The Entertainment Software Association has released their 2010 Essential Facts regarding the computer and video game industry. Those interested in this sector will most likely find a lot of the information intriguing, in some cases simply to understand what is happening within the industry.

Wallsten examines the October issue of Scientific American in which an article declares that broadband in America is behind and that, “…prices in the United States are too high and speeds are too low.” Wallsten reports that the article calls for three things to be changed to improve the situation:

Ezell and Atkinson discuss how innovation as a means to economic growth in a society can have positives and negatives because governments can implement policy in different ways that affects innovation and it’s ability to grow the economy differently.

UK based Internet Service Provider Demon has announced a new broadband prioritization service for gamers called “Game Pro”. The new package has raised concerns with Net Neutrality advocates.

The Progress & Freedom Foundation announced that it would close its doors on October 1st. The organization has served the free market community in the area of technology policy and the digital economy for 17 years.

FierceIPTV reports that AT&T is aiming to pull away some of Akamai’s business. The report indicates that AT&T is contracting with Contendo for “app aceeleration and dynamic site acceleration” for AT&T networks. Contendo, a content delivery network (CDN) based out of Sunnyvale, CA, developed the acceleration technology and launched their business last year. They closed their “Series C” funding round a year later with $12 million.

Progress & Freedom Foundation’s Thierer and Szoka believe the California video game law on violent video games that will be heading to the Supreme Court in November violates the 1st Amendment. PFF joined forces with the Electronic Frontier Foundation asking the court to uphold the lower courts ruling that the law was unconstitutional. The groups believe that the law violates the speech rights of both those who make and play video games.

The authors suggest that government investment in science, technology and education should not be decreased and that the U.S. government should actually increase direct funding or incentives via tax credits to research and design in these areas.

O’Neill has reported that Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis says that Comcast will pursue their “TV Everywhere” platform with a relaunching of Xfinity next month.

Andes and Castro believe that the mobile broadband network has finally reached a point at which “high-value applications” are becoming more of the norm. This is due not only the networks but also because of mobile devices becoming more powerful and fast enough to handle in depth applications. Because of these things the authors believe we are about to see a huge boon in services, business models, and applications.