This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

Hot on the heels of the Battlefield 4 gameplay trailer (and all the glorious screenshots from the Frostbite 3 engine), DICE/EA has announced all preorders of BF4 will receive the Premium Expansion Pack, making it a juicy incentive for fans of the franchise.

To whet your appetite even more, GameFly is offering a 20% off coupon for Battlefield 4, making the game only $48 for PC download. No fuss or mess – just enter the coupon and get $12 off. (Note: You can only use the coupon once per account, so pick your poison wisely).

Android gamers will want to look into this week’s Humble Mobile Bundle, which includes excellent titles such as Plant vs. Zombies and Anomaly Korea. Pay more than the current average of $5.51 and you’ll also get the classic arcade game Metal Slug 3.

Hot deals & recent releases

Q4 2013 release Battlefield 4 (PC Download) — $47.99 at GameFly after coupon. Includes Premium Expansion Pack. U.S. only, sorry everyone else. Console gamers can probably expect a deal from NewEgg in the near future.
 

Last Sunday’s release: Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (Nintendo 3DS) — $33.24 plus $0.99 shipping at Kmart. Great sequel to the “classic” GameCube game Luigi’s Mansion. Can you believe that was a decade ago? #oldfart
 

Last Tuesday’s release: BioShock Infinite (PC Download) — $46.49 at GamesRocket. Straight up discount from this Germany-based retailer. UK/Euro residents should get from GMG which is at £23.99.
 

April 2: Defiance (PC Download) — $45 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Defiance is promising a “groundbreaking” interactive experience by blending the SyFy show with the shooter MMO. Magic 8 Ball says: Cannot predict now, ask again later.
 

April 26: Star Trek (PC Download) — $40 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. A Star Trek game based on the movie? Given the paucity of good Star Trek games (Bridge Commander, perhaps?), we’re not holding our breath.
 

PC download deals

Borderlands 2 (PC Download) — $20.38 at GamersGate. Not the lowest ever for BL2, but it’s close at a few dollars more. Good price for the Steam-activated version.
 

Saints Row: The Third The Full Package (PC Download) — $13.60 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Sigh. Every time we spot a THQ game, we get a little bit sad inside.
 

Prototype 2 (PC Download) — $10.49 at GamesRocket. Another decent deal from GamesRocket, making the lowest price we’ve seen so far. The Steam activation code is sent via email.
 

Darksiders + Red Faction: Armageddon (PC Download) — $1 at HumbleBundle. The dollar’s looking pretty strong when you can buy two games for a buck. This week’s HumbleBundle is an appealing “pay-what-you-want” system with a minimum of $1. If you beat the average price ($6.73 at the time of writing), you’ll also get two other games: Darksiders II and Red Faction: Guerilla. Just buying Darksiders and Red Faction: Armageddon separately at their lowest prices elsewhere would cost $37.
 

360, PS3, and Wii U deals

Dishonored (Xbox 360, PS3) — $29.99 at Amazon. Not best ever, but a good price for this excellent Steampunk-themed stealth-ish FPS.
 

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (Wii U) — $29.99 at NewEgg. The 360 and PS3 versions are also on sale for $19.99 and $24.99, respectively. Metacritic scores of 80%+ for all platforms.
 

Assassin’s Creed: Ezio Trilogy (PS3) — $22.99 at Groupon. Yes, your eyes have not deceived you – Groupon sells video games in addition to their yet-another-spa-treatment offers. The trilogy includes Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. Next best is $40 at Best Buy.
 

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days (Xbox 360, PS3) — $5.99 at NewEgg. Hard to believe a popular Xbox 360/PS3 title is only six bucks with free shipping. Reviews are mixed, but one of the main complaints about this FPS is the shaky-cam, which can be turned off in the Options menu. Next best price online is $13 at Amazon, but most retailers are $20+.
 

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

It’s official. You really shouldn’t bother buying a Triple-A game on release date because the publisher is just going to slash prices by 50% the following month. Amidst all the SimCity drama and CEO resignation, EA launched a new deal this week, funnily enough calling it a “Player Appreciation Sale.” There are some decent titles in the mix for EA’s sale, but two titles that immediately stand out are Crysis 3 and Dead Space 3, both now at $30 with free shipping across all platforms.

Fans of action RPGs should really check out this week’s just-introduced “Humble Bundle Weekly Sale,” where individual titles are up for grabs at the $1 minimum price. For this week, the popular indie game Bastion is on sale. Pay more than the current average and you’ll receive additional goodies such as the soundtrack, art pack, sheet music, and cell phone ringtones.

Since last Thursday, Gamefly rolled out a “Spring Break PC Sale,” which will have new titles on sale each day until Friday. Titles of choice for the day are Deus Ex Human Revolution for $5 and Hitman Absolution at $12.50.

Note: We update our GamesBeat weekly deal post every Tuesday with the latest deals. For last week’s deals, check below the “Last Thursday” headline.

Tuesday New Deals

Crysis 3 (PC, 360, PS3) — $29.99 at Origin. For the price, the console versions are decidedly good deals, considering physical copies of the game are rarely on sale.
 

Dead Space 3 (PC, 360, PS3) — $29.99 at Origin. While we prefer the first and second Dead Space installments over the latest, this is a solid price for a recent release.
 

Bastion: Humble Bundle Weekly Sale — Pay What You Want. Pay more than the current average of $2.65 to receive additional digital goodies such as the soundtrack, or pay the $25 flat rate to get the game along with physical merchandise.
 

GameFly Spring Break PC Sale. Titles of choice: Deus Ex: Human Revolution for $5 and Hitman: Absolution for $12.50.
 

Last Thursday

If you think you’re done playing Assassin’s Creed 3, you’re not thinking like a game publishing executive. (Fact: DLCs will never end.) Happily for those looking for more content on AC3, the Season Pass is on sale this week at Gamefly for $24 after coupon. Five DLCs are planned with two released thus far: “The Hidden Secrets Pack” and “The Battle Hardened Pack.” Next week we’ll see the release of some actual gaming add-ons (in our opinion) with the first installment of the episodic The Tyranny of King Washington. If you plan to play through the entire 3 episodes and didn’t pre-order AC3, the Season Pass is worth considering.

On the console front, PS3 exclusive God of War: Ascension was released earlier this week. The only “deal” we’ve seen thus far is strangely at Gamestop for $5 off. While the $5 discount isn’t much to write home about, you’ll find that PS3 exclusives are rarely on sale so soon after release, with Newegg previous-year pre-orders being the only real savings we’ve seen. So if you didn’t pre-order 6 months ago at Newegg and you’re thinking about getting Ascension, Gamestop is the place to go (did we seriously just recommended buying something at Gamestop?!).

Recent Releases

This Tuesday’s release: God of War: Ascension (PS3) — $54.99 at GameStop after coupon. Yes we know $55 is just $5 off MSRP but everywhere else legitimate is selling this PS3 exclusive at full price. So it goes for console gaming deals.
 

This Tuesday’s release: Dead Space 3: Awakened (PC DLC) — $8 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Reviews so far are a mixed bag. List is $10 so at least you’re not paying full price here.
 

Upcoming Releases

Assassin’s Creed 3 Season Pass (PC Download) — $23.99 at GameFly after coupon. The season pass will give you access to all 5 DLCs (3 already released), the latest being the upcoming Tyranny of King Washington.
 

March 19th: Gears of War: Judgment (Xbox 360) — $59.99 at Microsoft. Yes that’s full price but it comes with pre-order bonuses: free Xbox LIVE 1600 points ($20 value), the Alex Brand playable character, and the Hammerburst weapon.
 

March 19th: The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (Xbox 360, PS3) — $37.49 at Amazon. The comic-based game is excellent. We’re slightly iffy about this TV-based one. Everyone loves Daryl, but Merle? Meh.
 

PC Download Deals

Battlefield 3 Premium Edition (PC Download) — $24 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Activates on Origin. Usually around $40 to $50 at most places. Comes with base game, Premium Service, and Head Start Kit.
 

Crusader Kings 2 (PC Download) — $7.99 at GameFly after coupon. Steam activated. Fans of grand strategy titles will want to check this one out.
 

Saints Row The Third (PC Download) — $7.49 at GamersGate. Next best is $32 at Green Man Gaming. Steam activated. The industry is wack when you have studios that can produce solid titles like these and still have the publisher go kaput.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (PC Download) — $6 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Activates on Origin. Usually around $20. Another decent title from a now defunct studio. Sorry for your loss, Rhode Island.
 

Combo Buying Deals

Best Buy:Buy 2 Pre-Owned Video Games, Get a 3rd FREE. Your average buy two get 1 free. All those pre-owned titles people trade in to Best Buy? They gotta offload them somehow.
 

GOG.com: Pick 5 Games, Save 80%. 20 games to choose from for this Good Old Game deals. Some decent titles including Alan Wake and King’s Bounty: Crossworlds.
 

If you enjoyed this week’s GamesBeat gaming deals, check back next Thursday, same bat-time, same bat-channel for more gaming deals.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This year in gaming developers and publishers tested and bent the limits of what they could get away with in terms of downloadable content (DLC). From removing vital content from the retail experience or even leaving the content on the disc but still charging a premium for it, companies like Capcom attempted to move the industry in a frightening direction. They saw how well the freemium model was working for social and mobile gaming and decided to try it out on games that still cost $60 up front.

This year also saw a rise in sequels to popular franchises scaling back on what was included in their predecessors, only to sell it to the loyal fan base and unsuspecting new customers later. Without a doubt, the abuse of DLC is a dangerous and popular precedent for video games. In the following gallery we take a look back at some of the biggest offenders of 2012.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Update (12:15 p.m. PST): GamesBeat contacted THQ and the publisher provided us with the following statement from THQ president Jason Rubin:

“In the midst of all the recent negativity, THQ  is mindful that even in the world of business, we have to remember to respect our fellow man. The Humble Bundle simultaneously helps charities and spreads good will and cheer to gamers, including those less fortunate in the holiday season.”

Original post:

The ladies and gentlemen over at HunbleBundle.com have dropped the Indie designation and replaced it with T, H, and Q.

The Humble THQ Bundle provides gamers with the chance to purchase six THQ titles for any price. The publisher will throw in Saints Row: The Third for anyone who beats the average, which is presently $5.36. So, if you’re a cheap skate, you can get that open-world crime game, Darksiders, Metro 2033, Red Faction: Armageddon, Company of Heroes, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, and Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor for around $6.

Saints Row: The Third alone is currently $39.99 on Steam.

The games require customers to activate each title on Steam. As usual, the money is split between the publisher, Child’s Play and the American Red Cross charities, and the Humble Bundle company. Unlike other Humble Bundles, THQ’s titles are not Mac or Linux compatible.

This is an unprecedented move for both the Humble Bundle organization and a publisher of the size of THQ. Although, THQ arguably needs something unprecedented to help prevent its insolvency.

Earlier this month, THQ reported a small financial loss, but it also delayed many of its biggest upcoming games. It also simultaneously announced that it was working with a firm to “evaluate strategic alternatives” for itself. It’s possible that it is still up for sale, as it more recently announced that it is in talks with a mystery financial sponsor, but it’s also possible that this Humble Bundle is a result of said strategic alternatives.

Many indie developers have had great success with the Humble Bundles, but it’s unclear if a publisher of THQ’s size will raise a significant revenue from a pay-what-you-want model.

Regardless of anyone’s hopes or reasons, gamers are getting a great deal. Go play.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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THQ is in shambles, but it’s making moves to keep its developers’ doors open.

The publisher announced today that it’s chief financial officer, Paul Pucino, has resigned.

“We would like to thank Paul for his significant contributions over the past four years and wish him well in his future endeavor,”  said THQ chief executive officer Brian Farrell in a press release.

This news came coupled with an announcement that THQ has entered into an agreement with Wells Fargo, which owns the publisher’s debt, that will prevent the bank from taking harsh actions against THQ through January 2013. In that time, Wells Fargo will additional loans to the Saints Row The Third publisher.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Wells Fargo. This agreement enables us to continue focusing on bringing our games in development to market,”said Farrell. “Meanwhile, we are evaluating financial alternatives that will transition the company into its next phase.”

Said “financial alternatives” may come as a result of exclusive negotiations that THQ is in with an unnamed financial sponsor. The identity of this mysterious entity will remain shrouded until the two companies end negotiations. THQ is warning investors that the results of these talks made end in the significant dilution of the corporation’s stock.

THQI is currently trading at $1.25 on the NASDAQ.

Earlier this month, THQ reported smaller than expected losses, but it also delayed three major releases (Company of Heroes 2, Metro: Last Light, and South Park: The Stick of Truth.) The result of those financials results forced the publisher to hire a firm to “evaluate strategic alternatives,” which essentially meant the company is up for sale. Now, that seems to have resulted in these current talks.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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It’s another day of bad news from THQ.

The Saints Row: The Third and Darksiders 2 publisher has laid off “about 20″ people from its marketing and production departments, according to The Verge.

This info comes from an internal email by Jason Rubin (pictured above), who became THQ’s president back in May. The memo was leaked by George Broussard, known in the gaming community as one of the creators of the Duke Nukem series.

“Days like today are not easy for any of us,” said Rubin in his company-wide letter. “The worst part of restructuring is clearly the restructuring. But this is a necessary part of improving and rebuilding. It is never easy to see friends and colleagues leave the company. Nobody in management, including me, takes these decisions lightly, but we must all continue to remain focused on driving the business forward and look toward our future.”

THQ has been shifting its focus from licensed children games to triple-A core titles. It’s suffered layoffs and stock woes through much of the year, but the publisher recently managed to avoid NASDAQ delisting and beat expectations for its fiscal first-quarter 2013 earnings.

“I am genuinely excited about both the quality of work and the innovation happening at the company right now,” said Rubin in his memo. “When I look forward to the type of games and digital experiences we will deliver over the next few years, I see a new THQ taking a new market position in a very different industry environment.”

“Let’s all try to keep our eyes focused on that bright future.”

GamesBeat reached out to THQ for comment. “THQ confirms a realignment has taken place in the company’s marketing and production groups in Agoura Hills,” the publisher responded. “This change is reflective of the company’s ongoing strategy to create a more focused, agile, and digitally-oriented organization.  Less than 3% of the company’s global workforce was impacted, and no development teams or projects were affected by this action.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Game publisher THQ has regained compliance with NASDAQ’s minimum bid price listing requirement. THQ stock has closed at $1.00 per share or greater for the last 10 consecutive business days, preventing NASDAQ from delisting the WWE ’12 and Saints Row: The Third publisher, at least for now.

This is a rare occurrence of good news for THQ after a year filled with reports of layoffs and stock woes.

GamesBeat asked THQ’s chief executive, Brian Farrel, about the company’s recent troubles during June’s Electronic Entertainment Expo:

“It’s been a tough year on a number of levels,” Farrel said. “We’ve had to completely reposition the company. As you know, for a long time, the kids business was part of our bread and butter. We recognized that the kids business was declining. In fairness, we didn’t move quickly enough out of that business, but now we’re out, totally focused on core, and I think you’re seeing the results here.”

Part of that new focus on core included a round of new hires, including former Electronic Arts Canada vice president Ron Moravek as the executive vice president of production, whose main focus will be to oversee the production of triple-A games.

It remains to be seen if this new direction can help the publisher regain its former glory, but avoiding delisting is a good start.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The Third Street gang and the four horsemen of the apocalypse are getting a new boss.

Today THQ announced the appointment of Ron Moravek to executive vice president of production. Moravek previously worked as the chief operating officer for Company of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment. Following his departure from that company in 2006, he accepted the vice president position with Electronic Arts Canada.

“Ron is an exceptional development executive with unique perspective on the industry from both a creative and business point of view,” said THQ president Jason Rubin. “His entrepreneurial experience as well as his ability to drive dynamic teams is a great fit for our strategic objectives. Additionally, Ron’s experience building high-quality products will help us continue to deliver great games and build upon our foundation to innovate digitally in the future.”

This acquisition represents another step in THQ’s continued transition from money-hemorrhaging publisher of family-friendly products to a company more focused on core games. Since bringing on Rubin, the Saints Row: The Third publisher has reiterated time and again its dedication to a triple-A game slate going forward.

Moravek will directly oversee franchises like Saints Row, Darksiders, and Company of Heroes.

“I am thrilled to be re-joining THQ and to be working with Jason and the development team around the world to deliver high-quality games and digitally connected experiences,” said Moravek. “There are many exciting changes affecting the video game industry today, and I look forward to building new games and experiences with Jason and the team at THQ.”

THQ will release Darksiders II for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in August. The game will also release on the Wii U late this year.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The game industry may never stop making overly elaborate special editions for its products, but in recent years, developers and publishers have offered alternatives to “cat helmets” and night-vision goggles by giving away full versions of older games with the purchase of newer ones.

We recently reported about Capcom’s plans to include the complete Resident Evil library (via digital download codes) with new Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 copies of its upcoming survival-horror game Resident Evil 6 this fall, but Capcom is not alone. Other companies have been releasing similar package deals for a while now, including:

• Publisher Electronic Arts included a free download code for the original American Magee’s Alice with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 copies of last year’s follow-up, Alice: Madness Returns. The company also offered complimentary copies of its online shooter Battlefield 1943 with the limited edition of 2010′s Battlefield: Bad Company 2. EA promised PlayStation 3 owners who purchased last fall’s Battlefield 3, the latest installment in the series, would also receive a copy of 1943 but went back and forth on the deal before finally making good on it. The PlayStation 3 limited edition of EA’s 2010 installment in its first-person shooter series Medal of Honor included a download token for Frontline, the fourth game in the series (released in 2002).

• Japanese limited editions of developer Mercury Steam’s contribution to the Castlevania series, Lords of Shadow, contained a free download code for either the PlayStation classic Symphony of the Night (with the PlayStation 3 version) or the multiplayer-based Xbox Live Arcade game Harmony of Despair (with the Xbox 360 version). North American customers who bought Lords of Shadow at Best Buy received a download code for Symphony of the Night for both the Xbox and PS3 versions of the game.

• U.S. residents who bought publisher THQ’s post-apocalyptic action game Darksiders received a free-ish copy (by mail) of 2009′s destruction-based action game Red Faction: Guerilla. Last fall, THQ also offered PlayStation 3 owners a free download of its insane open-world action-adventure game Saints Row 2 with the purchase of Saints Row: The Third.

• The collectors’ edition of the recently released Diablo III included, among other things, a creepy replica demon skull and a USB stick containing Diablo II and its expansion pack, Lord of Destruction.

• Japanese fans of the Square Enix/Disney collaboration Kingdom Hearts can pick up the 10th Anniversary Box, which includes the new Nintendo 3DS release Dream Drop Distance along with physical copies of previous installments 358/2 Days and Re:coded for the DS.

This trend is continuing with upcoming releases, like the aforementioned Resident Evil 6. Developer Irrational Games is throwing in a free copy of BioShock with PlayStation 3 versions of BioShock Infinite when it comes out in February 2013. The God of War: Ascension Omega Edition (pictured above) will contain physical copies of every game in the series on Blu-ray. Here’s hoping more publishers and developers keep it going; gamers only have so much shelf space for tiny helmets.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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In an SEC filing on Friday, THQ informed the agency that it plans to propose a reverse stock split at a June 29 shareholder meeting. The reverse stock split will collapse the number of shares outstanding on the market from 68.5 million down to 22.8 million (1:3 reduction), 13.7 million (1:5), or 6.8 million (1:10) depending on which ratio the board decides is best for the publisher. These proposed reductions would increase the stock price from its current (according to the paperwork filed with the SEC) $0.68 to $2.04, $3.39, or $6.80 respectively.

THQ’s board hopes to raise the price of the common share above $1.00 with this action. The NASDAQ, home of the THQ stock, requires that a company must consistently trade above $1.00 to maintain a listing on the market. In January, NASDAQ warned the Saints Row: The Third developer that it would be delisted from the index if it could not regain compliance with that minimum bid by July 23, 2012.

This will not increase THQ’s current market valuation of $41.75 million. In fact, investors typically view the reverse-split tactic as a desperate maneuver and could respond by decreasing the company’s perceived value even further.

THQ is still in the thick of a company-wide realignment after a tough fiscal 2012. In its last quarterly investor report, where it announced a $95 million operating loss for the year, the publisher reaffirmed its new commitment to AAA games.

“We exceeded our initial fourth quarter guidance for net sales, earnings and cash position, driven by high quality core games with a significant digital component, which is the blueprint for our future,” said THQ President and CEO Brian Farrell. “We have made significant changes to our business, and are on track to execute our strategy of delivering quality connected core gaming experiences, beginning with the sequel to the award-winning Darksiders in August.”

The publisher has cut back $30 million on its investment in kids’ titles and expects to sell through its stock of uDraw tablets during fiscal year 2013. In making these changes, the company racked up $62.8 million in “business realignment” expenses. The Nickelodeon and uDraw lineup of games appear to be the great boondoggles responsible for THQ’s current financial predicament.

THQ continues to publish downloadable content for Saints Row: The Third, including the recently released Penthouse Pack of characters featuring real models from Penthouse magazine. This August, the corporation will release Darksiders II for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. In September, the developer will release a new, stand-alone addition to the Saints Row: The Third universe titled Enter the Dominatrix. By the end of 2012, the annualized WWE wrestling sim will hit all major consoles.

For 2013, THQ is preparing Company of Heroes 2, Metro: Last Night, and South Park: The Game.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Microsoft’s Xbox Live Director of Programming Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb posted his regular activity roundup for the Xbox 360’s online network, and the Minecraft mania flows strong on the lists.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition nabbed the top position for bestsellers as well as sliding in behind long-standing champions Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops for unique-user counts. Other titans felt the squeeze: Battlefield 3, Halo: Reach, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Gears of War 3 trailed by significant margins.

Here’s the punchline: All of this happened in Minecraft’s first week of release.

Creativity spawns popularity, or so the legions of Minecraft’s stalwart community believes. Originally released for the PC on November 18, 2011, the open-world tinkering title arms players with pick, axe, sword, and other tools while throwing open the floodgates of crowdsourced content, resulting in masterful works such as a recreated Westeros from Game of Thrones and Portal’s test chambers.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition launched on May 9, promptly fashioned a golden sword, and smashed digital-sales records on its first day in the wilds. Its 1,600 Microsoft Points ($20) cost, unusually large for an XBLA title, and its lack of a modding infrastructure didn’t prevent the acclaim rolling in.

Check out Major Nelson’s activity lists below. If you’re playing Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition, what have you created so far? Let us know in the comments!

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (based on unique users)

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops
3. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
4. FIFA 12
5. Battlefield 3
6. Halo: Reach
7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
8. NBA 2K12
9. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
10. Gears of War 3
11. Grand Theft Auto IV
12. Trials Evolution
13. Forza Motorsport 4
14. Mass Effect 3
15. NHL 12
16. Madden NFL 12
17. Halo 3
18. Red Dead Redemption
19. Saints Row: The Third
20. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)

1. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
2. Trials Evolution
3. The Walking Dead
4. Fable Heroes
5. Fez
6. Pinball FX2
7. Awesomenauts
8. I Am Alive
9. Castle Crashers
10. Family Game Night
11. Fruit Ninja Kinect
12. Bloodforge
13. Toy Soldiers: Cold War
14. Gotham City Impostors
15. Toy Soldiers
16. Trials HD
17. Dungeon Defenders
18. Full House Poker
19. Peggle
20. Magic: The Gathering — Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012

Top Indie Games (Full Versions purchased)

1. CastleMiner Z
2. CastleMiner
3. Total Miner: Forge
4. The $1 Zombie Game
5. FortressCraft: Chapter 1
6. The Impossible Game
7. Avatar Paintball
8. Avatar Deathmatch
9. Fortress Wars
10. FLIRT
11. End of Days: Infected vs. Mercs
12. Avatar Legends
13. Flight Adventure 2
14. Toy Stunt Bike 2
15. Solar 2
16. Firing Range 2
17. Miner4Ever
18. Avatar Air Wars
19. Don’t Die Dateless, Dummy!
20. Attack of the Zombie Horde

Games for Windows Top Live Titles (based on unique users)

1. Grand Theft Auto IV
2. Age of Empires Online
3. Batman: Arkham City
4. Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition
5. Microsoft Flight
6. Batman: Arkham Asylum
7. DiRT 3
8. Gotham City Impostors
9. F1 2011
10. Resident Evil 5
11. Fallout 3
12. Street Fighter X Tekken
13. Toy Soldiers
14. Fable III
15. BioShock 2
16. Colin McRae: Dirt 2
17. Bulletstorm
18. F1 2010
19. Street Fighter IV
20. Section 8: Prejudice

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best games stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This was a crazy week for major game announcements. Activison officially revealed Call of Duty: Black Ops II on Tuesday, and GamesBeat has an amazing amount of coverage for it. Bethesda teased the first DLC for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and announced The Elder Scrolls Online.

You’ll also find reviews for The Walking Dead: A New Day, Fable Heroes, and Naval War: Arctic Circle.

Other GamesBeat stories included:

The DeanBeat: Don’t ya wish these fantasy game consoles were coming?

PAX Prime 2012 sells out in record time

Museum presses save button on gaming history (interview)

Activision Blizzard’s quarterly earnings report predicted to shine come Wednesday

PAX Prime 2012 sells out in record time

Qualcomm to sponsor a marathon gaming session at E3

Saints Row: The Third – Enter The Dominatrix adds “freaking super powers”

The Elder Scrolls Online is a real project, Bethesda announces

Maingear debuts PC with Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 690, the world’s fastest graphics card

3 of gaming’s most elaborate inside jokes

Draw Something loses 3 million players in a single month

Pre-Mortem: King’s Bounty WotN project lead discusses deadly lady companions (exclusive)

Microsoft and Motorola patent dispute threatens Xbox 360 sales in Germany

The Art of XCOM: Enemy Unknown — Firaxis’ second developer diary emphasizes terror

Creating the sounds of future wars in the Call of Duty: Black Ops II audio lab

How Treyarch created realistic human faces in Call of Duty: Black Ops II

It’s not the same old 3D graphics in Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Treyarch unveils Call of Duty: Black Ops II, also known as Attack of the Drones

Treyarch’s Mark Lamia explains taking risks with the design of Call of Duty: Black Ops II (interview)

Persona 4 Arena has a tutorial video like every fighting game should

The best-selling basketball video games/series of all time (infographic)

Rockstar Games reveals Max Payne 3 DLC plans

Bethesda announces first downloadable content for Skyrim, “Dawnguard”

Being really good at League of Legends could pay millions

Gree releases its first Android U.S. mobile social title, Dino Life

BioWare: Old Republic server transfers in early summer

Smash, grab, and steal from your friends in Fable Heroes (review)

Uncharted designer Richard Lemarchand leaves Naughty Dog after eight year run

Naval War: Arctic Circle gives fun the cold shoulder (review)

The best Wii games you didn’t play, handpicked by industry pros

5 good reasons games are not art

Assassin’s Creed fans pummel author who claims Ubisoft stole from him

The Walking Dead: A New Day is intense, zombie-filled fun for the point-and-click crowd (review)

Stories that all appeared on VentureBeat:

Call of Duty buzz grows 4X after Black Ops II unveiling

EA’s quarterly earnings report will be a must-read on Monday

Replay Games raises more than $600K on Kickstarter for Leisure Suit Larry game

CrowdStar raises $11.5M for mobile games but will lay off Facebook developers

Game over, Sony? Microsoft said to be working on $99 Xbox 360 + Kinect bundle with subscription

The biggest revelations about Call of Duty: Black Ops II (spoilers)

Treyarch unveils Call of Duty: Black Ops II, also known as Attack of the Drones

Treyarch’s Mark Lamia explains taking risks with the design of Call of Duty: Black Ops II (interview)

OpenFeint founder Jason Citron unveils new post-PC social game company

Gree acquires mobile game maker Funzio for $210M

First trailer released for Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Zynga starts promoting third-party partner social games

Oprah wants you to say thank you by playing her game

Know thine enemy? Hacker George “Geohot” Hotz met with Sony engineers

PlaySay gamifies language learning with speech recognition app

Tween girls doubled their game usage in the past year

After insane development cycle, online game TERA finally poised for launch

YogiPlay unveils learning app service for children (exclusive)

GamesBeat 2012 panel will feature Kickstarter crowdfunding lessons

Crowdstar teams up with Gree for social mobile games

Live-action Halo 4 web series to debut this fall

Angry Birds Space hits 50M downloads in 35 days

Free Realms turns three years old with more than 20 million players (exclusive)

PopCap opens the product licensing floodgates for the first time

Nintendo ends its apathy toward online-services

Shadowrun Returns raises $1.8M in Kickstarter campaign

Nvidia launches $999 graphics card with the world’s fastest gaming performance

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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THQ announced Saints Row: The Third – Enter The Dominatrix, a standalone expansion for their over-the-top, dildo-sword-swinging open-world game.

Enter the Dominatrix adds super powers to the player’s arsenal of ridiculous abilities. The plot picks up right after the events of Saints Row: The Third and involves evil aliens who trap the Saints leader inside the Dominatrix, a virtual version of the title’s city, Steelport. Saints Row: The Third was THQ’s only smash hit in the fall season, and its sales have boosted THQ’s revenues higher than previous expectations.

“With a franchise with more than 11 million units shipped globally, it’s incredibly gratifying to have the flexibility to give Saints Row fans the features they want most,” said Executive Vice President of Core Game Productions Danny Bilson in a press release sent to GamesBeat.

THQ will release the standalone expansion this fall for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC for $29.99.

GamesBeat 2012 is VentureBeat’s fourth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. This year we’re calling on speakers from the hottest mobile, social, PC, and console companies to debate new ways to stay on pace with changing consumer tastes and platforms. Join 500+ execs, investors, analysts, entrepreneurs, and press as we explore the gaming industry’s latest trends and newest monetization opportunities. The event takes place July 10-11 in San Francisco, and you can get your early-bird tickets here.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The company has been written off as a casualty of the disruption in the video business, but it’s not at death’s door yet. Calabasas, Calif.-based THQ attributes its revised financials to stronger than anticipated sale of Saints Row: The Third. That title launched last fall has now shipped more than four million units. THQ also had better-than-expected digital sales, and stronger sales than expected for UFC Undisputed 3.

The company also reported it expects to lose 10 cents to 20 cents a share, lower than a previously expected loss of 35 cents to 50 cents a share. In addition, THQ expects to have a cash balance of $76 million by the end of March 2012, which is three times as much as they predicted, due to better-than expected operating expenses and earlier-than-expected cash receipts. They also report no outstanding new borrowings on their $50 million credit line.

THQ has laid off hundreds of employees in recent months, driven in part by the failure of its uDraw tablet, a hardware device for the consoles. Sales of uDraw were promising on the Wii two holidays ago, but the tablet failed miserably on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 during the most recent holidays. THQ had to take a huge write-down on hardware inventory as a result. The company also recently converted its Warhammer 40,000 online game — which has already been in development for years — into a single-player game.

THQ will report final results for the fiscal fourth quarter along with its outlook on expected 2013 results on May 15, 2012.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The core-gaming market has a problem: A single mistake is costlier than ever. Meanwhile, the mobile/online/social-game market provides an alternative model that cuts down on that risk. From a purely economic perspective, why do developers keep making console games?

Fleet Fighter, Dinglepop, Aim For The Nuts — most consumers have likely never heard of these online games. UDraw Studio, Thor: God of Thunder, and MAG, on the other hand, are titles that a wider audience is familiar with. Despite their varying public profiles, all of these games have one thing in common: They failed to find a substantial audience. The difference is that Zynga just paid $180 million-plus for the developer of the three obscure titles (OMGPOP) while the creators of the big-name console releases (THQ, Sega, and Zipper Interactive) suffered layoffs, cancellations, and a studio closure, respectively. If you watched the news in the last week, it would be easy to conclude that hardcore console game publishers are collapsing.

OMGPOP, THQ, Sega, and Zipper Interactive have produced flops, but they’ve all had successes as well. In fact, all of them except for the Draw Something developer (OMGPOP) have had multiple hits. Something about the mobile market is allowing content creators to make multiple attempts without the fear of financial collapse. Traditional games, by comparison, are a very risky proposition.

What happens when you forget to look backward and fail to look forward?

“The issue with the games business is that it’s high-risk/high-reward,” said David Cole, analyst at DFC Intelligence, in speaking with GamesBeat. “In terms of raw money to be made, it’s still the big budget products that make the most. An iOS hit cannot come anywhere near the size of the big budget hits for console or PC.”

In 2010, THQ released a surprise hit casual art game for the Wii called uDraw Studio. UDraw came bundled with a tablet peripheral that allowed users to create paintings and sketches on their television. By March 2011, THQ had sold over 1 million of the devices to customers.

Next, THQ decided to take a high-risk/high-reward gamble. The publisher made a version of the uDraw game and tablet for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It didn’t work out.

Last month, during an investor call, THQ Chief Financial Officer Paul Pucino admitted that the company had 1.4 million unsold uDraw tablets sitting in inventory. The crudely drawn bubble burst, and Pucino explained that revenues were a breath-takening $100 million less than expected for the art title.

Now, excuse me while I go take my turn in Draw Something, a similar title to uDraw, but born on a different, fast-growing platform. THQ latched on to a sinking platform, the Wii, while Draw Something took off on iOS and Android.

It’s unfair for me to sit here with the benefit of hindsight and suggest that Pucino and THQ who hold rights to Pictionary and a successful drawing game could have beat Draw Something to the punch. That’s almost not the point. The issue is that the uDraw failure cost the company $100 million and has crippled the company. Even if the company had a failed uDraw or Pictionary app on iOS, the damage would have hardly been a fraction of that.

So why didn’t THQ take its uDraw brand and its Pictionary license to the mobile space?

“Success [on iOS] is all about companies that aggregate hundreds or thousand of games. So for an individual developer, the biggest bucks will still be in traditional development unless you happen to be really lucky,” said Cole.

Because who knows that Draw Something is going to create $1 million in revenue every four days before it actually does? Until the industry witnesses that kind of success, it doesn’t exist as far as the executives making decisions are concerned. The traditional publishers believe (or at least they did believe) that a $100 million gamble is worth it for the type of returns that the traditional consoles can produce.

Despite the fact that we’re in a world with Angry Birds and Draw Something, the real money for an individual game development company or game publisher is going to continue to be in making a a game that succeeds on the traditional platforms.

Of course that’s the problem: not every game succeeds. I’d never heard of Ballracer, which is one of OMGPOP’s handful of other titles. It is probably a fine ball-racing game, but for the sake of argument — and no evidence exists to suggest this is the case — let’s assume that Ballracer is the worst failure the development team has ever had. Even if the game didn’t make a dime back of its budget, its failure wouldn’t wound OMGPOP’s finances.

The business model for mobile games is a lot less risk for what is typically a lot less reward. It makes for a more stable job market, and that one-in-a-thousand chance to blow up and go mainstream is always just out of reach to keep everyone motivated. OMGPOP’s single hit game more than made up for 34 previous so-so titles that just kept the team afloat.

It’s halftime for hardcore games

Downsizing is never good. As illustrated above, it is usually the byproduct of myopic leadership. It can, however, be used as an opportunity to right a company’s trajectory. For example, mixed in with the news that many people were losing their jobs at THQ was an announcement that Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium is shifting from a massively multiplayer-online game to a single-player title with some online features.

That’s a good thing. No one was clamoring for another MMO. Better for the developer to cut it’s losses now than to try to support a game that won’t stand a chance against World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Clearly the studio was forced to make this alteration based on a financial situation that is out of its control (THQ is down to its last $50 million), but that has forced them to be creative with a smaller budget — it’s forcing the company into the smart move by default.

THQ knows how make a hit. If it can just stay on the Darksiders/Saints Row: The Third/UFC: Undsiputed 3 side of Metacritic, then it has a shot to rake in some cash. It has to avoid making mistakes that cancel out any good the hits produce.

It’s like that Clint Eastwood commercial that aired during the Super Bowl. The one where he’s giving a pep talk to American industry and encouraging Detroit automakers to get back on their feet after years of hemorrhaging money and jobs.

Only…it’s nothing like that. Ford, GM, and Chrysler were on a real decline. Detroit was facing a crisis because its entire consumer base found an alternative that served all of their needs. Social and mobile games are finding an audience, but no one is wholly replacing their cinematic Xbox 360 titles with CityVille.

It doesn’t help that publishers are uncertain about the future. The next round of consoles should have started by now. This extended cycle has caused a transitional lull that has every publisher in an awkward holding pattern as they await new hardware.

Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are all taking an extra beat because they don’t really know what gaming is going to look like in two years. It’s a war of attrition, and the winner is very likely going to be the manufacturer who makes the fewest number of mistakes. As a result, it seems like the industry is suffering perhaps more than it actually is. The NPD group tracking numbers show that February sales are down significantly from the same time frame in 2011. That alone wouldn’t be much of an issue, but third-parties like Sega are probably assuming that this is a trend that’ll continue until the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 hit store shelves. With the news that Microsoft will definitely not reveal a new console at this summer’s E3, Sega and THQ are likely attempting to conserve their last bit of money until the next generation can drum up consumer excitement.

The rich keep getting richer

The real problem is gaming’s complete lack of a middle class. It drops from high-risk/high-reward to low-risk/low-reward with nothing in between. If a middle-risk game does exist, it’s like Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series. It’ll always sell to a large enough group of dedicated fans, but nostalgia isn’t a business model others can follow.

This is one issue that the big three are going to need to address in the next round of consoles. Pricing for retail titles is archaic. The $60 model represents a large risk for the customer, and if they get burned on a bad buy, they may just end up sticking to their free-to-play Angry Bird games. Freemium needs to come to consoles, and it likely will.

Brian Fargo, chief executive of InXile Entertainment, pointed to the lack of a middle tier in games that made it hard to raise money to build Wasteland 2. Like Double Fine Productions, Fargo had to turn to Kickstarter to raise the money for Wasteland 2. It’s a good thing he could raise that money, but it’s sad that no one would fund it otherwise.

We’re in a very strange stage for gaming. Everyone on the production side knows that the way the entire industry works is going to be turned on its head in the next generation. The winner could possibly define the way games are delivered to customers for the next 10 years and beyond. With so much on the line, however, the industry has hit a lull that is exacerbating poor decisions and mistakes.

Sega can’t find its voice. Zipper Interactive releases a SOCOM game just before PlayStation Network experiences a blackout for weeks. THQ blows it on uDraw. These are errors that a strong home-console market can withstand, but not the uncertain one we find ourselves in now.

Those three companies must be looking at OMGPOP and Zynga with envy right now. Draw Something is a phenomenon. What THQ and Sega should be looking at is the stability of the social game market. These are companies with a handful of properties that they can leverage to build up a steady stream of revenue. They’ll probably never match Zynga, but it’s not a race. A freemium Warhammer 40K strategy game that echoes Hero Academy (a hit iOS game) would probably be a good start, and maybe an iPad version of Seaman from Sega. The idea should be to limit the amount of damage a single bad choice can do, and it’s clear that including mobile, social, and online games is probably one of the best ways to protect against that. And who knows, maybe the next Draw Something will come from THQ.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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“We anticipated our third fiscal quarter would be the largest in our company’s history,” Farrell said. “Unfortunately, we were wrong.”

The weakness in the third fiscal quarter was due to poor sales of the uDraw tablet, a kid-oriented drawing tablet that was a hit last year on the Wii. But poor sales of uDraw dragged down the quarterly performance, even though the company had big hits with WWE ’12 (2 million units sold) and Saints Row the Third (3.6 million units sold).

In the call, the company detailed the disastrous uDraw tablet sales on high-definition platforms. The company shipped 1 million tablets into the market and sell-through was poor. Sales of the tablet turned out to be $100 million less than expected, while other casual/kids titles were $25 million below the target. One of the reasons is that the iPad and iPod Touch have taken the kids market by storm in the past year, since kids can get thousands of apps for free or at lost costs.

The company was confident from last year’s sales that the uDraw title would be a big seller, but Farrell said, “Our confidence was misplaced.” The failure prompted THQ to analyze its business from “top to bottom,” Farrell said.

Farrell’s straight talk is admirable, but it doesn’t seem to have pleased investors. In after-hours trading, THQ’s stock is down 26 percent to 56 cents a share. That gives the company a valuation of $51.9 million, barely above the $47 million in cash that the company has.

“We were looking at uDraw as a bridge to a digital revenue market,” Farrell said. “But that bridge turned out to be a plank we walked off of.”

THQ has had to heavily discount the uDraw tablets, resulting it $33 million in losses. Further production of uDraw hardware has been halted. A charge of $11 million against earnings will be taken in the fiscal fourth quarter ending March 31. About $8.5 million of that charge will be cash.

Farrell said THQ has canceled the Adidas My Coach game and it now expects to sell 1.5 million units (below a previous estimate) of UFC Undisputed in the fourth fiscal quarter ending March 31. THQ will now focus on its hardcore game properties. The various cutbacks, including layoffs of 240 employees, will result in $160 million in lower annual spending this year.

“Over the past two months we reviewed all aspects of our business,” Farrell said. “Our plan is to transform THQ into a smaller, more agile entertainment company.”

The company has been encouraged by feedback on the Darksiders II game and is doubling its expected marketing spending on the game, which will come out in June.

Last week, THQ launched its Margaritaville Online social game on Facebook. Regarding that, Farrell said the rate of monetization and engagement is higher than usual for such a game.

John Taylor, an analyst at Arcadia, noted on the call that THQ has been trying to restructure itself for a few years now and it hasn’t had success yet. He asked if there was a contingency plan if the current restructuring doesn’t work. Farrell said the company is confident it has adequate resources to execute on its current plan.

THQ’s five remaining studios include Volition (maker of Saints Row the Third), THQ Montreal (headed by Patrice Desilets, a former Ubisoft star developer), Vigil (maker of Darksiders II and Dark Milllennium Online), Relic, and a studio in San Diego. THQ is also working with outside studios such as Turtle Rock.

Obsidian is working on a South Park game for THQ. Metro: Last Light has been pushed back to the first quarter of 2013 so that it can be refined.

Farrell said the company would invest in hardcore games for the next-generation consoles coming in the next year or so.

THQ expects Saints Row the Third to ship more than 5 million or 6 million units over its life. Farrell said that the Saints Row the Third character creator has been used to create 10 million avatars in the game. The WWE ’12 title is up 29 percent over sales of the previous wrestling game. THQ believes it will end the fiscal year with $25 million in cash.

Farrell said the company is “being realistic about our resources” and is looking for a partner for the launch of Dark Millennium Online, a massively multiplayer online game now scheduled for fiscal 2014 and beyond.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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THQ is one of the largest U.S. game publishers, and its financial struggles after more than two decades of making video games is a sign of big changes happening in the core video game industry.

THQ’s Saints Row the Third sold 3.6 million units in the quarter while WWE’12 wrestling title sold more than 2 million units.

But the profits from those games were offset by poor sales of its kid-oriented uDraw hardware and software, which reduced earnings by $33 million.

After hours, THQ’s stock has cratered, falling 24 percent to 58 cents a share. Before the earnings were released, the stock closed at 76 cents, up 40 cents, or 5.6 percent, in trading on the Nasdaq stock market on Thursday.

THQ said yesterday it has laid off 240 employees in an effort to conserve cash and focus on its core strategy of making high-end games for core gamers. THQ has now cut its kid division. THQ said it has now cut $160 million in costs from its annual expenses.

Non-GAAP Revenues were $404.4 million, up 25 percent from $323.1 million a year ago. Non-GAAP net income was $24 million, or 35 cents a share, compared with $28.5 million, or 42 cents a year ago. GAAP revenues were $305.4 million, down from $314.6 million a year ago. GAAP net loss was $55.9 million, or 82 cents a share, compared with a loss of $14.9 million, or 22 cents a share a year earlier.

Analysts estimated that revenues for the quarter would be $417 million and earnings per share would be 64 cents. That earnings consensus was set after THQ announced that its revenues would fall 25 percent of previous targets. THQ is also facing a possible Nasdaq delisting if it can’t bring their share prices above $1 for ten consecutive days.

The publisher’s stock has plunged in the last year, from $5.86 to 76 cents.

As we noted earlier, THQ doesn’t have all the time in the world to turn things around. In the most recent second-fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30, THQ had non-GAAP revenues of $119.6 million and a net loss of $40.6 million. The company had cash and cash equivalents of $51.0 million on Sept. 30. Unless THQ can turn around the current rate of losses, it will be out of cash in a couple of quarters. The company might be able to borrow more money, but it already has long-term debt of $83.7 million and current liabilities of $275.3 million.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter recently told VentureBeat that THQ will likely run out of cash by June, or even earlier, unless it takes steps to prevent it by possibly reducing overhead, canceling projects, selling assets, or raising capital. THQ said that it has $47.7 million in cash and has no borrowings on its $50 million credit facility.

THQ was the No. 5 game publisher in the U.S. with 5.4 percent market share. The company is working on South Park: The Game for release in the second half of 2012. Digital revenues for the third fiscal quarter were more than double the amount of a year ago.

Upcoming games include UFC Undisputed coming out on Feb. 14; Darksiders II coming in June; South Park: The Game coming in the third fiscal quarter of 2012 (fiscal year 2013); Metro: Last Light coming in the fourth fiscal quarter of FY 2013, or the first calendar quarter of 2013. Devil’s Third is also coming during that quarter. THQ’s Dark Millennium Online will be out in fiscal 2014. THQ has two uannounced titles for fiscal 2013 and an unnamed original title coming from Turtle Rock Studio in fiscal year 2014. An original title coming from Patrice Desilets and THQ’s Montreal studio will come out in fiscal year 2014.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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THQ is one of the largest U.S. game publishers, and its financial struggles after more than two decades of making video games is a sign of big changes happening in the core video game industry.

THQ said in December it expects net sales for the third quarter will be 25 percent below its previously announced guidance of $510 million to $550 million due to weaker-than-expected sales of the uDraw GameTablet peripheral for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. uDraw’s failure to catch on with consumers led to layoffs of at least 30 people at the publisher’s family division, Play THQ. The publisher also confirmed to Game Informer last week it let go an unspecified number of employees after announcing it was dropping licensed properties from kids’ entertainment companies like Disney/Pixar and Nickelodeon to focus on “core” franchises like Saints Row and UFC.

THQ’s stock fell more than 5 percent on Wednesday to 70 cents after it announced it was shifting focus away from kids’ content. The publisher’s stock has fallen more than 87 percent in the last year, from $5.86 to 72 cents. Investors clearly have no confidence that there will be a turnaround, but Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) analyst Jesse Divnich thinks the realignment is a step in the right direction.

“As THQ has a strong foundation of excellent developers, I believe this shift in focus was necessary for THQ and will ultimately be proven to be the right decision for the company,” he said. “THQ has demonstrated this holiday season that they have the resources, talent, and capabilities of delivering a 3 million-plus tiitle (Saints Row: The Third) — something only AAA publishers can accomplish per our models.”

Divnich (pictured) says as long as the publisher can continue to innovate and expand the reach of its core brands, he doesn’t see any issue with its long-term viability as a AAA publisher.

Robert W. Baird analyst Colin Sebastian also believes THQ’s recent strategy makes sense. “We have seen casual game consumption transition very quickly over to smart devices (phones and tablets), and it is really difficult now to convince a 10-year-old or a parent to spend $40 or $50 on a kids’ game when a cool app costs just 99 cents,” he said. “From that point of view, the strategy makes sense. Focus on a small number of core games that can be profitable, and pursue some option value from newer digital platforms.”

Ultimately, Sebastian thinks the publisher needs to focus on its strengths in order to survive through the current console cycle. If its strategy of focusing on AAA content works, he sees it potentially becoming an attractive acquisition candidate.

But THQ doesn’t have all the time in the world to turn things around. In the most recent second-fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30, THQ had non-GAAP revenues of $119.6 million and a net loss of $40.6 million. The company had cash and cash equivalents of $51.0 million on Sept. 30. Unless THQ can turn around the current rate of losses, it will be out of cash in a couple of quarters. The company might be able to borrow more money, but it already has long-term debt of $83.7 million and current liabilities of $275.3 million.

THQ is expected to turn a profit in the third fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, with non-GAAP net income of about 65 cents a share, according to analyst estimates. That could bring another $45 million in profits into the company’s coffers, giving it more leash for perhaps a quarter or so. Clearly, THQ would have to either start generating a lot more revenues from new games or cut back on its costs.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter recently told VentureBeat that THQ will likely run out of cash by June, or even earlier, unless it takes steps to prevent it by possibly reducing overhead, canceling projects, selling assets, or raising capital. He also expects nothing surprising will come from the publisher’s earnings call on Feb. 2. “They already preannounced, and they will say that they are taking steps to cut costs and preserve cash,” he said.

Dean Takahashi contributed to this story.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Below are all the reviews from GamesBeat in 2011. They are listed in reverse-chronological order by the date the review was posted, NOT the release date for the game.

12/19
Minecraft
Star Wars: The Old Republic

12/15

Grand Theft Auto III: 10th Anniversary Edition

12/13

Gears of War 3: RAAM’s Shadow

12/01

Infinity Blade II

11/29

Saints Row The Third

11/23

Sonic Generations (3DS)

11/22

King of Fighters XIII

11/20

Need For Speed: The Run

11/19

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

11/17

Super Mario 3D Land

11/15

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
Kinect Disneyland

11/14

Assassin’s Creed Revelations
Rayman Origins

11/13

Kinect Sports: Season 2

11/10

The Elder Scrolls V: kyrim

11/05

Dark Souls

11/03

Forza Motorsport 4

10/31

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

10/27

Battlefield 3

10/21

Batman: Arkham City

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Last week, VentureBeat announced its Game of the Year choices. Now you can see the video of VentureBeat’s top game writers, Dean Takahashi and Sebastian Haley discussing the picks. Enjoy the talk and let us know your favorite game of the year in the comments below.

As we explained previously, here’s how we conducted the selection process: We first asked our reviewers to choose the semi-finalists. Then we picked the final winners from that group. But our vote on the best game of 2011 ended in a tie, so we had to hold a tie-breaker round to pick our winner, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.

The rest of our top 10, in order, are: Portal 2; Batman: Arkham City; Minecraft; Dark Souls; Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3; The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim; Gears of War 3; Saints Row: The Third; and Super Mario 3D Land. Our honorable mentions included Dead Space 2 and Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP.

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And the final tie-breaker vote went — for the second time since 2009 — to the Uncharted franchise.

It was a more democratic and contentious process than we’ve ever had. But it’s the least we could do, considering game companies are spending scores of millions of dollars on games, and consumers are spending billions of dollars on them. This year offered some of the best games we’ve ever seen. We hope you enjoy reading our selections, and please let us know in the comments if you agree or disagree with our choices. Be sure to take our poll at the bottom of the story.

Without further ado, here are our top 10 games of 2011:

1. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: Sony
Platform: PlayStation 3
Release date: Nov. 1
GamesBeat review score: 91

In 2009, we gave Uncharted 2: Among Thieves the honor of game of the year. And in 2011, Uncharted 3 has taken the top title again because of its cinematic story, realistic characters, outstanding graphics and unbelievably action-packed combat scenes. As the treasure-hunting hero Nathan Drake, you have to battle your way through a burning French château as it collapses around you. You have to survive a firefight in a cargo plane as the aircraft’s cargo empties out the open ramp in mid-air. And you must dispatch your enemies as you outrun the flooding of a capsized cruise ship. In every scene, you see the spectacular effects from just the right angle, and you have to time your response right to survive in the nick of time. After you play this game, you close your eyes and see the memorable images — like those damn spiders — that take you back to the immersive experience. This is what makes Uncharted the crown jewel in Sony’s portfolio of great video game franchises.

As our interview with Naughty Dog’s Justin Richmond revealed, the developers focused on creating movie-like set pieces, or action sequences that took our breath away, much like blockbuster movies do. The beginning of the game took us deeper into the character of Nathan Drake and his relationship with fellow thief Victor “Sully” Sullivan, who is both Drake’s corrupter and savior. You feel the emotional tugs as Drake parts from his companion Elena, whose eyes sparkle as she holds back tears. You can feel the hatred as Drake seeks revenge against Katherine Marlowe, a memorable villain who runs an army of thugs in a secret society.

Nobody aspires to create such a high level of emotional engagement in games, particularly in the genre of shooting games. The title has its flaws, but it overcomes them by making you feel like an actor inside an adventure movie where your actions make the difference between life or death. The action is backed up by humor, witty dialogue, and a symmetry in the story that links the beginning and the ending. That is what makes this title appealing to much more than just hardcore shooting fans.

“An airplane losing its cargo in mid-air. A château falling apart in an inferno. A cruise ship sinking from a hole in its side. Only Naughty Dog considers staging gun battles in such places. They are defining moments in a game that really delivers a game-play experience that is like no other.” — Dean Takahashi

2. Portal 2
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Valve
Platform: PC, Mac, PS 3, Xbox 360
Release date: April 19
GamesBeat review score: unrated

Valve’s Portal 2 was built upon the strong machinations of the massively successful original. To be honest, Portal 2 is rarely more than a series of standalone test chambers, some of which are not particularly clever, or enjoyable. That said, it’s not the mind-bending, space-shifting, goo-riding puzzles that elevate Portal 2 far above the competition, but rather its unrivaled writing and voice acting. GLaDOS, Wheatley, and J. Jonah Jameson deftly propel the voiceless Chell along on her journey with their insane ponderings, diabolical aspirations, and undeniably witty banter. With developers constantly struggling to push their games to some arbitrary 10, 20, or 50-hour playtime predominantly listed on the back of the box, Portal 2 proves that a shorter, concise, and well-made masterpiece is infinitely more valuable than a 100-hour game that wears out its welcome long before the credits roll.

“The last game before Portal 2 that I willingly beat twice in the same day was Resident Evil 2. To fans of either series, that is the highest recommendation I can bestow.” –Sebastian Haley

3. Batman: Arkham City
Developer: Rocksteady
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows PC
Release date: Oct. 18
GamesBeat review score: 89

Cliff “CliffyB” Bleszinski once promised that Gears of War 2 would be “bigger, better, and more bad-ass” than the original. Whether or not that was accomplished is up for debate, but Rocksteady could have easily applied that PR catchphrase to this year’s Arkham Asylum sequel. Taking to the streets of the makeshift Arkham City, players can experience the crime-fighting and crime-solving aspects of the World’s Greatest Detective like never before. I’m not sure why it took so long for someone to finally get it right, I’m just glad that they did.

The writing and voice acting is sketchy at times, but the brilliant and plentiful Riddler puzzles are easily the most well-thought-out diversions in any game I’ve ever played. At first I scoffed at the addition of a playable Catwoman, expecting nothing more than a half-assed mutation of Batman (you know, like Robin and Nightwing ended up being). But Catwoman ended up stealing the show, in my opinion — her combat moves are downright awesome, while her wall-climbing and whip-swinging traversal make an excellent alternative to the Dark Knight’s.

“Rocksteady has managed to not only create one of the greatest pieces of Batman culture, but has also elevated Catwoman to the upper echelon’s of gaming’s most able-bodied females. It’s not a perfect game, but it’s also hard to imagine where Rocksteady can go from here.” — Sebastian Haley

4. Minecraft
Developer: Mojang
Publisher: Mojang
Platforms: PC, iOS
Release date: Nov. 18 for version 1.0
GamesBeat review score: pending

Minecraft takes players into a blocky, procedurally generated world, complete with mobile monsters (mobs), farm animals, and an underworld called the Nether. It runs on the Java platform on PC and Mac, as well as within a web browser. The game provides an open world with day, night, and weather cycles. Players must dig deep into the skin of the world, gathering resources to craft ever more complex items and contraptions, and can also build high into the clouds, making Minecraft one of the most addictive and innovative games of the last couple of years.

Released as alpha software in May 2009, and as beta in December 2010, the game made waves across the internet as geeks and gamers discovered this sleeper hit, spending $20 per license and making original programmer  Markus “Notch” Persson enough money to start a company, Mojang, and bring the game to full 1.0 release just this past November. Minecraft had surpassed 10 million registered users by July, 2011, and over 4 million purchases by November 2011, even before release. It has never been commercially advertised, only passed along by word of mouth. There is an extensive YouTube presence of the game, with Minecraft video creators like Minecraft Dad building what seems to be a lucrative channel on the video service, all based on this game.

“Minecraft combines the joy of building, the thrill of discovery, and the mechanics of video game survival into one fantastically compelling game made all the better by its staunch indie cred.” – Rob LeFebvre

5. Dark Souls
Developer: From Software
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Release date: Oct. 4
GamesBeat review score: 89

Yes, Minecraft and Dark Souls are tied. These games couldn’t be more different. Dark Souls arrived in style towards the end of the year, offering gamers what is essentially an evolved form of its spiritual predecessor, Demon’s Souls. With its deep character creation and weapon crafting systems, and virtually load-free open world, the game provided the opportunity for players to engage in a highly immersive and personal journey.

What made Dark Souls stand out this year, to my mind, is the care and attention to detail that From Software put into crafting the game world. Playing the game, I was constantly surprised and astounded by what I saw, making my steady exploration seem like a real adventure, in the truest sense of the word. While Dark Souls offers a level of difficulty not seen in many current-generation games, it is perfectly beatable, given the right amounts of patience and tenacity. There is no denying that you will die, a lot, while playing the game, but the brief moments of joy elicited by success, against seemingly insurmountable odds, are second to none.

“Dark Souls offers a vast and mysterious game world, beautifully crafted and filled with magic and wonder at every turn. It offers a level of challenge that is missing from most games, inviting you to explore and discover its secrets for yourself. The mixture of RPG, action and subtle multiplayer elements is truly sublime, and is a great example of how to incorporate multiplayer features into a largely single player experience.” — Dan Crawley

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Last month’s Saints Row: The Third is over-the-top, completely insane, and probably the most fun you’ll have while dressed up in a purple gimp suit committing drive-bys from a parking enforcement vehicle. Naturally, Nerd Cubed has collected the very worst ways to take a dirt nap in the virtual city of Steelport and rolled them all up into one nice video for your amusement. And you will be amused!

So without further ado… How awesome is Saints Row: The Third? This awesome:

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Stat tracking websites seem to be all the rage this winter, with EA releasing its Battlelog service alongside Battlefield 3, and Activision running its Call of Duty Elite service for Modern Warfare 3 players. THQ has now weighed in with its own stat tracking service that allows players to see their achievements, view and leave hints, and share screenshots taken in the game.

As well as stats, the website also features a map that tracks events in the game in real time, helping to show where missions and secrets are located.

THQ has taken this opportunity to reveal some rather disturbing figures from the game:

• 2 million people have been bludgeoned to death by the purple Penetrator “d-bat”, also known as an IED (Inspirational Erotic Device)
• 5.8 billion citizens of Steelport have met their demise at the hands of gamers around the globe while playing Saints Row: The Third. That’s 19 times the population of the United States, roughly 85 percent of the population of the world
• Players have spent a cumulative  two years in their birthday suits streaking the streets of Steelport
• In Whored Mode, 44 million pimps, gimps and prostitutes have been dispatched, roughly twice the population of Texas
• Finally, 650 hot dog mascots have been overcooked to death by players using a flamethrower.

We reviewed Saints Row: The Third earlier this week and gave it a score of 82 out of 100.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Who do you want to be today?

Following the game’s first mission, you arrive at the character customization screen, and get to create the leader of the Saints, whom you will play as for the duration of the story. The range of customization options available invites you to be creative, with a generic action hero type being one of the least attractive options. Everything from permanent tattoos to double chin height is definable, and there is a range of skin tones that can make your character look more like something from a comic book, than a traditional action game.

In the custom settings, there is a cheeky option to alter ‘sex appeal’, which essentially reduces something that psychologists have argued about for decades, to the simple act of enlarging a man’s manhood, or a woman’s breasts. While that particular option is not subtle, there is no doubting the overall depth of the effects on offer, when you see some of the creations that the Saints Row community have come up with. (THQ released the avatar creator early to get the community stoked) As well as new unique characters, users have managed to craft realistic models of Marlon Brando in The Godfather, Lara Croft, and Peter Griffin from Family Guy, to name but a few. Personally, I was quite happy with the Mohawk-touting cross between Tony Soprano and the Silver Surfer that I managed to piece together in about ten minutes.

Dressing your character is also a mini-adventure in its own right, with a basic range of clothes available to begin with, plus more that can be unlocked through completing missions or shopping in the Saints stores. From wristbands and glasses, through to giant monkey masks and gimp suits, there is literally something there for everyone. If you don’t wish to show off your sartorial elegance, however, you can always choose to run around Steelport in the buff, with some carefully placed pixelation hiding the more personal details. In true Saints Row style, Volition has even built-in a side mission that requires you to shock passers-by, by streaking near them.

Anything but dull

While playing through the first few missions in Saints Row: The Third, you soon come to realize that the game won’t be forcing you to do anything dull. Barring a few more low-key events, the missions are generally bold, brash, funny, and chock full of gun-fights and explosions. As you progress further through the story, the missions get exponentially more insane, along with the weapons and vehicles that you can use to complete them.

Volition has certainly taken a refreshing approach in the making of Saints Row: The Third. While some games are striving to reach new levels of realism and immersion, Saints Row is quite content just to be a game, and in doing so it offers some really crazy experiences, that simply could not be reproduced in any other medium. Without wishing to proffer too many spoilers, some of my personal highlights included parachuting into a nuclear reactor, beating a masked wrestler around the head with a giant shark, causing waves of ‘infected’ citizens to explode with a gun ripped from a virtual reality game, and a gloriously inappropriate use of the Joe Esposito song “You’re The Best Around”.

Third person shooting

Whilst you start Saints Row: The Third with a limited arsenal of weapons, over the course of the game you accumulate some incredible pieces of technology, and can also upgrade some very basic weapons to be devastatingly effective. I found nothing more satisfying than sending a room full of enemies into a coughing frenzy with a casually tossed ‘fart in a jar’, before mowing then down with a pyrotechnic sub machine gun. Other personal weapons of choice included the RC Gun, which allows you to take remote control of any vehicle and explode it at will, and the sex toy bat, a giant purple dildo which is a particularly effective means of bludgeoning people around the head.

The gunplay in Saints Row feels pretty tight, with the third-person view working no better or worse than it generally does for shooting. There is no cover system in place, which is quite rare to see in a third person shooter these days. Whilst it is nice to be free of the problems a cover system sometimes brings with it, it does sometime feel like you are a sitting duck at a carnival sideshow, with nowhere to hide and bullets flying at you from all sides. Having said that, Saints Row is anything but a stealth game, and the best form or defence is usually attack, something which is eminently satisfying here, as bodies and vehicles fly around, amidst seas of explosions.

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These kinds of promotions are becoming increasingly common as game publishers look for ways to maximize the revenue on their new games by bundling titles from their older libraries.

Speaking on the Playstation Blog, Jon Miller, spokesman at THQ said “At long last, THQ and our friends at PlayStation are proud to unveil additional content for Saints Row: The Third owners on PS3. For all players that purchase Saints Row: The Third on Playstation 3 and redeem their online pass codes within the next 90 days, they will receive a digital copy of Saints Row 2 (a $19.99 value)… absolutely free!”

In the ongoing fight against the pre-owned games market, many publishers are now making online game modes available only by purchasing a brand new game, or buying an online pass from the Playstation Network and XBox Live stores. Saints Row The Third is no exception, with the co-operative functionality of the game relying on an online pass to enable it. This offer from THQ sweetens the deal somewhat though, particularly coming weeks after Electronic Arts withdrew its offer to include the downloadable title Battlefield 1943 with the PS3 version of Battlefield 3.

This offer will be available until midnight on February 13, 2012, but is only valid for customers in the United States, Canada and Mexico. There is no word from THQ as to whether this bonus content will be made available in any other regions.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Gamers who bought those copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution will receive a $50 gift card from GameStop and a two-for-one deal on used games as part of the arrangement. The retailer is backpedaling after saying it did not want to promote competition from OnLive, since the company is reportedly testing its own game streaming service. The Federal Trade Commission did not comment on whether the practice was anti-competitive when contacted by VentureBeat.

GameStop officials told VentureBeat that Square Enix, the publisher behind Deus Ex: Human Revolution, pre-packaged the coupon without informing GameStop — prompting GameStop to pull the coupons out of the game packages. The brick-and-mortar game retailer instructed its employees to open copies of the game and remove the code. Gamers who purchased a PC version of the game were originally treated to a free copy of the game on OnLive, which runs games on powerful remote servers.

“We pulled the coupons because, like all retailers, we prefer not to promote our competitors and their competing offerings and services in our stores,” a GameStop spokesperson told VentureBeat. “Unfortunately, the coupon was packed without our prior knowledge.”

OnLive runs games on powerful remote servers and streams the games like a YouTube video to a web browser. The service can run triple-A titles like Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood on computers and even tablets that don’t have a lot of processing power. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of the first few high-profile titles to launch simultaneously on OnLive and PC and gaming consoles like the Xbox 360.

“We were part of their overall campaign, they have a long manufacturing cycle,” OnLive chief executive Steve Perlman told VentureBeat. “It’s the beginning of a trend — we have had some deals with indie downloads like the Humble Indie Bundle, we’re doing distribution inside the box.”

GameStop still relies on sales of physical copies of games and a large part of its revenue comes from buying and selling used physical copies of games. The company is facing stiff competition from digital distribution services like Steam and streaming services like Gaikai and OnLive.

Meanwhile, OnLive has deals with a number of other upcoming triple-A titles like THQ’s upcoming Space Marine and Saints Row: The Third, along with Batman: Arkham City, a sequel to the smash hit Batman: Arkham Asylum. The company will soon run those same high-end triple-A titles on tablet computers, mobile devices like the iPad and devices running Google’s mobile operating system Android.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Gamers who purchase a PC version of the game are treated to a free copy of the game on OnLive, which runs games on powerful remote servers. The brick-and-mortar game retailer is instructing its employees to open copies of the game and remove the code. GameStop officials confirmed to VentureBeat that Square Enix, the publisher behind Deus Ex: Human Revolution, pre-packaged the coupon without informing GameStop — prompting the company to pull the coupons out of the game packages.

“We pulled the coupons because, like all retailers, we prefer not to promote our competitors and their competing offerings and services in our stores,” a GameStop spokesperson told VentureBeat. “Unfortunately, the coupon was packed without our prior knowledge.”

OnLive runs games on powerful remote servers and streams the games like a YouTube video to a web browser. The service can run triple-A titles like Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood on computers and even tablets that don’t have a lot of processing power. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of the first few high-profile titles to launche simultaneously on OnLive and PC and gaming consoles like the Xbox 360.

“We were part of their overall campaign, they have a long manufacturing cycle,” OnLive chief executive Steve Perlman told VentureBeat. “It’s the beginning of a trend — we have had some deals with indie downloads like the Humble Indie Bundle, we’re doing distribution inside the box.”

OnLive representatives told VentureBeat the company didn’t have anything new to add.

GameStop is reportedly testing its own game streaming service, which would compete with OnLive when launched. The company still relies on sales of physical copies of games and a large part of its revenue comes from buying and selling used physical copies of games. The company is facing stiff competition from digital distribution services like Steam and streaming services like Gaikai and OnLive.

Meanwhile, OnLive has deals with a number of other upcoming triple-A titles like THQ’s upcoming Space Marine and Saints Row: The Third, along with Batman: Arkham City, a sequel to the smash hit Batman: Arkham Asylum. The company will soon run those same high-end triple-A titles on tablet computers, mobile devices like the iPad and devices running Google’s mobile operating system Android.

“You will see more combo deals like this,” Perlman said. “Everyone who buys a disk can get it on other devices too — you buy the disk and get it everywhere.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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You heard that right. I’m not making this up. In Saints Row the Third, you can knock your enemies silly by hitting them with a purple dildo.

And that’s just the beginning of the mayhem that is possible in this anything-goes video game which will be on display next week at the E3 show in Los Angeles. In Saints Row the Third, you play a gangster whose gang is trying to defend turf in the fictional city of Steelport. You can kick your enemies in the nuts or shoot them there if you prefer. You can hammer them or shoot them into little red bits. Clearly, we’re talking about a game that is pushing the edge of taste in just about every way — which explains why the series is so popular.

“This is the most over-the-top, guilty-pleasure game in the industry,” said Greg Donovan, producer of Saints Row the Third at THQ.

Since there is evidently no Grand Theft Auto game coming out this year, Saints Row the Third promises to be one of the hot sellers when it comes out this holiday season.

The point of this over-the-top violence and crude sexism is as old as carnival barkers. You find whatever will offend parents the most and stick that in the game and then try to one-up your competitors who try to out-sleeze your game. There are no ethics in this game and it’s all about having a good, violent time. Parents can complain all they want, but players will reply, “it’s just a game.”

Like the Grand Theft Auto series, this game puts players in an “open world,” where they can run around and do things that are unscripted. The city is huge, though not quite as big as the previous city in Saints Row 2. You can roam the sidewalks, punching terrified pedestrians randomly, or get in your car and run people over. You are the leader of a gang called the Third Street Saints that has, by the third game in the series, all of the money, sex and guns that it wants. No longer do you have to start out as a mere foot soldier running errands for the boss. You are the boss. And you’re at war with a rival gang called the Syndicate. The Saints have relocated from Stilwater, the setting of Saints Row 2, to Steelport, a dying industrial town with drug dealers, prostitution rings, and gambling joints all over the place.

In the game, you can go on a series of missions, earn money and gain status. In one crazy mission, you try to rob a bank with your gang, all dressed up as a celebrity gang leader named Johnny Gat (pictured above right). The robbery goes awry and you have to shoot something like a hundred police officers and take out a helicopter in order to escape. When you’re shooting, you never run out of bullets.

You can also collect all sorts of “bad ass weapons” such as the “sucking cannon,” which lets you suck in a character and then shoot it out like a human cannonball. You can also use an “apocafist” to turn innocent civilians into a bloody pulp.

You can also take to the road in a battle tank or to the air in fighter aircraft that can take off vertically and land like a helicopter. In a mini-game with the tank, your goal is to drive around and kill as many people as possible and inflict as much property damage as possible as well. The dollar amount of the damage is captured in real time in a counter on the screen.

“It’s not realistic, but we don’t care,” Donovan said.

Will it sell? Well, the first games in this series sold in high enough numbers to justify sequels. THQ is investing heavily in the franchise and is reportedly working on film and book versions of the property with partners. As the launch of the game gets closer, THQ will release a character creator that allows players to fashion their own gang members so they can be uploaded and used in the actual game when it launches.

We’ll be exploring the most disruptive game technologies and business models at our third annual GamesBeat 2011 conference, on July 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. It will focus on the disruptive trends in the mobile games market. GamesBeat is co-located with our MobileBeat 2011 conference this year. To register, click on this link. Sponsors can message us at sponsors@venturebeat.com. To participate in our Who’s Got Game? contest for the best game startup, click on this link.