Social games like Xbox's Lips and PlayStation's Singstar are poised to rake in more revenue than either the music or the film industries. - Inspired by Don Mattrick, Microsoft

Though the gaming industry currently makes more than music and film, this is somewhat misleading. The two media are so different that a direct comparison (e.g. if the money isn't spent on one, is it spent on the other?) isn't completely feasible. The 50-somethings that go see movies regularly won't exchange their tickets to see "Atonement" for a copy of GTA 4. Secondly, if the gaming industry DOES stay on top of film/music (which will happen, unless Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo decide to blow up all their consoles via remote), it will not be because of web 2.0-type games. Though widely available, only a minority of gamers actually participate in some form of online gaming. And call me crazy, but I don't think that karaoke games will catapult the video game industry into untouchable levels of consumer spending dominance.

Considering the tens of millions Guitar Hero and Rock Band have made on downloadable songs, this very well could prove true. The Holy Grail for this genre is someone to lock-up Beatles songs. That will move like hotcakes.

Given the rise of games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, coupled with the announcements you mention above, as well as Nintendo's plan to release Wii Music, I'd have to say that we're leaning more and more in the direction of Mattrick's prediction. Though Brendan states there is no direct correlation, video games like GTA IV are a lot like film with soundtracks included. Video games and film are becoming increasingly alike. And the promotion and distribution of music through video games is becoming more widespread, just look at the announcement of Guns N' Roses track "Shackler's Revenge" being released on Rock Band 3. As for Karaoke, Disney Sing It will be a new karaoke video game that allows fans to perform more than 35 songs from Camp Rock, High School Musical, Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus, Aly & AJ, Jesse McCartney and more. If you haven't seen the power of Disney music in action for teens and tweens, just look at the recent sales behind everything Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. And Disney Interactive will also launch Ultimate Band, a game for Nintendo DS and Wii that's similar to Rock Band. As for the online gaming market, that only a minority of gamers actually participate in the market is purely conjecture -- in fact most research by DFC Intelligence forecasts the market reaching at least $13 billion by 2012. Right now, China's online gaming market has tripled. There's definitely something to this prediction.

As the generation of people who grew up with video games get older, I think you'd have to expect a greater share of your entertainment dollar going towards gaming. It seems like the culture is shifting towards more active media. Just as people are shifting to the web and away from television and newspapers for their news, I think we'll see a shift from passive entertainment like movies and music to more interactive ones like video games. None of it will completely go away, it will just be a little more crowded.