to download.

Hewlett-Packard Co on Wednesday launched a line of powerful new computers aimed squarely at gamers, in the company's latest step to court a small-but-influential audience.

The summer dry spell for video games came to an end last week with the arrival of BioShock, the creepy underwater shooter that has won rave reviews and flown off store shelves. The main bulk of important games this year won't come out until November, but the next month or two will see the release of quite a few other hot games.

The market for video games is expected to expand by half over the next four years as it extends beyond hardcore gamers, the chief executive of French video game publisher Ubisoft said on Wednesday.

NBC Universal and News Corp have reached a preliminary deal with a private-equity firm to sell a stake in their online joint venture for $100 million, a source close to the deal said on Friday.

Verizon Communications Inc. said on Monday its second-quarter profit rose 4.5 percent as subscriber growth for its FiOS TV service accelerated while wireless growth remained steady.

A battle of the bands is shaping up in the red-hot genre of musical video games, with a highly anticipated debut title set to take on a hit franchise for the collective rock 'n' roll soul of gamers.

U.S. sales of video game hardware and software in June rose 31 percent from a year ago, driven by stronger demand for gaming consoles from all three major industry players, market data showed on Monday.

When AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. report quarterly results later this month, investors will be looking for proof that their expensive video strategies are starting to pay off.

A seasoned fan of the world's biggest video game trade show might be disappointed to find the sometimes-irreverent industry is now taking itself a little more seriously.

The video game industry's new champion-in-chief said on Tuesday he will fight a perception that games are a menace to society by playing up their creative and technical achievements.

Competition within the video game industry is expected to be fiercer than ever over the next 5 years but no single company will grab the whole market, researchers say.