Despite fears that the on-going trend of digital distribution may be bad for retailers, analyst Arvind Bhatia of Sterne Agee believes that retailers and walk-in stores have nothing to worry about. At least not yet. Meeting with four key GameStop execs, the analyst shares his thoughts and predictions regarding digital downloads.

We're only a quarter a way into the year and we've already seen several big games come out. Reports from the NPD Group indicate that both hardware and software sales are up, up, up. However, with GTA IV and Wii Fit to be released in the next few months, what's left for the rest of the year? One analyst worries that after those games, the video game business is going to experience a slump. Save your comments for the full article.

Just because a company is down doesn't necessarily mean that a company is out. As analysts Michael Pachter and Colin Sebastian have pointed out, THQ's underperformance in 2007 is "a painful step" to a more successful showing in the future. Fellow analyst Arvin Bhatia concurs, and he has his own words of encouragement for THQ.

You can read more about them in the full article after the jump.

Despite a sales boost from games such as Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PC), Halo 3, Madden NFL 08 (PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, DS) and others, it looks like GameStop's third quarter performance was downplayed by the general market, a trend that rather "baffled" noted analysts such as Michael Pachter. Read on to get more details.