Frictionless Insight

THQ announced a shift in its business strategy. For many years, a cornerstone of THQ's strategy has been to license tons of kid-friendly properties (such as Spongebob Squarepants, Barbie, Rio and My Little Pony) and sell mediocre games on the strength of that brand. Now, THQ wants to focus on "core game franchises" and "create dedicated digital properties." In other words, THQ wants to focus on creating profitable franchises like its Saints Row games. To that end, THQ says that it "...is in the process of exiting its relationships with kids' licensed entertainment companies..." FI is wholeheartedly in favor of anything that reduces the amount of shovelware (especially licensed shovelware) that pours out of the industry.

SOL Exodus from Seamless Entertainment can be downloaded to the PC through Valve's Steam service for $10. Set around 500 years in the future, this space-combat simulation is set in our own solar system prior to a supernova and has players facing off against religious extremists who think everyone should be consumed by the dying star. Of course, only the first half of the campaign against the Children of Dawn is available at launch. The other eight missions are planned as downloadable content.

Unigine Corp has released Oil Rush, a real-time naval strategy game set in a water-logged post-apocalyptic world. The world's final, floating survivors are battling over the world's remaining energy sources, so players will muster naval and air units to seize the production platforms of others, while building tower-defence style layers of structures to defend their own oil rigs. The game can be purchased here and includes Steam codes.

Thankfully, today's Xbox Live Arcade releases are a break from the tradition of games with absurdly long names. Both of today's games are single-word, two-syllable names. Read on for the full list and more details...

THQ has launched Margaritaville Online through Facebook and for the iPad. Developed by Exploding Barrel Games, the game allows participants to stand around in a world based on Jimmy Buffett's songs, "...able to play and party with great music and frozen concoctions in an open easy-going world, featuring exotic adventures, customized bars and outfits, and playful mini-games." The question is why? We're too busy hanging out in a Dadaist-inspired sandbox world set in the back alleys of World-War-I-era Paris while actually drinking instead of consuming virtual "frozen concoctions" in a beach setting populated by characters that would be comfortable in a parade of Nintendo's Miis.

It's another light week in the PlayStation Store, but there is the new game Scarygirl, along with downloadble versions of previously released retail games and several PSP minis. Read on for the full list and details...

Irrational Games just announced that BioShock Infinite will include a "1999 Mode," featuring limited resources and irreversible specialization choices. But why the name?

Many gamers, and most game writers, aren't aware of System Shock 2, and certainly haven't played it. That's OK, even though several of FI's staff still think it's the best game of all time. How can that be when those self-same folk call BioShock the best game of all time? Simple. BioShock was the same game. Rather than a futuristic setting with two space vessels (System Shock 2), there was an undersea dystopia (BioShock). Instead of a warring AI and alien hive mind (System Shock 2), there were competing industrialists (BioShock). BioShock had far better graphics, more refined systems and better writing, but System Shock 2 was a lot scarier. Cyber-nannies aside, System Shock 2 was scarier because ammunition was scarce. You could run out of supplies and be forced to flee and duck under a counter, hoping enemies would wander away. You couldn't clear out a level and wander empty hallways, because enemies were constantly bred and born to hunt you down. System Shock 2's horror came from the dearth of resources.

Gamers expecting Rise of the Triad-like play wanted to spray unlimited bullets at the alien constructs and criticized the lack of ammo as a serious design flaw. Here at FI, we loved it. It made the game what it was, and was the most important thing missing from BioShock. Because BioShock was so fast and loose with supplies, it was an amazing experience that occasionally seemed more like an objectivist firing range.

System Shock 2 was released in 1999. So, while not explicit, 1999 Mode is a promise to return that edgy, frightening quality to BioShock infinite, in exactly the right way – as an option. Just as Fallout: New Vegas made tracking food and water intake optional, 1999 Mode will be a choice. We're excited, since we expect it will be a choice between edge-of-the-seat terror and a well-scripted shooter.

Microsoft announced the financial results for its fiscal second quarter ended December 31, 2011. Microsoft's gaming operations took in plenty of money, but the unit, overall, performed worse than in the comparable quarter the previous year. Read on for more details...

Joymax has officially launched Silkroad-R, a persistent online game related (is that what the "R" is for?) to Silkroad Online as players travel along the ancient trade route from China to Constantinople, complete with the extensive PvP experience for which trade routes are famous. As usual, the official launch for this free-to-play game means that the item shop is now open. The game has been in "open beta testing" since December 15.

Microsoft has released two more downloadable games through the Xbox Live Arcade program. This week's additions are a game for the Kinect sensor that has players checking out a haunted house and a platformer featuring a girl who is... scary. Read on for the titles and more details...

Majesco announced its financial results for its full year and fiscal fourth quarter ended October 31, 2011. Essentially, Majesco is doing well again because of Zumba Fitness, and pretty much exclusively because Zumba Fitness has been selling like hotcakes. Presumably, if the same people are buying both hotcakes and Zumba Fitness, they probably aren't getting more fit.

Sony has released a new slate of downloadable games for the PlayStation 3. There's nothing much for the PSP, but there are quite a few retail games now available in downloadable form along with Amy and Zack Zero. Read on for the full list and more details...

Star Trek Online, launched for the PC at the beginning of 2010 and sold to Perfect World, has now launched as a free-to-play game. As usual, a monthly subscription or individual purchases are required to unlock all of the content, and game "enhancing" items are available in the game's store.

We are deeply saddened to learn that Bill Sears, known as "Phosphorous," passed away this weekend at 58 of heart-related problems. Part of the amazing and unusual group that makes games together known as Digital Eel, Phosphorous contributed the unique, endearing and bizarre visual style to games such as Dr. Blob's Organism, Strange Adventures in Infinite Space and Big Box of Blox.

Sony Online Entertainment is excited to let everyone know that DC Universe is now one year old. The game launched on January 11 of last year, and went free to play last November. The game really took off in the last months since going free-to-play, meaning that the game now has around 1.8 million registered players on the PC and 2.3 million registered players on the PlayStation 3. Any of those players who happen to log in today, get the glorious prize of a cape with the number "1" on the back. Wow. We at FI are overwhelmed.

Microsoft has released two more games through Xbox Live Arcade, including a new take on a classic rescue-helicopter game and downloadable survival/horror title. Read on for the names and details...

Sony has released another few downloadable games through the PlayStation Store to keep you sated until the big releases once again start rolling in. This week includes a re-release of the first two Final Fantasy games, a chance to pilot a rescue helicopter and another to build crazy machines.

Ubisoft made a very limited announcement concerning the third fiscal quarter of its fiscal 2011-2012 year. Since Ubisoft wanted to emphasize that this data is preliminary and that real numbers won't be available for more than a month, we'll just say that Ubisoft thinks the holiday season went pretty well. It also appears that the reason for this announcement was to try to mask the fact that it also announced Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier has been delayed until the first quarter of the next fiscal year (roughly, spring-ish). So, a game was delayed, and Ubisoft's investor relations department was concerned enough that it would bother investors that it mentioned holiday sales were pretty good.

The litigation saga between ZeniMax (and its Bethesda Softworks unit) and Interplay over the right to make a Fallout massively multiplayer online game has finally come to a close. It has been obvious since 2002 that Interplay is barely holding on to its very existence. Since April of 2009, the rights to develop a Fallout MMOG should have reverted to Bethesda – Interplay clearly did not have the funds or the ability to build the game, but Interplay has been holding out. The obvious conclusion is that Interplay was simply being a pain in Bethesda's side in an effort to get a little more cash before giving up the ghost. Today, Bethesda confirmed that it paid Interplay $2 to settle the litigation and make Interplay go away. Read on for the full story and more details...

Bah! It's frustrating! Every time we sit down to say something remotely insightful about developments in the world of D&D, we discover that Wired's Geek Dad has beaten us to it. Wizards of the Coast (part of Hasbro) announced that it is working on the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. The plan is to crowd-source part of the next edition's development and testing, so Wizards of the Coast is looking for a folks to sign up to participate. We wanted to write about how Wizards will be launching a new edition of D&D so soon after the last one met a mixed reception and splintered the gaming community that it can only serve to further fragment tabletop gamers. Then we spotted GeekDad's Summary. Read on for a quote...

Retailer GameStop reported selected financial results concerning the nine week holiday period ended December 31, 2011. Total Sales for this period were $3.0191 billion, just a touch over the $3.018.1 billion for the comparable period a year earlier. GameStop highlighted Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Assassin's Creed: Revelations and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as having particularly strong sales.

There's always a chance some of you haven't seen these splendid box covers for almost-were classic games. The original post is from MightyGodKing, and this only penetrated our feeble, media-impervious skulls when we noticed it on BoingBoing.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission from the end of December, Viacom is going to have to pay the former shareholders of Harmonix Music Systems a buttload of cash, and yes, "buttload" is a technical financial term. When music games like Harmonix's Rock Band stopped being insanely profitable, Viacom decided to dump Harmonix and demanded that former Harmonix shareholders return most of the $150 million in performance bonuses that it paid out. The former Harmonix stakeholders then demanded another $700 million of performance bonuses, arguing that this was owed to Harmonix under the acquisition agreement because Viacom had engaged in financial shenanigans (another technical term) that resulted in underpayments to Harmonix stakeholders. Resolution accountants (arbitrators with accounting expertise) determined that Viacom owed Harmonix stakeholders an additional $383 million. Unhappy with the result Viacom has filed a lawsuit to require the resolution accountants to consider additional evidence and revise their determination. So, Viacom might not owe the full $383, but odds are good that they will. Filing suit after going to arbitration is rarely more than a delaying tactic. Remember, Viacom saves a lot of money if can merely delay that substantial payment.

NFL Blitz from Electronic Arts can now be downloaded to the Xbox 360 for 1,200 points ($15). This arcade-style football game allows players to compete in seven-on-seven matches based on the classic football game released to arcades in 1997.

It's the first week of the year, and a light week for the PlayStation Store, with only a few new games downloadable to the PlayStation 3. Read on for the full list and more details...

The final downloadable game of the year released through Xbox Live Arcade is Zombies Must Die. Downloadable to the Xbox 360 for 800 points ($10), this is an arcade-style action game in which players craft weapons and complete simple quests involving slaughtering the undead.

Sony has released the final slate of games for the PlayStation Store for 2011. This week's releases include several games remastered for the PlayStation 3 and a classic game released on the original PlayStation. Read on for the full list of titles and more details...

This week's Xbox Live Arcade release is Trine 2, now downloadable to the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade for 1,200 points ($15). This physics-based puzzle/platformer is the sequel to Trine and once again has a warrior, thief and mage sharing the same corporeal existence as they solve puzzles and battle goblins to cope with a colossal calamity.

Most of this week's releases in the PlayStation Store are games previously released to retail stores now available as downloadable versions, but there are a few newbies, including notable release Trine 2. Read on for the full list and more details on each game...

Effective today, Electronic Arts' stock ticker on the NASDAQ exchange is "EA." Previously the ticker was ERTS, making the new symbol more recognizable and better aligned with Electronic Arts' branding.