What weighs less than 130z. Behind the impressive numbers, however, is a story of an industry in the throes of frantic consolidation. Wall Street is richly rewarding game publishers that are building enough bulk to survive, and punishing ones that don't appear to have enough resources to weather the storm. There tends to be a natural separation of the haves and have-nots during the transition. Retailers are less forgiving of products that don't immediately fly off the shelves.
Developers are choosier about who they work with.
And the costs of developing games are going through the roof, so the barriers to entry have become prohibitive. More than a half-dozen notable game companies already have been snapped up during the last year. Infogrames acquired GT Interactive and Hasbro Interactive. Activision bought Neversoft and Raven Software. There also have been tentative talks to be acquired by Konami Corp., Japan's largest independent game publisher, the executives said.