The past four weeks have been a dire experience for deal hunters, as Xbox Live's beloved Deal of the Week program came to an abrupt halt. No one was exactly sure why, and we did not receive any concrete response from Microsoft after contacting them, but this week you can rest easy cheap money conscious people!

The Deal of the Week has returned in decent shape with Microsoft Studios' Fusion: Sentient. This sci-fi real time strategy game was originally released in November 2011, and there was a decent level of excitement for its interoperability with the Xbox 360 game Fusion: Genesis. As it turns out, the Xbox game was received well, but the Windows Phone game was not. Since its release, Fusion: Sentient has accumulated a decent 3.5-star average rating from 187 user reviews (as of this writing).

Another slightly embarrassing fact about the game: it was never updated to support Windows Phone 7.5 fast app switching (multitasking). This is in spite of the game being a first-party title, and being released after Mango's general availability which is disappointing to say the least. User reviews also warn that the Windows Phone-to-Xbox transfer process isn't the most reliable and that the game itself has a few nasty bugs to work around.

However if you're enamored by the promise of an affordable strategy game that can earn you some cheevos, Fusion: Sentient has dropped from $2.99 to $1.99 for the rest of the week. The standard free trial is also available. Click on the tile or Web Marketplace link below to get the game; or scan the QR code to the right by using Bing Vision on your Windows Phone.

Fusion: Sentient by Microsoft Studios Version: 1.0 Price: $1.99 (Sale) / $2.99 (Regular) Trial: Yes Marketplace Link

Via: WPCentral