As dust continues to settle from this year’s E3, analysts’ price-cutting speculation is giving way to a bundle of retail clarity: Sony remains bullish on its stagnant profit strategy amid mounting losses and cost cutting initiatives. Publishers are growing weary. While time reveals all, the PS3 will probably not see a price drop until end of summer at the earliest. Instead, recent leaks from Best Buy and Game Stop reveal a mediocre bundling strategy coupled with an aggressive Experience Playstation Now project aimed to educate and communicate to consumers the inherent value of the powerful, but expensive, sleek, but game deficient $399/$499 priced, black glossy console. Supposedly, Best Buy will receive a “limited edition” 80GB SKU including two games at $399. Game Stop is rumored to offer a limited time Final Fantasy VII Blu-ray 80GB bundle priced at $399.

In recent years, there has become an increasing reliance on metacritic scores as the executive bar of success in the video game industry. There is no question that these scores are transforming the way games are judged and marketed. Not surprisingly, there is ongoing gunslinging between manufacturers, publishers, and developers over which games and platforms are the best in terms of these scores. This is a question that we are very interested to answer, both qualitatively and quantitatively here at LudoGrind. While scores vary tremendously by platform, genre,  publisher, and a plethora of other segments, I figured it would be good to start at the top in terms of overall average scores by platform. On May 1, I took a snapshot:

Via Raph Koster comes word that a gang of Internet café bullies in China have been convicted of cyber extortion surrounding major Chinese web portal, Tencent. Accused of stealing Tencent QQ coins valued at 100,000 yuan ($14,000), the court ruled that the virtual goods, since purchased, constituted a legitimate case of extortion. The ring leader got three years in jail while the three accomplices received fines.

Koster notes that this is not surprising given the substantial size of the industry in China, estimated to be 25 times the size of the US market. See link for report and slide show.

Ask and you shall receive. Via SimianLogic and Hollywood Reporter comes news that “Futurama” will be returning for 26 episodes over two seasons, on order from Comedy Central. Matt Groening and David X. Cohen have begun work on a new slate of episodes set to premiere mid-2010. The order comes after four recent feature length specials on DVD and Comedy Central. Borrowing a cancellation revival page from “Family Guy,” the announcement comes at a perfect time for the franchise, having built substantial momentum and audience acclaim over the past several years.

Los Angeles- Skateboards, rabbits, dresses and…air? Clearly the industry is taking a turn towards virtual reality of lost past, physical and social motion sensing connectivity an overwhelming theme thus far at E3, Hollywood media and film convergence a close second. Hype, it appears is not without a sense of gimmickery.

Here’s a list of game changing happenings thus far at E3 in order of press conference extraveganzas.

Activision-Blizzard (Sunday 5PM 5:16PM)
Rock music, safe harbor statements, making an entrance, and an appearance by Tony Hawk, CEO Bobby Kotick announced the market is large and growing to $55 billion by 2012 ($39 billion in 2008), revealing a powerful online monetization strategy. More people, more time, more money playing video games fueled by