THQ posts Q4 loss

May 5, 2006 11:59AM PDT

Publisher posts lower quarterly sales; full year sees higher revenues but diminished profits; stock rises.

Last month, THQ revised its expectations for its fourth fiscal quarter, telling investors to expect higher revenues and a net loss when the publisher issued its report for the three months ended March 31. The company reported its final figures for the quarter today, and the revenues weren't quite as large as expected, but neither were the losses.

THQ had projected $150 in revenues and a net loss of $0.13 a share, but wound up reporting revenues of $148 million and a loss of $0.12 a share, or nearly $8 million. Both of those numbers are worse than the company's performance for the same period of time in 2005, when it racked up $171 million in sales and more than $10 million in profit. The publisher cited The Outfit for the Xbox 360 and WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006 as a pair of its best sellers for the quarter.

For the full fiscal year, the publisher performed a little better. Revenues were up to $807 million from the previous year's $757 million. Despite the fourth-quarter loss, THQ pulled in a profit for the year, posting a $34 million gain. The publisher is still feeling the effects of the industrywide slump, however, as evidenced by the sharp drop-off from its previous year's profit of $63 million.

Investors were apparently pleased with the figures, however. As of press time, THQ stock was trading up more than 4 percent to $25.45 a share. Electronic Arts and Activision also released their quarterly earnings reports this week, with the former's stock taking a drubbing and the latter's shares trading up sharply after Wedbush Morgan Securities upgraded the company to a "strong buy" from a "buy."

By Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor

Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.

Follow Follow @BrendanSinclair

24 comments

Sort: Newest | Oldest

s0ild_snake

lagend solid snake

tbone187

I think the best games they had was smackdown just bring it and here shut ur mouth..cause they both had a good story line but after that they got real stupid....the punisher was ok but i didnt buy it....

faridmon

@Jd1680a "this is will probably turn around once titan quest is released." Titen Quest is not that great, maybe an A title, do not high you expectation, i leran my lesson after waitinfor the outfit for almost a year. THQ sucks, and i don't like wrestling.

Baahhhh

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, and its expansion are stupendous RTSs...perhaps the exceptions to the facade of deplorable games by THQ.

Dinghy_Dog

make better games, your stocks will go up

sabru8

bummer

jiang5chen15

I thought Warhammer 40,000 is good ..........

Kravyn81

Awww...only $148 million? Poor babies.

Jd1680a

this is will probably turn around once titan quest is released.

Humorguy_basic

The downturn will be worse than anybody thinks because all the publishers think it's just about PS3 being delayed that is causing it. They say if you don't know history you repeat it. Well. When the PS One was getting close to being replaced by the PS2 was there any turn down? No there wasn't. There was an increase because over the lifetime of a console the programmers learn the machine better and so the best titles came out toward the end of the PS One's life. Because of the reliance on "engines" this time it was different. At the end of the PS2 life we are seeing blander games, as we are on X-Box and PC. It has already started happening with the X-Box 360, and that's just out! It is the blandness and sameness of the games that is killing the market. Not the delay in the PS3. Until publishers recognise this, the market will continue to decline.

eggmcfegan

Wheres Red Faction 3?

blackIceJoe

WWE games they need to stop making there good but need to think out side of the box for a game. I just hope they can make some good games some day soon.

wwf20112

smackdown vs raw 2006 is the only GREAT game they made.

i_love_my_ds

The outfit sold? wtf...... well their other games arent much better either :D

natiko

Bad games don't help you get money.

NightRain

Good thing for them they still have a contract with the WWE. Otherwise they woudn't have any money. Besides the wrestling games, what good game did they made in the last months? ... There you go again.

phinsfan

THQ sucks. Smackdown sucks as well.

peeweeshift

nooo

NeoJedi

Agreed with zzzxx, great game.

zzzxx

Smackdown vs. Raw 2006 was awesome, and I'm sure that carried them.

ghostadv

who would buy the outfit? stupid people, that's who. and there's a lot.

muertebringer

the outfit sold?

AYANE69

i agree their games are horrible for the most part

Schillinger

Perhaps if they started making good games they could reverse this. And yay first!

Conversation powered by Livefyre

Related Companies

Hot Stories

Newsmakers

Xbox One has preowned fee - Report

Microsoft confirms all discs must be installed to HDD to play; secondhand owners required to pay an unspecified fee. Full Story
- Posted May 21, 2013 11:44 am PT
Xbox One will launch this year

Microsoft formally announces Xbox 360 successor during media event; will support live TV and Skype; features 500GB hard drive, 8GB RAM, Blu-ray drive; 64-bit architecture. Full Story
- Posted May 21, 2013 10:09 am PT