Shares of Activision Blizzard Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc. declined Friday after October's video game retail sales report from the NPD Group showed a disappointing performance in the music genre.

Activision publishes the popular "Guitar Hero" series and EA publishes "Rock Band."

"The performance of the broader music genre as well as key new music genre releases 'Guitar Hero World Tour' and 'Rock Band 2' were probably the most negative data points of last night's release," wrote UBS analyst Benjamin Schachter in a client note.

Nonetheless, analysts were optimistic on the games industry as a whole amid the economic downturn and eroding consumer confidence. Americans spent $1.31 billion on video games last month, according to the market researcher. This is an 18 percent increase from the year-ago period.

The next few weeks leading up to the holidays are the most important part of the year for video game companies, because this is when they make most of their money.

"While we view strong headline software growth numbers and solid hardware trends as a clear positive for the industry, it's still early in the critical December quarter," Schachter wrote. He added it's "important to note that with most of the key holiday titles now launched, the core gamers appear to be holding up the industry."

Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter called overall sales growth for games software strong, implying that video games have yet to feel the effects of the economic downturn, but he added that several publishers (including Activision, EA and THQ) had weaker than expected results.

Shares of Redwood City, Calif.-based EA fell $1.56, or 7 percent, to $20.66 in midday trading. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $19.28 and $60.35.

Shares of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Activision fell $1.77, or 14.1 percent, to $10.80.

"Grand Theft Auto" publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., whose "NBA 2K9" game made it into the top 10 best-selling titles in October, rose 23 cents to $10.92.

Shares of THQ Inc., fell 20 cents, or 4.8 percent, to $4. The stock has traded between $3.68 and $29.94 in the past year.

The complexity of a computer crime trumped the need for a speedy trial Friday in the case of the son of a Democratic Tennessee state lawmaker charged with breaking into the e-mail account of former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley agreed to a joint request from prosecutors and defense attorneys for more time to prepare for the trial of University of Tennessee student David Kernell, 20, of Knoxville.

"A lot of this is in computer language that a lot of lawyers couldn't just read and get," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle.

Kernell, charged with one count of tapping into the Alaska governor's e-mail in September, was moved from next month to April 20. The son of longtime state Rep. Mike Kernell of Memphis, chairman of Tennessee's House Government Operations Committee, faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

In court, Kernell was asked if he understood he was giving up his right a speedy trial.

"Yes, sir. I understand," the economics major told the magistrate.

Kernell's attorney, Wade Davies, contends the government has wrongly combined two similar misdemeanors to form a felony charge, and says because of that, the case should be thrown out.

While computer "hacking" is slang without legal definition, Davies also objects to prosecutors using it to describe his client because of the "negative connotations." He says hacking implies "the use of sophisticated means of specialized computer skills." What his client did was more like "guessing three security questions based on readily available information from public sources."

Kernell turned himself in the same day his indictment was unsealed in October. He pleaded not guilty and has been released on several conditions, including staying away from his computer except for school work.

The indictment said Kernell tapped into the Alaska governor's widely publicized Yahoo! e-mail account by correctly answering a series of personal security questions. He allegedly reset the password to "popcorn" and was able to read the contents, make screenshots and post his exploits on the Web using the nickname "rubico."

The indictment said at least one other person followed a similar path into Palin's account, but no other arrests have been made.

SOFTWARE HOPES: Sun is also splitting its software division into three new business groups, in an attempt to better focus on higher-growth segments of the corporate computing market.

WHAT'S NEXT: Sun says it is not planning any spinoff or sale, but analysts wonder whether it has time to return to profitability before a bigger player takes advantage of Sun's cratered stock price.