Majesco Sees Strong Fourth Quarter Sales, Large Losses Cut

Majesco has released its fourth quarter report, showing sales rising to $21.5 million, up from $4.6 million the year prior, and drastically reduced losses thanks to relatively strong sales of Cooking Mama and Jaws Unleashed. Apart from the sales rise, Majesco said its net loss for the 2006 quarter was $2.9 million, compared to 2005's same period loss of $34.2 million. Looking at Majesco's overall fiscal year, sales were up 12 percent to $66.7 million, compared to the prior year's $59.7 million, and a yearly net loss of $5.4 million down from the 2005 loss of $72.0 million. Majesco attributed its recent successes to the strong sales of the Nintendo DS mini-game collection Cooking Mama, as well as continued sales of its PS2 and Xbox title Jaws Unleashed. Jaws in particular, the company noted, has reached nearly 600,000 unit sales worldwide since its release in May of 2006. Majesco also highlights the successes of its recent digital distribution agreements with both Macrovision's Trymedia Network, as well as Valve's Steam, which published a number of Majesco titles this year, including Psychonauts, BloodRayne 1 & 2 and Advent Rising. Looking forward to 2007, Majesco says its core line-up will be focusing on the Nintendo DS, including mass market targeted licensed and original IP, including New York Times Crosswords, Nancy Drew, and casual hit Cake Mania. It also intends to focus on Nintendo's Wii console for its mainstream gaming audience, with three titles currently in development, including a console port of Cooking Mama and Taito's Bust-A-Move Bash. In general, CEO Jesse Sutton says the company is cautiously optimistic about the coming year, and intends to stay true to its "new strategy of publishing affordable, mass market games with relatively short development cycles and low development costs." He added, "In addition, we believe there are synergies with our current products and other digital entertainment mediums such as cell phones and portable media players, and we intend to leverage our experience to enter into those product categories," though no further details on any specific products were mentioned.