THQ Q2 lives up to lowered expectations

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Nov 1, 2007 10:54 pm GMT

Ratatouille serves up sales as Stuntman, Juiced 2 sputter to slow starts at retail.

Last month, THQ warned investors that it would be falling short of its projected revenue figures, due partly to disappointing sales of Stuntman: Ignition and Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights, and partly due to delays for anticipated upcoming games like Destroy All Humans!: Path of the Furon and Frontlines: Fuel of War. Today the company reported its earnings for the second quarter of its fiscal 2008 (the three months ended September 30), and the results reflected that diminished outlook.

For the full quarter, THQ reported revenues of $229.3 million, down from $240.2 million for the same period last year. Likewise, the three months yielded a net loss for the company of $7 million, whereas THQ's previous second quarter turned an $11.6 million net profit.

The publisher's best-selling title for the quarter was Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille (with more than 2 million shipped worldwide), followed by the underperforming Stuntman and Juiced titles (1 million shipped each). Last year, THQ's second quarter was fueled by the international releases for the Disney/Pixar's Cars and a pair of original intellectual properties: Saints Row for the Xbox 360 and the PC real-time strategy game Company of Heroes.

In a statement issued alongside the numbers, THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell expressed disappointment in the company's performance, but still expected the company to show full-year revenue growth for the 13th straight fiscal year. A holiday lineup featuring WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008 and Cars Mater-National will have to make up for THQ's sluggish first half, during which the company's revenue totaled $333.8 million, down from the previous year's $379 million first half. The company also recently released the action adventure Conan, inspired by the classic fantasy novels.

61 Comments

  • catu16alx

    Posted Nov 7, 2007 1:30 am GMT

    they'll be back up and running in no time

  • ballroomwest

    Posted Nov 5, 2007 9:23 am GMT

    Several points.......UnchainedPsYcO - for your information Ratatoiulle is PIXARS finest movie yet....better than Toy Story and Monsters Inc put together (must be watched in cinema don't wait for DVD)...as for the game I have no idea, didn't even realise there was one being made.

    2nd point. The reason Microsoft Windows is pretty much the only OS we can use is because of the incredible backlog and development of compatible software it IS NOT because no other company could make a new (and better) OS. The problem is, to make a completely new OS, would mean to start from scratch and it wouldn't be able to use current or past MS windows programs, except thru advanced emulation or something. But that would just get slow. Some far off day, Microsoft may just fall, or find a new rival. I was so looking forward to Vista..................and THEY STILL MANAGED TO SCREW UP THE FILE SEARCH, even worse that XPs file search and that was annoying~!!! Only Win 95/98 had a decent and FAST file search. Jeeeeez.

    Final point, Vash67..... Halo isn't a 'blockbuster' its just a hype machine that everyone gets sucked into. Halo is like a wanna be Half- Life for 7 year olds who can only press the fire button.....it doesnt even have secondary fire like Half-Life.....how sucky. Sure its pretty, but wheres the atmosphere, the story, the gameplay, the music, the characters??
    Halo 3 will be forgotten by Christmas.....it's already dropping in the charts, whereas the infinately popular San Andreas is back at no.2 and has almost NEVER been out of the charts since being released 3 years ago!! Yes, I'm a Halo hater and proud of it.

    I don't think games are overpriced....not for PC anyway....the console ones seem quite pricey.....but they have a lotta work go into 'em.

    GEARS OF WAR this FRIDAY WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!

    Ooooops my post is getting long and irrelevent....
    laters mis amigos de juegos!

  • SP33doh

    Posted Nov 4, 2007 10:30 pm GMT

    STALKER's a similar story to supreme commander, too.

  • Devvy01

    Posted Nov 4, 2007 8:10 pm GMT

    there's seems to be too much anticipation on games these days, no wonder they're back peddling.

  • Lafuigi

    Posted Nov 4, 2007 8:00 pm GMT

    I always thought THQ was a "small time" company with a few good franchises but the rest seems like movie liscened games to me.

  • sfanning

    Posted Nov 4, 2007 7:38 pm GMT

    THQ distributes Supreme Commander. I love it, but it is driven by a small market. THQ needs to market their games better. No one even knows that there is a sequal coming. Come on THQ, you got to turn it up!!!

  • wiifan001

    Posted Nov 4, 2007 7:07 pm GMT

    ZZZ......

  • rokkuman09

    Posted Nov 4, 2007 6:07 pm GMT

    Of course they aren't doing well, they haven't made published any good games in a long while now! If your games are actually good people will want to buy them.

  • DON_DU

    Posted Nov 4, 2007 5:32 pm GMT

    only thing they make that is good is smackdown and saints row that game almost made mw get a xbox 360 ALMOST

  • truenextgen

    Posted Nov 4, 2007 5:17 pm GMT

    Well a high sweet looking frame rate on the PS3s MX vs ATV untamed could help. But we wont see those for another half a year"on a system thats gonna take second in the systems race for sure." And when they realize thats their best shot for profit in full spectrum, along with the Wii and mobiles. Which MX does do "a full spectrum of systems." But it needs to pull quality in all those areas also. You feed a hungry tiger they will eat forever. Why you think Halo is such a Hit in the line of many games as good or batter. It was a cracker when their was nothing to eat at the time.

  • Vash67

    Posted Nov 4, 2007 2:21 pm GMT

    They just released Juiced and Stuntman at the wrong time. Right now, they had to deal with blockbusters like Halo 3, Orange Box, Metriod Prime 3, Folklore, Heavenly Sword, and looming games like Super Mario Galaxy. It just isn't the time for average or above average racing games. Though I may help out numbers and pick up Stuntman 2 soon. The first was awesome! here's hoping for equal awesmeness.

  • PcGamer2020

    Posted Nov 4, 2007 12:17 pm GMT

    THQ means "Toy HeadQuarters" Not exactly a teen friendly title.

  • donkeybits

    Posted Nov 4, 2007 11:15 am GMT

    @wow100

    actually they don't buy the rights for the songs because that would cost millions. they ask the songwriter if they can use a song on the game, or due to the popularity of the game you even get band management asking if a song can be featured as good publicity for the band.

    this is where songwriting royalties take place.

    You don't think every band which has ever covered a song, has to buy out the rights to this song in order to cover it do you? The songwriter always earns more money than the performer which is why a lot of songwriters let their songs be covered.

  • stevo-millz

    Posted Nov 4, 2007 5:18 am GMT

    yeah but diddnt thq make "smackdown vs raw 08" that has only just come out later than last years release in september. so maybe this will give them a boost.

  • ctg867

    Posted Nov 3, 2007 11:50 pm GMT

    Stuntman and Juiced 2 are okay games, but really not all that good. Destory All Humans looks promising, but it isn't a huge game. Couldn't care less about Ratatouille, WWE, or Cars. Though I am looking forward to Conan and Saints Row 2, and from waht I heave Company of Heroes is a great game. So they are slipping, but they still have some ace titles in there.

  • kikiitani

    Posted Nov 3, 2007 11:46 pm GMT

    i bought conan and trust me it aint goood.the only thing thq makes good is wwe smackdown.

  • gigabrowser12

    Posted Nov 3, 2007 11:17 am GMT

    Company of heroes?
    Warhammer 40k?
    That's all I care about and both are made by relic, ( owned by thq )

  • dQuarters

    Posted Nov 3, 2007 3:00 am GMT

    I'd feel a little bad for small children if THQ went down, but otherwise, I'd be ecstatic! Step-up for the industry, really. Let Disney and Nickelodeon make their own damn games (the cheap bastards)!

  • MasterChief725

    Posted Nov 2, 2007 7:40 pm GMT

    @IKKF

    uh...microsoft didnt crush FASA...they owned FASA, and FASA went bankrupt, and most of the members of the company went to Microsoft Game Studios, so dont worry. Secondly, I doubt THQ considers Microsoft an enemy, Company of Heroes, and the expansion, are developed exclusively for Games for Windows on PC. Hopefully Cars Mater-National and Conan will pull up THQ, they have some pretty cool games coming.

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