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Cooking Mama heats up Majesco sales

Profits and sales up for the New Jersey-based company, and it's all down to Mama.

Majesco reported its fiscal first-quarter (to January 31) results today, with net revenue up to $18.7 million compared to $14.5 million in the same period last year. The company had the success of the Cooking Mama franchise to thank, with the company citing "strong performance" from the titles, including the latest Cooking Mama 2: Dinner With Friends for the DS.

Net income was also up, and in the black this time round at $2.7 million, compared to a net loss in the same period of 2007 of $900,000.

Console game sales comprised 22 percent of the quarter's total revenues, with the vast majority of those being for the Wii platform. Handheld platform sales made up 77 percent, virtually all of which was from the DS. The figures show the company is leaning even more heavily toward producing games for Nintendo platforms, as last year's breakdown showed 10 percent coming from consoles, and 63 percent from handhelds.

In the first fiscal quarter of 2008, 99 percent of the company's sales were domestic, and the remaining 1 percent were international. Last year, by comparison, saw 86 percent of revenue coming from domestic sales, and 14 percent from overseas. The company stated that the tiny percentage of overseas sales was due partly to the fact that several international releases have been put back to the second quarter.

Majesco also reported a higher gross profit margin of 40.2 percent, compared to last year's 31.1 percent. This is due to two factors, the company believes: the first, higher margins on Wii games, and the second being poor sales last year of Dance Dance Revolution games, which the company is no longer producing.

The company also laid down its slate for the coming year and beyond. Between February and April, Blokus Portable: Steambot Championship for the PlayStation Portable, and Eco-Creatures: Save the Forest, Pet Pals: Animal Doctor, Nanostray 2, and Toy Shop for the DS, and Wild Earth: African Safari for the Wii will be coming.

For the rest of the company's fiscal 2008--ending November 30--gamers can expect to see the following titles on store shelves: Cake Mania 2, Nancy Drew: The Mystery of the Clue Bender Society, and Babysitting Mania for the DS. For the Wii, Cooking Mama: World Kitchen, Blast Works: Build, Trade and Destroy, and Wonderworld Amusement Park.

After that, over the holiday period and the company's first quarter 2009, Our House on the Wii and DS will be coming, Cake Mania will reach the Wii, and Major Minor's Majestic Ranch will also be hitting the world, created by the PaRappa the Rapper team.

Majesco kept its 2008 outlook steady, reconfirming it is expecting full-year net revenue to be between $53 and $58 million. It also believes that international sales will rise again, and be between 10 and 20 percent of the total net revenue by the end of the financial period.

18 Comments

  • Generic_Dude

    Posted Mar 19, 2008 4:51 pm GMT

    Cooking Mama... so hot...

  • Beards_Mahoney

    Posted Mar 19, 2008 2:23 pm GMT

    These guys are just around the corner from me. Glad to hear things are getting better for them.

  • kavadias1981

    Posted Mar 19, 2008 1:16 am GMT

    There is no such thing as a hardcore games and casual games. There is only those who have fun playing some videogames and those who turn some of them into a job. It has nothing to do with type of game or console.

    Let me give you an example. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. Most people played it for fun and then sold it. Nice and simple. I played it religiously until I had an S-rank on every stage. I turned it into a job.

    However, on the same day I will have a bit of fun with Warioware. Do you see what I am getting at?

    Some people play FPS's through once and then sell/forget them. It was just a bit of fun. Just the same as granny playing Wii Sports. On the other hand, some people play FPS's to death and carry on with them online. Granny might be obsessed with getting all the gold medals.

    It is how each individual approaches a certain game but there is no such thing as a cut and dry hardcore game or gamer or vice versa.

  • MSG-Deathscythe

    Posted Mar 19, 2008 12:39 am GMT

    those who call themselves "hardcore" gamers are those who have too much insecurities that they can only play bloody fpses. they need those big guns to compensate for their shortcomings. if you know what i mean.

  • IHeartCloud

    Posted Mar 18, 2008 7:20 pm GMT

    hey, don't dis mama. She's cool. I enjoy a wide variety of games from CM to Mario and bioshock to Final Fantasy. I don't know why people are saying this is a sad day for hardcore gamers. To me, any game sale is a good one (ok, maybe not chicken shoot), but this variety of games is what is skyrocketing the industry. If you don't believe me, ask any of the numerous friends I've got hooked on guitar hero. And they are the furthest thing away from being gamers.

  • mhder

    Posted Mar 18, 2008 3:43 pm GMT

    what is the definition of hardcore? I've been playing games since I was 5. I have stacks of game and watch, and every console since. And lately I've been playing a lot of what is now labeled "casual or non games" and so I'm not a hardcore gamer? Do I have to play FPS or something to be called hardcore? Did this happen before when RPGs or other new game genres came into being? For me, it doesn't matter what genre you play, it's more about the amount of time you spend playing that might get someone labeled as hardcore. If I play cooking Mama 12 hours a day, every day of the year, I feel more hardcore than someone who plays Halo3 for an hour every week.

  • -Ronin-_basic

    Posted Mar 18, 2008 2:46 pm GMT

    People seem to think that the increase in casual gaming will somehow decrease the number of 'hardcore' games.

    It hasn't, and it won't.

    You know why it seems like there are so few hardcore games? Because they take 2 years or more to make. They keep getting delayed. They take a much greater attention to the finest details, because if those details aren't there, the hardcore fans will be up in arms.

    How long does it take to make something like Cooking Mama, as opposed to the newest Halo or Metal Gear Solid?

    And that is why there are seemingly more casual games than hardcore.

  • ivanfred

    Posted Mar 18, 2008 2:42 pm GMT

    CaptCheeseGuy : I know Majesco is doing well with its games now that it is targeting a more casual audience, but would it hurt them to put out another Bloodrayne or Psychonauts
    ===================================
    Yeah, I want a Bloodrayne game also. Some time ago, Majesco was strruggling and decided to concentrate on handhelds to save money. This may explain why we have not seen a sequel to Bloodrayne or Psychonauts for consoles. Majesco should release Bloodrayne for PSP. I did not play Psychonauts.

  • Dualmask

    Posted Mar 18, 2008 2:14 pm GMT

    Not all gamers like shooting things or beating people up...I personally have no interest in Cooking Mama, but I have a relative that keeps begging me to buy it for her (she's 14). I'm sure this sort of thing isn't isolated. It's just the way things go. Before games had to have stories, unlockables, multiple characters and fighting styles, games were more about doing simple tasks to score points... casual games, I guess, are a return to form for many gamers who abandoned the 16-button control layouts of today's games. It's not pretty, but hey, it's not like more serious games aren't making ANY money...be thankful that not all developers are catering to this flood of casual gaming success, and that you can still enjoy your Halo, Zelda, Metroid, CoD, God of War or Gears next to your kid sister or aunt playing Cooking Mama, Brain Age or Phoenix Wright.

  • re4leonkennedy

    Posted Mar 18, 2008 1:02 pm GMT

    I think Psychonauts is the only good game I've played from Majesco. Haven't played many, can only think of worms 4 which is ok and psychonauts which is great. Don't care that casual games sell well. I think its good for the video game industry and for the companies themselves. I personally would love to not work hard and make more money than when I did work hard. Ex Psychonauts: great game didn't sell well.

  • CaptCheeseGuy

    Posted Mar 18, 2008 12:55 pm GMT

    I know Majesco is doing well with its games now that it is targeting a more casual audience, but would it hurt them to put out another Bloodrayne or Psychonauts

  • klugenbeel

    Posted Mar 18, 2008 11:42 am GMT

    Its games like this that show, Kiddie Crap can be profitable, but man do the Hardcore gamers hate this stuff. Lets make cheap, cheesey games and sell them for full price = $$$. Sad indeed, but look on the bright side, A you don't have to buy it if you don't want it, and B there are more gamers because of the casual market now, and the casual market to add people playing the games the hardcore gamer play. More people to play with!

  • VenomRitual

    Posted Mar 18, 2008 11:41 am GMT

    i bought it expecting this great game but cookina mama, although new and original, was the most boring game i had ever played. tetris is funn then cooking mama. i thought i was a bit of a casual gamer but i prefer games where things go BOOM.

  • Storm_Marine

    Posted Mar 18, 2008 11:21 am GMT

    Behold the power of the casual gamer, able to keep shovelware companies like Majesco alive and thriving.

  • werc96

    Posted Mar 18, 2008 11:08 am GMT

    Wow....sad day for the hardcore gamers.

  • AceCometh

    Posted Mar 18, 2008 10:44 am GMT

    Casual gaming at it's best... or worst, depending on your point of view. As long as games like these continue to make money, more will come and games for the hard core player will start to diminish.

  • membernametaken

    Posted Mar 18, 2008 9:59 am GMT

    Before Cooking Mama, all I could do was boil water... now, i'm cooking boxes of Mac n' Cheese like never before!

    Thank you, Cooking Mama!

  • oli54321

    Posted Mar 18, 2008 9:43 am GMT

    The only good one here looks like Blast Works >_>

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cooking mama   ds   majesco   sales   wii

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