Technology latest news

NEW YORK - Video game publisher Activision Inc.’s fiscal fourth quarter was exceptional, with sales of “Guitar Hero III” and “Call of Duty 4″ pushing profit and revenue well above guidance and analyst estimates.

Activision said Thursday its acquisition by Vivendi SA is on track to close in the next few weeks. The new publicly held company, to be called Activision Blizzard, will rival Electronic Arts as the world’s largest video game publisher. Vivendi will hold a 52 percent stake.

For the three months ended March 31, Activision earned $44.2 million, or 14 cents per share, compared with a loss of $14.4 million, or 5 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

It was the company’s most profitable quarter outside the holiday season.

Excluding stock options costs, Activision earned $54.9 million, or 17 cents per share, far more than the 5 cents per share that analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected.

Revenue jumped 93 percent to $602.5 million from $312.5 million, beating analysts’ average projection of $369.1 million — and topping Activision’s own guidance of $350 million.

Noting that the company had no new releases during the quarter, Chief Executive Bobby Kotick said the results show the power of Activision’s “Guitar Hero” and “Call of Duty” franchises.

The video game marketplace is thriving, even as U.S. consumers are cutting back spending in other areas. Games, Kotick told The Associated Press, “are starting to capture the hearts and minds of the broadest audiences.”

The latest generation of customers, he said, expect that video games can be an important part of their leisure time, even during an economic slump: In the past year alone, Americans spent nearly $18 billion on video games.

“Video games as an entertainment medium is probably the lowest cost per hour,” Kotick said.

When the Vivendi deal closes, Activision Blizzard will be worth $18.9 billion and draw significant revenue in Asia with “World of Warcraft,” the world’s most popular online game. The deal already has won EU regulatory approval and cleared U.S. antitrust hurdles.

“The beauty of the transaction is that it puts all of the markets, platforms and geographies that video games are consumed on in one place,” Kotick said.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2009, Activision forecast earnings of 4 cents per share on sales of $500 million, excluding any contribution from Vivendi. Excluding stock options costs and expenses from the Vivendi transaction, it expects adjusted earnings of 13 cents per share.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson forecast a profit of 12 cents a share on sales of $484.3 million.

For the full fiscal year, the company earned $344.9 million, or $1.10 per share, up from a profit of $85.7 million, or 28 cents per share, the year before. Revenue grew 93 percent to $2.9 billion from $1.51 billion.

For the current fiscal year, Activision expects earnings of 72 cents per share, or $1.30 per share excluding Vivendi Games. The company expects sales of $2.75 billion. Not counting the effects of deferred revenue for online-enabled games, revenue is expected to total $3.1 billion for the year. Activision, like other video game companies, makes most of its money during the holiday season.

Analysts are predicting earnings of $1.18 per share on sales of $2.82 billion.

Activision shares rose 90 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $28.60 in after-hours electronic trading. The stock had closed up 21 cents at $27.70.

SEATTLE - Without the influx of Web traffic that Microsoft bet would quickly follow a Yahoo buyout, the software maker is facing a long slog if it wants to turn its money-losing online services business into a Google-killer.

Since it withdrew a $47.5 billion bid for Yahoo Inc. after talks collapsed, Microsoft Corp. has offered little insight into what “Plan C” will entail. In that vacuum, experts are scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas, with many concluding that they actually don’t know what could get Microsoft out of its pickle.

It is not clear Microsoft can do this alone — and in fact, it’s not always clear what “this” is. Some analysts say Microsoft must increase its search traffic to attract advertisers. Others believe Microsoft should concede that market to Google Inc. and find success elsewhere — leapfrogging rivals in areas such as display and mobile advertising.

All that is clear is Microsoft must come up with a Plan C soon, after acknowledging that its Plan A of going solo was troubled, forcing it to turn to Plan B of acquiring Yahoo.

Part of the problem analysts face predicting Microsoft’s next moves is that the company has already tried the obvious tactics. It built its own search-ad platform from scratch and spent $6 billion to buy a major online advertising company, aQuantive.

Microsoft overhauled its search engine technology, and most analysts agree that its results are at least as good as Google’s. It tweaked the design of its Live Search service to become more like Google. It touted its improvements on billboards and in glossy magazines.

Last year, the company seemed confident that it wouldn’t take much to convert the hundreds of millions of Hotmail users, Xbox Live-connected video gamers and Windows Live Messenger chatters into a flood of search traffic.

“We’ve done a lot of work to get clear strategy and focus,” Kevin Johnson, who heads the division that includes online services, told a gathering of financial analysts in July. In November, Johnson detailed aggressive goals that included capturing 30 percent of U.S. search queries.

By January, though, it was apparent Microsoft’s efforts weren’t working. Its share of U.S. search queries was stuck under 10 percent, behind Yahoo’s 22 percent and Google’s 58 percent. Microsoft responded by proposing to buy Yahoo for its traffic and search-savvy engineers.

That bid unraveled Saturday, and Microsoft is running out of options. Many expect Microsoft to make another run at Yahoo, or to buy other companies, such as Time Warner Inc.’s AOL, the online software company Salesforce.com Inc. or Facebook, the No. 2 online hangout in which Microsoft already owns a 1.6 percent stake.

For now, Microsoft seems focused on going alone, though the company declined to make executives available to talk about its online plans. In Japan, Chairman Bill Gates told reporters Wednesday that “at this point Microsoft is focused on its independent strategy.”

Just two days before Microsoft Chief ExecutiveSteve Ballmer walked away from the Yahoo bid, he outlined to employees a four-part plan to “build the most interesting position in the world in online advertising, media, and the kind of social connected search and media experiences that go along with that.”

First, Microsoft must do the basics — a huge search index, lots of storage in the cloud for users — very well.

It must innovate in “quick waves” that force Google to play catch-up.

It must “change the basic experiences” of communication and search.

And it must gain scale.

“We have a strategy and we have ideas in each one of those categories,” Ballmer told the employees.

The promise fell flat with analysts who had heard it so recently before.

Part of Microsoft’s trouble is all the attention that Google gets. After all, no one uses Microsoft as a verb for search.

Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of the industry news site SearchEngineLand.com, said Microsoft’s Live Search has innovative features people would really like.

Its image search results keep growing as users scroll, eliminating the need to click to the next page. Video search thumbnails start playing when the user mouses over them. Microsoft has also launched specialized searches for health and medical information and added some fun features for the celebrity-obsessed.

But nobody knows about that, Sullivan said.

“What’s Live Search? You don’t even know that it’s Microsoft,” he said, recommending Microsoft raze the Live brand and rename it Microsoft Search.

In the meeting with employees, Ballmer acknowledged that Microsoft needed to invest in marketing the brand. But when Sullivan considered the idea of more ad campaigns to spread the Microsoft search gospel, he concluded that easing Google’s grip on searchers would take more than a good tagline.

When people ditched AltaVista for Google, it was because AltaVista’s results were getting worse, Sullivan said, and people sought out a replacement. Unless Google loses sight of its search technology, there’s no real reason for people to break their habit.

Microsoft’s strength in display advertising, its efforts with its Tellme voice search division and mobile search, and its presence in video game advertising could bolster Microsoft’s online business despite its No. 3 position in search.

“It’s not just about search, it’s about changing the game of advertising,” Goldman Sachs analyst Sarah Friar said.

As an example, Friar envisioned using Microsoft’s near-ubiquity in the workplace and its recent acquisition of Fast, an enterprise search company, to bring digital advertising into new contexts beyond surfing the Web.

Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research, also believes Microsoft should look beyond search, perhaps pushing ahead with plans to deploy software over the Internet and to get marketers to use a Microsoft platform for mobile and display advertising.

“The problem with a definition of success (is that) when this whole acquisition thing began, it was beating Google, and I think that’s the wrong battle to fight,” Li said. “I’d rather see them hit Google where it’s weak.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda and other radical groups have dramatically increased their use of the Internet in recent years to lure and train recruits worldwide, a U.S. Senate report warned on Thursday.

The report by the Senate Homeland Security Committee found that these groups run production houses and distribution centers that digitally send anti-American messages to thousands of Web sites around the globe.

“Terrorists, whom some dismiss as people living in caves, are as sophisticated in their communication abilities today as most members of 'Generation Y,”' said committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent.

“America is now vulnerable not just to attacks plotted by terrorists oceans away, as was the case with 9/11, but also to terrorism conceived within our own borders,” Lieberman said.

“It used to be that recruits would have to travel to training camps in Afghanistan or Pakistan,” said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the panel's ranking Republican. “Now the Internet is being used as a tool for training, indoctrination and even operational details.”

The committee report — “Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat” — is part of the panel's investigation into Islamic extremism and “home-grown terrorism.”

The report cited recent cases of “home-grown terrorism,” including an Illinois man who was arrested in December 2006 and later pleaded guilty to attempting to acquire explosives for an attack.

While extremist groups began using the Internet about a decade ago, the report said many have become experts in going online to push their message.

The report said the United States must respond with a stepped-up communication outreach effort, possibly with input from community and religious leaders.

“This is a critical challenge to the homeland security of the United States, one the U.S. government must work quickly and aggressively to overcome,” the report said.

Lieberman and Collins quoted Defense Secretary Robert Gates as saying last November: “We are miserable at communicating to the rest of the world what we are about as a society and a culture. … It is just plain embarrassing that Al Qaeda is better at communicating its message on the Internet than America.”

(Editing by Eric Beech)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Activision Inc (ATVI.O) Chief Executive Bobby Kotick said on Thursday he sees no signs that growth in the video game industry is slowing.

“The video-game market fundamentals have never been stronger. There's no evidence that this growth will slow,” Kotick told a conference call.

“A lot of this growth is coming from consumers who are experiencing video games for the first time,” Kotick said.

(Reporting by Scott Hillis; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

When it comes to TVs, DVD players, and other consumer electronics, South Korea can go head to head with the best from Japan, China, and the rest of the world.

When it comes to car cockpit technology, however, South Korea takes a back seat to everyone else. Their cockpits are barren place if you're seeking infotainment along the way. That could change quickly with the technology sharing agreement this week between Hyundai and Microsoft to build a music and information system that will be available in 2010 Hyundais.

In an announcement made in South Korea's presidential Blue House, Microsoft and Hyundai Motor Group said they'll invest $113 million (Microsoft) and $166 million (Hyundai) to set up an Automotive IT Innovation Center.

They said the first product will be a voice-controlled device connecting mobile devices and car stereo systems, which sounds like what Microsoft did two years ago in Europe with Fiat, called Blue & Me, and last year with Ford in the U.S., called Sync, that's helping pump up sales for good cars such as the Ford Focus and Edge, and stabilize sales of so-so vehicles such as the Taurus X. Sync adds voice control and a USB jack for control of iPods and other music devices; Blue & Me adds the ability to integrate a simple navigation system. Ford's U.S. exclusive on the Microsoft technology expires this fall.

Future versions from Hyundai will have “multimedia” and navigation-related features, they said. Although if an iPod connector isn't multimedia integration, then I'm not sure what is. We're still waiting for an automaker to more fully integrate iPods, meaning video in addition to the audio connections.

Good deal for both sides

This is a win-win for both companies. Korea's automakers are at the bottom when it comes to technology, at least on the Telematics Research Group 2008 Technology Index. Of 43 automakers tested for the availability - integreated or optional - of 62 technologies, Hyundai was No. 36 and Kia was No. 42, ahead of only struggling Isuzu. You're hard pressed to find a navigation system integrated into any Korean car sold in the U.S. and line-in jacks are more common than iPod adapters.

Working with Microsoft, Hyundai should be able to cut down its lead times. While Microsoft hasn't shipped an operating system on time, it does think about time-to-market at speeds that are head-shaking to traditional car electronics suppliers.

In other words, as a PC fanatic you may know too much about the downsides of being tied to Microsoft. There are upsides, too. Overall, the deal is good for Hyundai. Plus, Microsoft's Bluetooth compatibility is leading edge. Lots of cars connect to cellphone handsets via Bluetooth, but not all have enough compatibility to transfer phonebooks and make use of all the phone's features. According to the announcement, not only will upgrades came as software downloads - done by the user with a USB key, or at the dealership - but also new features can be added that way.

The Microsoft deal gives Korea Inc. the chance to bypass the $2,000 onboard nav systems that are struggling to get down to $1,500 and possibly go to systems where a simpler but still effective navigation system goes for $500. That would certainly be possible if, for instance, the center stack display was an LCD that was on every car, not just the navigation-equipped models.

Microsoft wins (yes), you win (probably)

Microsoft wins because it needs to new arenas to sell into and cars, like music players and PCs, are chock full of microprocessors that need software and applications. It won't take the sting out of losing Yahoo, but it underscores that Microsoft is a force to be reckoned with inside the car. Already, Microsoft operating systems are used in more than 50 car models around the world.

Car buyers win, too, because the world Microsoft inhabits is open and competitive (give or take that pesky anti-trust suit). In a car of the future, perhaps the dashboard would be truly open and you could choose a Microsoft Bluetooth module, the IBM ViaVoice recognizer, a Garmin navigation module, and a Toshiba solid-state drive to hold the data when you order the car.

A senior executive at a German automaker once told me he fears the day when a car is a four-wheel platform for consumer electronics. “Where's the differentiation going to be?” he asked — meaning for the automakers. A lot of buyers might reply that if you can knock a couple thousand dollars off the cost of cockpit electronics in a highly optioned car, you could live happily with the outcome.

Signs of progress already

It's not that the Hyundai (and Kia, Korea's other major automaker in the U.S.) are devoid of technology. Hyundai has a host of safety technology; Car and Driver editor Csaba Csere once said the Hyundai Sonata is the kind of car you should buy for a teen driver. The upcoming Hyundai Genesis luxury sedan will use a cockpit controller very similar to BMW's iDrive and it's even from the same company, Siemens.

Originally published on TechnoRide.

MINNEAPOLIS - Consumer electronics chain Best Buy Co. Inc. is establishing a foothold in the European market with a $2.1 billion investment in the continent’s largest cell phone retailer, allowing the American company to roll out its trademark big box stores in Europe, the companies said Thursday.

The London-based Carphone Warehouse Group PLC will put its 2,400 Carphone Warehouse and Phone House stores in Europe into the new joint venture.

In a conference call with analysts, the companies said they have been speaking for four years and have collaborated for two, developing the Best Buy Mobile concept for Best Buy stores in the U.S., and bringing Best Buy’s Geek Squad, a 24-hour computer support task force, to Europe.

“We are partnering with an incredibly powerful and incredibly successful organization,” said Charles Dunstone, chief executive of The Carphone Warehouse.

Executives from both companies declined to say how many Best Buy stores will open in Europe, or in which markets, because they didn’t want to tip off the competition. However, they did say the stores will come in a range of sizes and will start opening next year.

Brad Anderson, chief executive of Best Buy, based in Richfield, Minnesota, said they will maintain Best Buy’s reputation for aggressive price competition.

Carphone Warehouse’s current European retail management team initially will remain in place, supplemented by additional personnel from Best Buy as the joint venture develops, the companies said.

RBC Capital markets analyst Scot Ciccarelli wrote the deal offers Best Buy “an intelligent and low-risk strategy to enter the European market,” rather than starting from scratch.

He noted that Carphone Warehouse gets to keep its international business, receives an injection of cash to pay down debt and invest in operations, and will benefit from Best Buy’s consumer electronics experience. RBC rates Best Buy stock a “top pick,” its highest rating.

But Bank of AmericaEquity Research analyst David Strasser, who has a “neutral” rating on the stock, wasn’t enthusiastic. He wrote that Best Buy is “taking on significant exposure and balance sheet risk, at a time of increasing uncertainty in both the electronics industry and the broader retail environment.”

However, he noted that the companies know each other well, and Best Buy will be entering the European market with a proven local partner. He said the accelerated rollout of Best Buy Mobile now planned for all Best Buy stores this year will be a strong improvement from Best Buy’s previous wireless program. It could hurt U.S. competitor Radio Shack Corp.

But Strasser questioned the timing of the deal.

“Buying exposure in Europe and rolling out Best Buy stores in Europe is risky, in our opinion. … (W)e believe the European consumer is heading into a U.S.-like slowdown after a robust spending period. Second, the success of U.S. retailers in Europe is pretty poor,” he wrote.

Because of the deal, Best Buy is dropping its plan to buy back $800 million worth of its shares in its current fiscal year, which began March 2. The company said it expects the joint venture to add about $5 billion to its revenues and 5 cents to 7 cents per share to earnings for the year.

The Carphone Warehouse Group will continue as sole owner of its fixed line telecoms business in the United Kingdom, which includes TalkTalk, AOL Broadband and Opal; and its share of the Virgin Mobile France joint venture.

Carphone Warehouse shares fell 3.4 percent to 289 pence ($5.65) in London. Best Buy shares fell $1.40, or 3.2 percent, to $42.05.

The deal is subject to approval by Carphone Warehouse shareholders at its annual general meeting in August. It’s expected to close by the end of August.

___

Associated Press writer Robert Barr contributed to this report from London.

___

On the Net:

Carphone Warehouse: http://www.cpwplc.com

Best Buy: http://www.bestbuy.com

WASHINGTON - The United States must develop a communications plan to counter radical Islamic messages on the Internet, according to a Congressional report released Thursday.

Because the Internet’s easy access makes it possible for al-Qaida and other terrorist sympathizers to spread their beliefs and recruit new followers, the government needs a coordinated and thorough response that it currently lacks, said the senior senators on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said al-Qaida is better at communicating its message to Americans than the U.S. government is at communicating its message.

That means people can become radicalized at home, without leaving the country or going to a terrorist training camp, he said. This fuels the potential for “homegrown” terrorists, such as the men caught last year plotting to attack Fort Dix and John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The Homeland Security Department’s top intelligence official, Charlie Allen, said earlier this week that the number of messages al-Qaida sends over the Internet has increased over the past 18 months.

But shutting down the sites is not the best option, said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, because of First Amendment issues and the “whack-a-mole” effect — the government shuts down one site and another site pops up almost instantly.

Lieberman said the FBI currently has the most extensive and methodical outreach to Muslim communities in America. The Homeland Security department does similar outreach. But Lieberman and Collins said there needs to be a larger, more coordinated strategy.

___

On The Net:

http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/_files/IslamistReport.pdf

LOS ANGELES - The popular online hangout MySpace will soon enable users to quickly share profile data with other sites, including Yahoo and eBay.

MySpace aims to save its users keystrokes and allow them to export their photos, videos and lists of friends.

Besides Yahoo Inc. and eBay Inc., sites that can receive the MySpace data include Twitter and Photobucket. Like MySpace, the photo-sharing site Photobucket is a unit of News Corp.

Altogether, the participating sites have 150 million users and reach 85 percent of the Internet market in the United States.

MySpace is the world’s largest social networking site.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Pierre Avignon is no pirate, but he does not believe in paying for software.

His computer is filled with programs like Symphony — a free suite that he downloaded from an International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) website (http://symphony.lotus.com).

It performs work for which he used to rely on Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Word word processor, Excel spreadsheet and PowerPoint presentation builder, all components of the Microsoft Office software suite.

“It is free. It is a great deal,” says Avignon, a 43-year-old graphics designer from West Newbury, Massachusetts.

Free software was once almost exclusively borne of a grass-roots effort — with an anti-Microsoft bent — seeking alternatives to paid software. The movement produced myriad programs, but only a handful of widely used titles such as the Linux operating system.

Microsoft says Office has 500 million users.

Growth in the availability of broadband Internet access has spawned a new type of free software — programs that its developers host on their own servers and have designed to foster collaboration among users by making documents easy to share.

Google Inc (GOOG.O) and smaller Internet companies such as privately held Zoho offer free office suites over the Web. (http://docs.google.com and http://www.zoho.com).

Users don't have to install the programs or even keep documents on their own PCs.

You can't set up mass mailings or run sophisticated data analysis using most free, Web-based software, says Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst with Nucleus Research. But she says few people actually use such features.

Google Docs and other free programs are looking increasingly attractive to businesses, she said, as they seek ways to keep down their information technology budgets.

Microsoft's entry-level business version of Office costs $325 at Amazon.com (AMZN.O), about triple the price of its version targeted at home users.

“Ninety percent of the users don't need all the functionality that Office provides,” Wettemann said. “Ninety percent of people basically just use Excel to make lists.”

More demanding users who don't want to pay may look to Symphony and its cousin, OpenOffice, a package developed by a nonprofit group that also includes a database program and drawing software.

Rob Tidrow, a computer programmer who has written several guides to using Microsoft Office, says that Symphony does not lack many features that even power users of Office need.

Tidrow, who just finished writing “IBM Lotus Symphony for Dummies,” said he installed the IBM program on computers that his two children use, but it is also robust enough to meet the needs of churches, schools and small businesses.

“They can save hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dollars by using free software,” he said.

Kirk Gregersen, a Microsoft product manager, says that cost is generally not a prime deciding factor for Office customers.

Surveys show that price is generally the eighth most important factor, he said.

And “free” has its setbacks.

“As soon as you say it's free, (people) feel less comfortable,” says Avignon, who has encouraged friends to try Symphony but has won few converts. “They say 'What's the catch?”'

Even so, Microsoft is closely watching these products.

“We take the competition super-seriously,” says Gregersen. “We have to, or we wouldn't be doing the right thing.”

(Reporting by Jim Finkle, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Teenagers in the U.S. are having a more difficult time buying M-rated mature video games in stores than in past years, according to the results of an undercover operation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC, using 13-to-16-year-old undercover shoppers, found that only 20 percent of them were able to purchase M-rated video games from eight retailers. That's down from 42 percent in 2006 and 85 percent in 2000, when the FTC first began doing the surveys focused on mature games, music and movies.

The FTC praised most video-game retailers, saying they have worked to cut down sales of mature games to minors under age 17. “Some retailers have really paid attention to our [survey] results and to some criticism,” said Mary Engle, the FTC's associate director for advertising practices.

In recent years, many U.S. lawmakers have blasted retailers for selling violent or sexually themed video games to minors. In 2005, Hillary Clinton, a Democratic senator from New York and current U.S. presidential candidate, introduced the Family Entertainment Protection Act, which would have created federal enforcement of the voluntary Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings system. The bill would have included fines or community service sentences for retailers who sell mature or adult-only rated video games to minors.

That legislation, widely criticized by gamers, was not approved by the U.S. Senate.

Three bills introduced in Congress in 2007 focus on video games, with two that would prohibit video-game makers from hiding content from the ESRB as a way to avoid a restrictive rating. On Wednesday, U.S. Representatives Jim Matheson, a Utah Democrat, and Lee Terry, a Nebraska Republican, introduced a bill that would require all retailers to check identification from any child trying to buy or rent mature or adults-only rated games.

“Too many children are spending too much time playing inappropriate video games that most parents would find shocking and objectionable,” Matheson said in a statement. “As a parent, I know that I'm the first line of defense against my kids playing Mature-rated video games. But parents can't be everywhere monitoring everything, and some reasonable, common-sense rules ought to be in place to back parents up.”

Some of the same stores restricting access to video games allowed more teens to buy R-rated or unrated DVDs or CDs with parent advisory labels (PALs), the FTC said. In movie theaters, an R rating means children under age 17 aren't supposed to be admitted without a parent. Unrated movies can contain content that would be rated NC-17, the movie industry's most adult rating.

The FTC's operation found that more than 50 percent of the undercover shoppers were able to buy unrated movies and PAL-rated CDs, and 47 percent were able to buy R-rated movies. In each of those cases, the percentages have gone down since 2006.

The FTC's operation also targeted movie theaters– 35 percent of the time, the undercover shoppers were able to buy R-rated movie tickets without an adult present.

Some stores don't appear to have a “consistent policy” about allowing teens to buy mature-themed products, Engle said. “The issue of unrated DVDs is particularly troublesome,” she said.

Just 6 percent of teen shoppers at GameStop or EB Games stores were able to buy M-rated video games, the FTC said. Company officials in early 2007 said they'd fire employees who sold mature-themed games to kids.

Wal-Mart sold M-rated games to just 18 percent of the secret shoppers, and Best Buy sold them to 20 percent. But 83 percent of the teen shoppers were able to purchase unrated DVDs at Best Buy. Seventy-seven percent of the kids were able to purchase unrated DVDs at Target, while only 29 percent were able to buy M-rated video games.