THQ just released details regarding its profits for the third quarter of fiscal year 2008.

Aside from money matters, however, the company's CEO also hinted at when they'll be releasing the next installments of their Saints Row and Red Faction franchises. Details await in the full article.

Game publisher Take-Two Interactive says that the delay of Grand Theft Auto IV, Manhunt 2's ban and good reviews for BioShock have all contributed to a financial roller-coaster which has stunted corporate growth in fiscal 2007. The company expects US$ 950 billion to US$ 1 billion in gross revenues when all is said and done.

Fans and members of the media were disappointed when the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, the company's biggest project to date, was delayed to next year due to development issues. Manhunt 2, on the other hand, was banned due to violent content and was held back for a few months until it was recently cleared to go, following revisions.

In the first quarter of fiscal 2007, Take-Two posted earnings of US$ 206 million, lower than the US$ 241 million that it reported in the same period during 2006. On the bright side, US$ 59 million in losses aren't as bad when stacked against the performance from the same quarter last year when US$ 91 million was reported lost in revenues.

The magnificent FPS BioShock led other good releases such as The Darkness, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, The BIGS, and All-Pro Football 2K8 to offset more financial troubles and negative publicity. In addition, Take-Two expects a strong fiscal 2008 rebound when Grand Theft Auto IV gets ready for both the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3. Also planned are casual games based on IP from Nickelodeon.

Take-Two estimates the next fiscal cycles to hit US$ 1.1 billion to US$ 1.4 billion. It also expects its 2K Sports label to start generating profits by the time fiscal 2009 arrives.

 The recent NPD findings painted a positive outlook for the future of original IPs and may have implied that most gamers are already sick of playing sequels, but that doesn't seem to affect THQ. In the Pacific Crest Securities' Digital Media and Entertainment forum, THQ's CFO Ed Zinser emphasized that they intend to derive more of its revenue from intellectual properties it owns - which means  we should expect more sequels from them.

Some of those "intellectual properties" are the licensed franchises like the WWE, Pixar, and Nickelodeon games. He further explained it by saying:

We've got Saints Row which was launched recently, this year, Red Faction from a few years back which you'll be seeing in the future as a sequel, Stuntman scheduled for fiscal '08, Juiced, which is a racing title, MX, which is an off-road racing title, and Destroy All Humans! as well...All launched over the past several years [and sold] a million units-plus, and all titles we believe have sequel potential for the future...You should expect to see sequels on varying platforms--most of them multiplatform--probably on an every-other-year kind of timeframe over the cycle.

Aside from that, the THQ honcho divulged that they are planning to launch a couple of new intellectual properties a year throughout the console cycle. He also said that THQ's list of licensed annualized games will also be expanding. Well, we have nothing against sequels, as long as they offer something new on the table.

From NPD's report "Kids & Digital Content" comes these very interesting information: even two-year old toddlers are now into videogames. The study looks closely at how kids between two and fourteen years of age acquire and use digital content for their computers, portable digital music and/or video players, cell phones, and video game systems.

NPD reported downloading and playing games is the most popular activity followed by watching downloaded movies, television, music videos or online streaming video content. The study says kids play games at an average of 44 minutes in one sitting.

By the time kids are 7 years old, more than one in 10 are downloading content in some form. In the 10-year-old age bracket, 22% of all kids included in the online survey are downloading. Half of all 14 year-olds included in the study were into downloading digital content.

How many kids with access to the Internet are actually surfing the net? The figure is a big 75%. Almost half of them are online and surfing the Internet without any assistance. Only 25% are surfing the Internet with their parents or someone else. The top sites visited by kids include Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network. MySpace and Yahoo! are also fave surfstops.

"Without a doubt, kids are digital content natives, seamlessly navigating between traditional and digital sources of media without missing a step," said The NPD Group. "To kids, there is nothing new or novel about digital sources of entertainment. The real challenge for marketers is to be one step ahead of their competition, providing the content and technology kids crave."

For the casual gaming kiddies, we have news. Nickelodeon is announcing their partnership with game developer MumboJumbo to publish games later in the year. MumboJumbo, famous for casual games like Luxor, will be releasing three titles: Charlotte’s Web, Neopets, and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The first game, Charlotte’s Web: Word Rescue, is a word puzzle game that's currently downloadable at the MumboJumbo main site. It is not to be confused with the Charlotte’s Web title for the DS. Avatar (not to be confused with the earlier PS2 title)  and Neopets-based casual games are still in development, and are expected to launch within the year.

“We are excited to enter into a partnership with a company like MumboJumbo, one of the most trusted and well-respected publishers of family-friendly, casual games and online PC titles, and to continue to enhance Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group’s casual gaming offerings,” said Paul Jelinek, Vice President of Digital Media Products for Nickelodeon. “We’re excited to add branded content on some of our top properties to our audience’s casual gaming experience.”