Business partners THQ and Nickelodeon have just released their planned lineup of games for this year. One title that's certainly worth a look is Avatar - The Last Airbender: Into the Inferno, which was previously announced Wii, DS, and PS3 platforms. Further details are available in the full article.

Fans of THQ's surprisingly fun drawing-based title for the Nintendo DS, Drawn to Life, are getting more Stylus action soon. The game company just unveiled its newest drawing game SpongeBob SquarePants Drawn to Life for the handheld. Find out more about the game by heading over to the full article.

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.

Fans of Cartoon Network's hit series Ben 10 will be happy to hear that their hero will soon land in video game form outside the PC. Cartoon Network New Media has just announced that their latest offering Ben 10: Protector of the Universe will ship across North America for the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable platforms on August 30th.

Also announced on their latest press release is the fact that come November 21, Cartoon Network sill officially launch the Ben 10 live action movie directed by Alex Winter. It has been described as an adventure which will captivate the imagination of young fans everywhere.

Art Roche, creative director for Cartoon Network New Media, says it is important for Cartoon Network New Media to expand their portfolio to various platforms after they built a successful base of popularity on web-based gaming.

In Ben 10: Protector of the Universe, players must assume the role of Ben Tennyson, an Earth-boy endowed with the powers of the mighty Omnitrix embedded in his wrist. With amazing powers, Ben can fend off threats to our home world from the evils that troll outer space.

THQ has announced the release of Avatar: The Burning Earth. The game, which is based on Nickelodeon's hit animated TV series, is available for the Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance and Wii platforms as well as the Sony PlayStation 2.

"THQ released the first Avatar video game last year, with the brand rapidly achieving a major sales milestone by selling in more than one million units worldwide," said Scott Guthrie, THQ's executive vice president.

"We are excited to continue the growth of this hit video game franchise, as well as THQ's overall extensive Nickelodeon portfolio, with the launch of Avatar: The Burning Earth as the first Nickelodeon title for Xbox 360." The Microsoft Xbox 360 version of the game will hit retail stores next month.

Sierra Entertainment has announced that it will be bringing the world of The Spiderwick Chronicles to video game consoles next year. The game will be based on the upcoming 2008 theatrical release of The Spiderwick Chronicles from Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Films.

The film is in turn based on the best-selling book series by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. The story revolves around twin brothers Jared and Simon as they, along with their sister Mallory, embark on a perilous journey filled with requisite amounts of adventure and danger.

The Spiderwick Chronicles promises to authentically recreate the world of Jared, Simon and Mallory Grace. It's currently slated for a February release and will be available for PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Wii and DS.

THQ today announced its 2007 Nickelodeon video game lineup. The lineup includes the video game debut of El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera as well as new titles based on some of the shows on Nickelodeon. A new Nicktoons game is also slated for release this year. Here's the list of upcoming titles:

• Nicktoons 2007 (working title) (PS2, Wii, DS, GBA - fall)
• SpongeBob's Atlantis Squarepantis (PS2, Wii, DS, GBA - fall)
• SpongeBob SquarePants: Atlantis Treasures (working title) (Mobile)
• Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth (Xbox 360, PS2, Wii, DS, GBA - fall)
• El Tigre (working title) (DS - fall)
• Zoey 101: Field Trip Fiasco (DS - summer)
• Drake and Josh: Talent Showdown (DS - summer)

"Our Nickelodeon video game portfolio continues to lead the kids market with more than 45 million units sold-in to date," said Bob Aniello, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, THQ. "We expect a continued robust Nickelodeon business in 2007 with an even greater presence on the popular Wii, our first title slated for release on Xbox 360, and additional titles in our new series of games based on Nickelodeon's live-action properties."

 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.

'Tis the season when companies are required to report how they did last year, and then tell everyone about what they plan to do next year. Everyone's doing it, and because of this, 'tis also the season when we finally get to hear more about things that we can look forward to.

In THQ's case, the company's president, Brian Farrell, announced their plan to spread the wrestling love all around in the coming fiscal year:

In addition to our lineup of owned intellectual properties, we also intend to build on our licensed franchises next year. We plan to once again deliver a great lineup of WWE, Pixar, and Nickelodeon titles. For WWE, we plan to add a PS3, Wii, and DS SKU to the Xbox 360, PS2, and PSP platforms.

With that said and done, one big question that remains to be answered is whether the games that THQ is promising will be ones that will be unique to each platform, or if they would simply be variations of titles from previous installments in the WWE SmackDown Vs. Raw game franchise.

The first-person, turn-based fantasy RPG Orcs and Elves might be making its way to DS handhelds soon. In an interview with Wired, lead programmer and id Software founder John Carmack revealed that they are "hoping" to develop a DS version of the mobile phone game.

id Software has kept Nintendo at arm's length for quite a few console generations now. "We've never had a close, good relationship with Nintendo from like way back, when we had some back [bad?] experiences really early on..," said Carmack, citing some "... Wolfenstein stuff..." as a reason along with "the whole Nickelodeon censor arrangement with Nintendo."

Carmack said that if plans push through, it would be their "first real direct entry back into the Nintendo world." Currently, there are a few homebrew ports of Doom, Wolfenstein, and Quake for the DS.