We are delighted to be part of this, launching an Arabic game is every Arab gamers’ wish. This is a great opportunity for us to grow further in promising territories like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and a solid demonstration of our commitment to the Middle East market...we hope it will be the first of a long line up for Arabic titles in the future... There are only few games that would suit the Middle East’s morals more than WALL.E. The game depicts family virtues in a fun adventurous story line immersing the players in a world of passionate pursuit for adventure.

You gotta start somewhere, we guess, and are glad to see that THQ has started. Hopefully other publishers will follow suit.

WALL-E the first Arabic localised game [MCVUK]

As reader David pointed out, THQ isn't the first to localize a title into Arabic. Back in 2004, PS2 title 'This is Football 2004' let players select either English or Arabic commentary. Read this post right here for more info. It's written by some guy named Brian D. Crecente.

Unlike most of the games I saw today, Wall-E's coming out this month, so we'll know for ourselves soon enough, but I still thought I'd share my impressions of the title, along with some screens of the Wii version.

The rep who demonstrated Wall-E for me on the Wii said that, not being a "gamer" per se, she'd struggled often with Wii controls, and that playing Wall-E was the first time she'd found them accessible.

Makes sense, as like much of THQ's audience, this game is geared at a wider audience and intended primarily to be appealing to kids. It's simple mission-based gameplay and doesn't look too challenging or complex, but it definitely appears to be solid. For what it's worth, the self-proclaimed "non-gamer" rep seemed to play it with ease, so unless she was totally lying to me, its level of complexity is appropriate for young people and families.

Each stage has a different theme, like item collecting, driving, or puzzle-solving, and in some of the stages, Wall-E's robot love interest Eve helps him jump. I couldn't see all of the levels, because the later ones are spoilers for the upcoming film, whose story the game parallels. I know that I won't be able to resist going to check out Wall-E when it hits the theaters, hopefully with a young family member like my little cousin, who would really get a kick out of it. While it's probably not the kind of game I'd play on my own, it looks like it'd be genuine fun to play with her.

THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell said that most of its struggles were due to a crowded and competitive market for kids' games, as well as key franchises — Juiced, Stuntman and Conan that ultimately "were simply not competitive."

"Insufficient game quality led to inadequate sellthrough, resulting in markdowns at retail," Farrell said.

Farrell said the company spent heavily to promote Juiced and Stuntman, and had to take a loss when those titles fail to perform. What growth THQ did see, Farrell credited to Frontlines: Fuel of War, MX vs. ATV Untamed and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, all of which exceeded expectations.

Farrell also said the kids' market, in which THQ has several franchises, was the most competitive in years, and that the company's currently struggling to compete with music games and Nintendo first-party titles.

Nonetheless, THQ appears to have placed its faith in the Wii, concentrating much of its upcoming original IP there. Although Saints Row 2 and Red Faction Guerrilla are still the "anchors" of its lineup, Darksiders, De Blob, Deadly Creatures, Big Beach Sports and All Star Cheer look likely to be slated for Wii along with other unannounced projects, though the company did not announce specific platforms.

New installments in existing franchises for fiscal 2009 include WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009, Disney/Pixar's Wall-E film tie-in, and its previously-revealed Nickelodeon portfolio. The company will publish a game based on DreamWorks' Animation's unannounced 2010 fall film, and has slated WWE: Legends of Wrestlemania for 2009.

Notably, the company seems to have an eye on the free-to-play, microtransactions-driven online gaming market in Asia, highlighting the co-publishing agreement it's signed with Shanda Interactive to bring Company of Heroes Online to China in 2009.

THQ is more confident about the year to come, with three new initiatives in place: "We are rolling out a stronger slate of products. We have put in place and are executing against initiatives to improve our product quality and competitiveness. We are also realigning our cost structure to generate significant operating leverage in fiscal 2009. We believe these initiatives will restore profitable growth and improve value for shareholders," said Farrell.

"We faced a number of challenges, but I believe we have the right strategy to overcome these challenges and achieve significant growth."

Wall-E has a pretty powerful laser himself, as well as the ability to make "trash cubes" that can help solve puzzles or be used as projectiles. Players can also partner the two up to help solve some of the game's many puzzles. Wall-E can be played as a single player experience or with up to three other friends.

The version I saw demoed was on the Xbox 360, but like most movie franchise games these days, it will be released on every console known to man, including the Mac. Now there's a shocker for you! However, each platform will have its own unique brand of gameplay. For instance, the home console versions are more exploration/platformer based, while the PSP will concentrate more on the racing aspects and the Nintendo DS version is more of an action puzzler.

The graphics for the 360 version that was displayed seemed rather nice and exactly what you'd expect form a Pixar fueled production, but overall the gameplay aspect seemed rather typical. I always hate passing too harsh judgment on things that are still in production, but from what I saw, Wall-E isn't really a game I'm going to be running out to buy on launch day.