The video game business is dominated by a handful of giant studios, companies that can deploy hundreds of people and budgets in the tens of millions of dollars on a single blockbuster title.

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Media giant Viacom, which owns Paramount studios, CBS and MTV, is continuing negotiations on this basis.

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The consumer-goods giant now has over 70 TelePresence studios around the world, and says they are in almost constant use.

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These are the kinds of movies that the studios are largely abandoning in favor of giant franchise blockbusters, like the upcoming movie The Avengers, and microbudget horror films like The Devil Inside.

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In Total Recall, Metrolight Studios created the animated skeletons that are seen running and fighting behind a giant security X-ray screen in the future.

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At a recent industry forum Liu Binjie, the director of China's General Administration of Press and Publication, the industry regulator, said China would like to see such partnerships between studios and publishers lead to a massive consolidation, leaving half a dozen giant companies capable of spreading Chinese words internationally.

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Film studios have opposed the release, saying pirated material is likely to be found in the giant cache of data.

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Other studios are expected to announce similar deals, while Time Warner - which announced its merger with internet giant AOL last week - is developing its own service.

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