This sounds grim. Speakers at the upcoming London Games Conference are forecasting that in three years' time, retail would have been outstripped by digital distribution. Not only that, but 40% of the companies in the games industry will be caught unprepared for this shift in consumer choice.

Despite recent setbacks profits-wise, Nintendo's success in this console generation is a hard thing to argue against. In recognition of the DS and Wii's dominance in their respective markets, BusinessWeek and management consulting firm A.T. Kearney recently gave Nintendo the top spot in their World's Best Companies 2009 list.

Always quick with a comment, Michael Pachter has weighed in on the rumor about Microsoft buying Electronic Arts. As far as the Wedbush Morgan analyst is concerned, the rumor doesn't make any sense at all.

First, a disclaimer: this is just a rumor, so get your saltshakers ready. All set? Okay. Rumor has it that Microsoft is gunning for a takeover of video game publishing giant Electronic Arts.

Exciting past couple of weeks, eh? The price cuts mad rush continued on this week with Microsoft joining in on the bandwagon. Meanwhile, Nintendo's sitting prettily and quietly, choosing the status quo, because, hey, they're on top in the status quo. Wouldn't want to change a thing about that now, would you? It's also one event after the another, from E3 to GamesCom to upcoming PAX and TGS. If this does not revive interest in the industry, I don't know what will. This latter half of the calendar year is just bursting at the seams, and we've got a portion of all that action here in this nice little bundle for you stamped as QuickPeek 87.

With Sony and Microsoft now busy making their marketing push for the holidays, you gotta wonder what Nintendo is planning to do about it, especially considering that we haven't heard from any of the Nintendo execs for a while now. Are they gonna slim the Wii down too and call it the Wee Wii? Good grief I sure hope not. For the news that did come out over the week, you can catch it all on this edition of the Nintendo Weekend Warrior.

GamesCom sure did not disappoint this week, although it did color our front page purple for the most part. No doubt about it, Sony ruled the spotlight this past week, and there's even no point saying otherwise. Fanboy or not, plain fact is that Sony was responsible for probably 80% of the gaming-related activity on the Internet this week. But not to worry, you bet you can find other big news in QJ for the 86th week of QuickJump QuickPeek! All across our blogs! Jump in and find out for yourself.

The decline will narrow, but it will continue. This is Michael Pachter's prediction for the July NPD results, foreseeing a 22 percent downturn compared to the same month last year. See what he has to say in the full article.

Everyone sure had a lot to say this week, from analysts to company execs, all the way to the President, and even the regular commenting folks. Action-packed is the most apt word to describe the past seven days, I believe. A lot of controversies have been courted too, and quite frankly, the gaming scene did happily oblige for some. Don't just take my word for it. See all that you missed below. You'd want to catch up on this one definitely.

Electronic Arts and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) will be hosting a panel entitled "Homophobia in Virtual Communities" to discuss methods on how to combat discrimination and hatred language in online gaming communities.