From Minnesota Public Radio this is Future Tense for November 13. I'm Jon Gordon. It's a huge week for video game players and electronics retailers, as Microsoft and Nintendo roll out their new game machines. X-Box from Microsoft is due in stores Thursday, while Nintendo's GameCube arrives three days later. Analysts say despite the slow economy, the 20 billion dollar video game industry is robust. Sean McGowan is co-founder of PlayDate Inc, a toy industry market services firm. ((bite 1)) X-Box, GameCube and the year-old Sony PlayStation 2 are expected to do so well this holiday season, they could help lift third and fourth quarter profits for retail chains like Best Buy and Circuit City. McGowan says it's a unique time for the industry. ((bite 2)) It's going to be a fierce battle for the hearts and minds of video game players. Microsoft alone is will spend 500 million dollars to promote X-Box. Which game console will be the big winner? ((bite 3)) Sean McGowan with Play Date Inc ((button)) In the news& The number of subscribers getting high-speed access to the Internet through cable television lines jumped 15 percent during the third quarter. That's according to the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. The 825,000 new subscribers brings the total number of U.S. cable modem users to 6.4 million. That's about 9 percent of the homes that are able to receive the service. Cable lines remain the most popular way to get broadband Internet. A fledgling aerospace company took another step toward making private space flights yesterday as a rocket-powered plane soared 9,000 feet over the Mojave desert. Xcor Aerospace's EZ-Rocket is outfitted with twin, 400-pound-thrust rocket engines. The flight was the fifth for the EZ-Rocket, which burns isopropyl alcohol and liquid oxygen, consuming about $75 worth of fuel during each short flight. The company hopes to eventually build a craft capable of flying regularly to altitudes of 60 miles that could allow scientists to conduct experiments in microgra