Fresh from acquiring assets to dip themselves into the casual gaming market, "creative hub" publisher THQ will now set out to raise the curtains off their much broader lineup of games for fiscal year 2009. And aside from tending some exclusive titles for the Nintendo Wii, THQ has a couple of mainstream franchises piled up for a comeback. All these are to be demonstrated at the Game Press Event in San Francisco. Head to the full story for more info.

The Chart track for the UK's all format polls for the week ending November 24 indicates that Assassin's Creed (PS3, DS, Xbox 360, PC) has stepped out of the shadows, retaining its presence as the top game for the said time period.

That said, we imagine the guys will be curious about the rest of last week's top contenders. You can view the list over in the full article.

Let's talk about mythology for a while and no, this is not going to be a lecture similar to the ones you get in your Literature classes. Let's talk about gods and goddesses in relation to video games and the World Wrestling Federation (WWE).

The full article awaits after the jump!

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) shot up to first place in the UK charts for the week of November 17, bumping off former top placer Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360, PS3, PC). The Simpsons Game remains at third place.

Another notable entry into the charts is Super Mario Galaxy which came in at fifth place. Check out the rest of the top 20 in the full article.

Back in the industry news, "creative hub" publisher THQ announced a first quarter sales dip of approximately US$ 34 million, while reporting a significantly lowered quarter net loss of US$ 9.3 million. Despite the drop from US$ 138.8 million to US$ 104.5 million in sales of Ratatouille, Cars, and WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2007, the publisher is confident about its US$ 240 million sales target for Q2 2007.

 

Achievements for the company during Q1 included a penetration of the online market in China, after THQ signed an agreement with Shanda, a local game operations firm, to deliver the long-standing PC game Company of Heroes to the blossoming PC market in the region. While details were scarce, it was hinted that the title would definitely cater to the online segment.

Brian Farrell, CEO of THQ, assured attendees at the recently concluded press conference that the current quarter performance appears to be as they expected. He remained confident that their lineup of family-friendly and casual games for the Nintendo Wii and DS will keep the company "well positioned" for the remainder of the fiscal year.

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, de Blob, Stuntman: Ignition, and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007, on the other hand, have been selected as for Game Critics' Best of E3 2007 Awards, while a whispered sequel for Red Faction back in February was confirmed at the conference call. Details on the sequel have not been revealed as of press time.

Future prospects of the company appear to be cautiously optimistic, after Farrell noted a faster pace of PlayStation 3 hardware sales that seem to outweigh the platform's software sales. The company also plans to dive into in-game advertising more so this 2008, claiming to be in talks with Nickelodeon and Pixar to discuss in-game ad revenue shares.

Brutal body-slamming and sledgehammer-smashing wrestling action in this gameplay video of THQ's WWE Smackdown Versus Raw 2008 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. While wrestling may be scripted, the moves themselves do hurt - and it's the same with this next-gen brawler, sporting moves that look painful to watch as they are fun to pull off.

In this video, we see Lashley and Jeff Hardy going at it toe-to-toe. We see the high-flying hijinks off the top rope that's typical of the Hardys from Jeff, as well as Lashley's signature cadre of dominating wrestling holds and moves. It's to note that the commentary this time around actually sounds very natural and convincing, unlike the robotic, one-liner descriptions of the game's previous iterations. The graphics are looking very sharp, with the animations slick, fast and awesome.

Enough from us, check out the video through the embed below. Enjoy!

Big titles like Gears of War which sold a lot for its mother console are bound to get awards from all places. A good example is Entertainment Merchants Association's (EMA) Video Game Home Entertainment Awards 2007, in which Gears of War racked up four awards.

GoW bagged "Xbox 360 Game of the Year", "Shooter/Military Game of the Year", "Best Game Graphics of the Year", and the ultimate "Game of the Year" awards. All games released between April 1, 2006 and March 31, 2007 were eligible, but GoW took the cake.

For handhelds, Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories grabbed "DS Game of the Year" and "PSP Game of the Year" awards respectively. Lego Star Wars II' PS2 edition also took the win in its own category.

Resistance: Fall of Man dominated the PS3, while launch title Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was branded the best game on Wii. WoW: The Burning Crusade took both "PC Game of the Year" and "RPG/Strategy Game of the Year" awards.

Here's the rest of the list:

• Most Innovative Game of the Year - Guitar Hero II
• Casual Game of the Year: Guitar Hero II
• Fighting Game of the Year - WWE Smackdown! vs RAW 2007
• Racing Game of the Year - Need for Speed
• Sports Game of the Year - Madden NFL 07

Retailers and distributors from EMA's roster nominated and selected the winners. Their criteria on choosing, we would love to know. When Lego Star Wars II and WWE Smackdown! vs RAW 2007 are up there as creams of the crop, you know something special is going on.

 

Game publishing giant THQ follows suit after the flurry of financial reports from several other publishers and gaming companies have announced their financial performance standings for the fiscal year (FY) 2006-2007. According to a fearless press release by THQ, they have achieved record net sales and net income for FY 2007, ending March 31, 2007.

For twelve years on end, the "creative hub" publishing giant has kept up a steady revenue growth with a record total of US$ 1.027 billion, up 27% from the US$ 806.6 million recorded in FY 2006. Thanks to titles such as Supreme Commander, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2007, THQ's net income reached US$ 68 million, doubling last year's profits of US$ 32.1 million.

"During a challenging hardware transition, THQ significantly outperformed the market in our major territories," said THQ's president and CEO Brian Farrell. According to him, the company's success for FY 2007 was greatly attributed to multi-million unit sellers Cars and WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2007, including the launching of new IP Saints Row. Farrell concluded the announcement, (unashamedly and fearlessly) coupled with the company's relevant financial statements, with:

The industry is entering an exciting growth period as the new hardware reaches critical mass. In fiscal 2008, we plan to release an increasing number of titles for the growing base of new hardware, including owned original properties Frontlines: Fuel of War, Juiced: Hot Import Nights and Stuntman: Ignition.

With three 30-million unit licensed franchises and a growing portfolio of internally developed original franchises, we are well positioned to expand our leadership position in the video game industry.

Last night Australia announced its top games of 2006 at the Dolton House in Sydney as the Interactive Entertainment Association Australia (IEAA) threw a bash to honor the best of last year. Here are the winners for each category:

Game of the Year

Xbox 360- Gears of War
Wii- Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
PlayStation- Guitar Hero 2
PC- Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Australian Game of the year- Medieval II: Total War

In other categories, the following were declared winners by genre:

Adventure Game of the Year- Cars
RPG of the Year- Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
Action Game of the Year- Lego Star Wars 2
Racing Game of the Year- Need For Speed Carbon
Simulation Game of the Year- Nintendogs: Dalmation & Friends
Sports Game of the Year- WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007
Girls game- Nintendogs: Dalmation & Friends
Party Game of the Year - Singstar Rocks!

The awardee lineup looked really solid as the winners were all very deserving. Gears of War is by far the single best title in the Xbox 360 platform. There's a good reason to believe that a lot of the platform's hardware sales emanated from people who were really attracted to this bigshot.

The same goes for Twilight Princess. This time, Nintendo has more than lived up to its reputation of fantastic first-party games. They actually outdid themselves with this masterpiece. There is no game on the Wii, or perhaps any other platform which has the kind of magic that this RPG has. From the audiovisual presentation to the mind-blowing gameplay mechanics, game development genius is felt. The feeling that an RPG fan gets when playing this game is similar to that when we first got our hands on Final Fantasy VII for the first PlayStation. It's a truly console-defining gaming event that shouldn't be missed.

And while Guitar Hero II may not belong to the otherworldly plane where its game of the year counterparts dwell, it's exactly the kind of game that the PS2 needs in its twilight years. It's almost a vintage look at just what the past console king can do. The genre-busting gameplay is extremely fun and addictive, coupled with the solid visuals and killer audio, it made for a beautiful blaze of Glory for its home platform.

Congratulations to the publishers and developers of these great games. We hope 2007 yields an even better crop of great titles.

 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.