Disney Interactive Studios has unveiled the classic character costumes of Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald who will be joining the mix of Disney and Pixar characters in the upcoming action-adventure videogame Disney Universe set for release October 25.  The game brings together for the first time characters and worlds inspired by both animated and live action films from Disney’s Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, and Walt Disney Pictures.  The new classic characters are joined by other characters like Mike and Sulley from Pixar’sMonsters Inc., Alice and the Mad Hatter from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Stitch from Disney’s Lilo & Stitch and many more.

Despite a recent string of down months in U.S. video game sales at retail this year, a new report from research firm Gartner paints a very rosy picture for the global video game industry. When adding in revenues from burgeoning online, mobile and digital gaming sectors, Gartner estimates that worldwide spending on the gaming ecosystem will exceed $74 billion in 2011, up 10.4 percent from the $67 billion spent last year. By 2015, spending is expected to reach $112 billion.

Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow remains a huge box office draw overseas. Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films' Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides has sailed past the $1 billion global box office mark and is still bringing in the treasure. The 3D movie has grossed $233.7 million domestically and $774 million internationally for a global pirate’s booty of $1,007,703,000. While Disney Interactive Studios canceled its Pirates of the Caribbean role-playing game video game tie-in to the new movie, the game publisher did release LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean to take advantage of the global sensation.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling that underscored constitutional protections for video games, developers, and video game industry artists. At issue was a 2005 California statute restricting the sale and rental of computer and video games. The ESA, the lead party in the case Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association/Entertainment Software Association, argued that the statute presented unconstitutional limitations on expression, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed, holding the California law unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

Actors Owen Wilson and Eddie Izzard are among the headliners of director John Lasseter’s Cars 2. Wilson voiced Lightning McQueen in the original Cars video game. Both actors grew up in the arcade boom of the games industry. They talk about “old school” gaming, as well as the advances in 3D technology, in this exclusive video interview below.

John Lasseter actually got the idea for the spy theme used extensively in the new Disney Interactive Studios and Avalanche Software Cars 2 video game back with the original film. He had to cut a scene at a drive-in featuring a car spy movie, but he kept that idea in the back of his head and incorporated it into the new movie. Then the game creatives took the concept of CHROME and designed an entire stand-alone video game around it.

Disney Interactive Studios is taking Cars 2 to the third dimension on PlayStation 3. After opting out of 3D for last year’s Toy Story 3 and TRON: Evolution games on the PS3 front, the game publisher is bringing PS3 gamers the same type of 3D experience that filmgoers will have access to on the big screen. Only the game will be a completely original experience from the John Lasseter-directed sequel. The game developer, Avalanche Software, explains what 3D adds to the game in this exclusive 3D video below.