SKAGWAY, ALASKA—Last summer Nintendo began an exclusive relationship with Norwegian Cruise Lines to install Wiis aboard every ship. Rather than just offering Wiis in the teen or kids centers aboard the ships, the cruise line has integrated Wiis into the daily itinerary for each ship. It’s yet another example of just how mainstream the Wii has become and another reason why you can’t find these consoles anywhere at retail.

Aboard the Norwegian Pearl, the largest class of ships that Norwegian runs, the Nintendo Wii has been playable every day. In addition to being able to play Wii Sports games and Endless Ocean (a game that allows you to dive under the sea and explore lost treasure troves) in a regular room on a flat screen TV, each day the Wii is playable on the giant screen in the huge Stardust Theater.

During this 7-day cruise through Alaska, which has stops in Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Victoria (British Columbia), it’s not just the

Editor's note: John Gaudiosi covers the video game industry for WRAL.com and WRAL Local Tech Wire.

MUNSTER—After my whirlwind tour of Germany, I thought I’d share some things with you. I attended the Role-Playing Convention in Munster on my trip. They had Sacred 2, the new CDV/Ascaron role-playing game, playable for up to 16 PC players and four Xbox 360 players at the event. A giant tractor trailer opened up to allow the online games to be played by any of the 30,000-plus attendees in the college town.

For those wondering about Munster, it’s the most desired place to live in Germany as voted by Germans. I agree with them, as this large town has a very small-town feel to it—by design. Unlike other German cities like Aachen, which I also visited, Munster is spread out with lots of trees, parks, grass and ponds. You feel like you’re surrounded by nature instead of in a town. Even the hotel we stayed at, the Movenpick

BUDAPEST--Anyone who questions the magnitude of the $40 billion videogame industry needs only to hop on a plane and head anywhere in the world. I've spent the past week traveling from Frankfurt, Germany to Budapest, Hungary to Cologne, Germany to Aachen, Germany to Muenster, Germany and back to Frankfurt for a flight home.

Every city I was in had either a game development studio or publisher or some type of game tie-in. The whole week was part of an international press tour for CDV Software's new Xbox 360 and PC game, Sacred 2. (CDV has it's US headquarters in Cary, NC but it's global headquarters are in Frankfurt.) There were journalists from game magazines in Spain, Greece, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary and the U.S. on this tour.

In Budapest, we visited 3D Brigade, the company that worked with publisher Ascaron Entertainment on Sacred 2. During the presentation for the game, they showed a demo of Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3. Later, they told

The videogame industry continues at a record pace with no signs of sluggishness, despite the current recession. Total videogame hardware, software and accessories sales were up 57 percent over March 2007 to $1.7 billion.

Videogame software is driving the growth with $945.6 million in sales, which is up 63 percent over last March.

Nintendo had the top game of the month. Super Smash Bros. Brawl sold 2.7 million copies. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 had four games in the Top 10, while Nintendo had three and Sony had two PSP games and one PS3 game.

Rounding out Nintendo’s top titles were Wii Play Remote (409,800 units sold) and Activision’s Guitar Hero III (264,100 units).

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 had the number two slot with Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (752,300 units), and the number three solt with Electronic Arts’ Army of Two (606,100 units).

Rounding out the Xbox 360 titles were 2K Sports’ Major League

LOS ANGELES--Kobe Bryant walked into luxury suite E-11 at the Staples Center and said, “Wow, you guys have a great view up from up here. I’ve never been up here before.” One of the 13 people gathered in the spacious suite in the empty arena joked that Kobe probably has a much better view of the action from where he sits. Bryant had just scored 20 points in a season-ending game against the Sacramento Kings, which secured the Los Angeles Lakers the top seed in the Western Conference and home court throughout the 2008 NBA Playoffs.

I was able to catch the second half of the game inside that suite, courtesy of Gameloft, which partnered with Kobe on its new mobile cell phone game, Kobe Bryant Basketball 2008. I had just flown in from San Francisco, where I spent the day playing Activision’s Quake Wars: Enemy Territory and Namco Bandai’s latest line-up of titles, including Soul Calibur IV and Afro Samurai. That was enough time to watch Kobe score some