Does your Xbox 360 need a bit more mystery and fantasy to it? If you're getting weary of your usual games, perhaps you should try out the latest free demo over at Xbox Live. Spiderwick, based on the Nickelodeon and Paramount film, is a refreshing title coming soon to the platform. Find out why in 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.

If you're all for collecting the Sea King's smelly undergarments, then you may just want to check out for SpongeBob SquarePants Underpants Slam! by Blitz Games, which will be launched on Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday. Check out the full article for more information!

THQ and Nickelodeon just sent in new details regarding their upcoming Xbox Live Arcade video game title SpongeBob SquarePants: Underpants Slam! It was announced a couple of days ago that the two companies are planning to come up with more casual games for Xbox Live in the near future.

Accordingly, the plot of SpongeBob SquarePants: Underpants Slam! revolves around SpongeBob's quest to retrieve the underpants of Lord of the Sea Neptune that have been spread across the sea bottom by a powerful storm current.

We don't know what the Halo 3 hardcore gamers will think about this but this title surely fits their little brother's or sister's taste. Anyway, Underpants Slam! will feature some of the locations familiar to the franchise such as the Krusty Krab and the Flying Dutchman's ship.

Since this game involves Lord Neptune, SpongeBob will also be visiting the depths of the new Treasure Room of Atlantis. SpongeBob, furthermore, will also be getting special powers throughout the game like the ability to move at super speed, invincibility, and the ability to steal pants from other players.

Game modes include single-player quest and time trial, as well as multiplayer slam and tag.

Microsoft is kicking it in high gear in delivering content for the young and the young-at-heart as they release new games and downloadable TV programs for the Xbox Live. Microsoft has teamed up with Nickelodeon, Warner Bros., and DreamWorks to offer new content.

Starting today, Xbox Live will be offering 50 episodes of classic Looney Tunes cartoons as well as episodes from three popular Nickelodeon's TEENick shows: The Backyardigans, Blue's Clues, and iCarly. The entire season of Blue's Clues is available and new episodes of iCarly will be available right after they air on the network.

Two new games have also been added to the list of Xbox Live games. Straight from his pineapple house comes SpongeBob in his very own game, SpongeBob SquarePants: Underpants Slam. Also arriving is Shrek in his new game, SHREK-N-ROLL. The games, along with 200 other casual game titles for Live will be available for download soon.

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.

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.