THQ delays much of early '08 slate

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Oct 22, 2007 2:16 pm PT

Destroy All Humans!: Path of the Furon, Frontlines for PS3, and deBlob pushed back beyond March of 2008 as publisher lowers forecasts due to poor Stuntman and Juiced sales.

Amid increasing analyst speculation that the company would miss its financial forecast, THQ today revised its projections for its fiscal year 2008 (which ends March 31, 2008). The revisions came as a result of underperforming sales of Stuntman: Ignition and Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights, combined with newly announced delays for much of its early 2008 product lineup.

Originally planned for release by the end of March, Destroy All Humans!: Path of the Furon for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 has been bumped sometime into the publisher's fiscal 2009 (April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009). The Wii and DS game de Blob has also been moved back to fiscal 2009, along with the PS3 edition of Kaos Studios' Frontlines: Fuel of War. The Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game were not included in the delay and have been previously announced as launching in January 2008.

"We are disappointed that our latest editions of Juiced and Stuntman did not perform to expectations," THQ CEO and president Brian Farrell explained in a statement. "Because of THQ's commitment to delivering quality products, we have moved the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Destroy All Humans!, and the PS3 version of Frontlines into fiscal 2009. We believe the additional time will enable us to create the best products for our customers."

Previously, THQ expected to rake in full-year revenue between $1.12 billion and $1.15 billion, with $240 million in sales for the quarter ended September 30. Given the poor sales and delays, the company revised those estimates to $1.06 billion for the full year and $229 million for the recently concluded quarter.

The revised projections apparently came as little surprise to investors, as THQ shares were up slightly in after hours trading. Indeed, the revision comes right after several major analysts warned the publisher would be lowering its guidance. However, many of those same analysts still recommend the stock.

"Despite the lower estimates, we remain confident about the company's long-term prospects," said Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter in a statement sent out at the start of the weekend. "THQ has a strong lineup of games next year, and we believe that the company has the potential to grow in line with the industry in fiscal '09, after losing some market share in fiscal '08."

Pachter still rates THQ as a "strong buy."

70 Comments

  • psp8976

    Posted Mar 3, 2008 5:16 pm PT

    is it comeing out for the ds

  • playstation_wii

    Posted Oct 28, 2007 1:26 pm PT

    What happened to the avalanche?

  • cheesemonkey199

    Posted Oct 24, 2007 5:24 am PT

    damn i was hoping path of the furon at the end of march when they said it would be released, but now... oh well, so long as they make it good i dont really care

  • EternalYoshi

    Posted Oct 24, 2007 4:45 am PT

    @bens-so-cool: No, the PS3 isn't the reason. Rockstar is since they have no experience making PS3 games. Also, they are having a hard time squeezing the game on to the 360 since the 360's discs can't hold as much as the PS3's blu-ray discs.
    Anyway, THQ should take their time.

  • jc_tkml

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 5:32 pm PT

    hopefully that awesome looking UFC doesn't get delayed

  • bens_so_cool

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 1:28 pm PT

    PS3's the whole reason for GTA's delay, us xbox people would probably already have it by now.

  • bernieberry

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 1:27 pm PT

    That's OK maybe they will finally come out with a game worth playing if they take their time.

  • Homerj

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 12:44 pm PT

    PS3 development shafts another dev. At least they have learned the lessons of others and are selectively pushing back only the PS3 versions where ever possible.

  • jmartinez1983

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 12:34 pm PT

    Did they really expect Stuntman and Juiced 2 to sell that much? I mean realistically? Decent games sure, but not the great kind of games that are going to light up the sales charts.

  • welshykyle

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 12:32 pm PT

    that's sad news for me, i really can't wait for Destroy All Humans! 3. I love that series, but what I don't like is that they give such vague release dates...sometime between April 1 '08 - March 31 '09? I understand that they don't know exactly how long the game will take to finish, but do they really need to give themselves such a long space of time?

  • matt_dangelo

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 11:24 am PT

    thre in trouble..but htey should invedst more money in Relic studios..they do great owkr..look at warhammer and company of hereos...give them more money and/or bring CoH to the consoles....

  • munsoned

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 10:45 am PT

    stuntman was a pretty fun game. i didnt like the juiced demo. so i didnt even bother to rent it..

    *note to thq* u gotta take ur games graphics up a level from now on b/c stuntmans graphics looked pretty last gen.so they didnt help u when my friends seen it in action on my ps3 if u catch my drift....

  • MasterAsh42

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 10:41 am PT

    Considering how some. . .less than stellar titles move in our time, I can easily see how THQ misstepped.

    Still, doesn't affect me much. I was only looking forward to de Blob. I'd like to give the Destroy All Humans series a try, but I'm currently catching up with other games. . .and the recent release of Zack and Wiki may delay even that further.

  • sirvampalot

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 9:49 am PT

    Why would you bye juiced whan you've got PGR4,Sega rally.They picked the wrong month to release it.

  • thekey

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 9:36 am PT

    They should have cancelled Juiced. Man that game sucks!.

  • PS360Fanboy

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 1:48 am PT

    stuntman 2 was ok, juiced sucked, now lets move on to some top games like Mass effect and assassins creed in nov.....

  • bennae66

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 1:39 am PT

    stuntman? meh.
    juiced? pah!

    my god these are killer apps? HAHAHAH

    now back to halo 3 and onto mass effect....

  • Shinedown220

    Posted Oct 22, 2007 8:57 pm PT

    Stuntman and Juiced 2 should not have been released when they were anyway. They should have been released in the summer when there was much less to play.

  • the-very-best

    Posted Oct 22, 2007 8:52 pm PT

    Make good games, get good profits.

  • xcollector

    Posted Oct 22, 2007 8:32 pm PT

    If they seriously thought Stuntman and Juiced sales would be phenomenal then they shouldn't be making games.

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