For those of us with an interest in the business side of video games, this week will be a busy one. As CNN Money reports, game makers are seeing some downward pressure in front of their earnings reports.

Activision, for one, who reports this Thursday, has dropped about 15% over the past three months due, in part, to the announcement of Rock Band, a direct competitor to their best selling Guitar Hero.

EA has also seen some downward movement in its stock as investors realized that they put too much weight behind the PS3 and are now playing catch up with the Wii. EA reports its earnings on Wednesday.

Rounding out the top three independent publishers is THQ who is expected to take a loss of $0.25 per share when they report on Wednesday.

Of course, there is Nintendo and their first party titles, which are selling like cheap hot cakes. The article discusses, however, how despite Nintendo's runaway success of late, their tide is not lifting all boats.

My two cents...

Personally, I think that Activision will remain strong due to continued success from Guitar Hero. I don't see Rock Band as much of a threat. If anything, it'll always be considered the second tier option in the genre, and, for others who enjoy the genre, well, they'll just buy both games.

EA is, well, EA and they'll continue to ride the revenue stream of EA Sports (Madden et al) while pumping out mediocre game after mediocre game.

I really don't think much about THQ. I'll have to start paying attention to them a little more closely. I know that they have a lot of movie tie-ins, with a long term deal with Pixar, but I don't quite know what they have in the pipeline.

The company that I really think will do well over the next year is Ubisoft. Assassin's Creed is one of the most highly anticipated games of the year and they have a strong Wii lineup and development plan.