Majesco 'Actively' Eying XBLA, WiiWare, Cooking Mama Reaches 2m Sold

Publisher Majesco has announced the results of its second quarter, showing sales down to $12.8 million in a quarter that saw no new releases in its Cooking Mama series -- which, the company says, has now sold over 2 million total units to date across Wii and DS. Majesco notes that its $14.6 million in quarterly sales in 2007 included the Wii releases Cooking Mama Cook-off and Bust a Move Bash, compared to the sole 2008 quarterly release Wild Earth. Losses for the quarter were $0.3 million, down from $1.3 million the year prior. For its first six months, Majesco has taken in sales of $31.4 million, up from $29.1 million the year prior, which it says is due to new game releases, particularly Cooking Mama 2 for the Nintendo DS, as well as catalog sales of its former Cooking Mama Wii and DS titles. Profits for the past six months have reached $2.4 million, compared to losses of $4.7 million the year prior, primarily due to settlements of lawsuits it took on in 2007. Majesco's full financial release has reconfirmed that it expects sales of between $53 and 58 million for fiscal 2008, the majority of which -- 59 percent -- to come from handheld titles, "virtually all" for the DS. Said CEO Jesse Sutton, "We continue to execute on our mass market, family-friendly strategy and build on our presence in one of the industry's fastest growing genres. Our second quarter results are in line with our expectations and reflect the impact of our release schedule and seasonality of our business." "For the first six months of 2008, our combined DS and Wii business, which is at the core of our mass market strategy, is up roughly 50% versus last year. We remain on pace to achieve modest gross margin gains in 2008 and continue to believe that we can achieve cash break even or better at an operating level with full fiscal year net revenue between $53 and $58 million," he concluded. [UPDATE: On its conference call with investors, Majesco operations VP Gui Karyo responded to analyst questions about the prospect of the company moving onto new platforms by saying they were "looking actively at XBLA and WiiWare." Karyo said there was "less evidence of an interesting argument to build games for the PS3 just yet," but said it was a space Majesco "continues to watch." At the same time, referencing its recently announced PC casual title Orchard, Karyo also noted that Majesco "does not intend to get back into the boxed PC business," and instead is talking with online distributors to "reach out to the demographic we've had success with" with its DS and Wii casual titles. Finally, asked if it similarly recently announced Fitness Ultimatum Wii Balance Board title might see some cross-promotion via TV series The Biggest Loser, considering its spokesperson Jillian Michael's regular appearances, Karyo noted that the game is "a Jillian Michael license, not a Biggest Losers license," and thus there would be "no material or direct tie-in." However, he noted, there was "great value" in the fact that she had her placement on the show and that the game will launch in the same window as the latest season of the series. "Jillian is very personally interested in and actively involved in" the game's development and promotion, he noted, and it was a "happy coincidence that she'll be promoting the latest season of Biggest Loser" when the title comes out."]