Lately, THQ have not exactly been having the best of times after seeing one of their promising main titles of the year, Red Faction: Armageddon, waver in the area of sales. In a conference call, Chief Executive Brian Farrell said that “Red Faction Armageddon did not meet our expectations.”
For a period of three months, up until June 30th, the company’s net loss widened to $38.45 million (56 cents a share) from the previous year’s losses of $30.1 million (44 cents a share).
THQ have admitted that they are facing a tough quarter ahead of them, after seeing their shares fall by more than 15 percent, and costs rising as they spend more on marketing.
The company slashed its’ earnings outlook to a range of a loss of 30 cents per share to a gain of 10 cents per share. THQ had previously forecast an EPS (earnings per share) range of 25 cents per share to 40 cents per share for the year. It’s safe to say that they did not meet their forecast, especially when Wall Street analysts were expecting an EPS of 33 cents on average for the year.
On that same conference call, THQ executives stressed that the company will soon be on the verge of entering a particularly lucrative phase of the year, and one of the best in the company’s history. Soon to be released are two games from THQ’s proven franchises, Saints Row and WWE, as well as the upcoming third person shooter Warhammer 40k: Space Marine.
It has been predicted that Saints Row could sell as many as 3 million to 4 million copies, however THQ better not hold their breaths for too long, because as aforementioned they were expecting Red Faction: Armageddon to do well!
Let us hope that things pick up for THQ, as it is never nice seeing a company struggling, especially when they have the potential to do so much better than they are currently.
JB.