Majesco Shows Smaller Loss, Targets Wii

Representatives from North American publisher Majesco have revealed details of the company’s third quarter financial results ending July 31st, showing a smaller overall loss, but revealing two Wii titles to be published, as it praised cheaper Wii development costs. For the third quarter the company reported net revenues of $12.6 million, up from $4.6 million for the same period in 2005, partly due to sales of its title Jaws: Unleashed. For the nine months of the current financial year, though, overall net revenues are still down at $48.3 million versus $55.1 million. Despite these improvements the company still generated a net loss in the third quarter, although of only $724,000, compared to a net loss of $37.5 million in 2005. For the nine month period the net loss was $2.5 million, compared to a net loss of $37.8 million for the first nine months of last year. Included in the operating loss for the nine month period is the benefit of gains of $4.5 million from "negotiated reductions in royalties and payables", as the company (Psychonauts, Advent Rising) has largely moved out of premium console game publishing, and $2.4 million of impairment charges related to projects which were canceled as a result of the company’s "shift in strategy away from the development of premium console games." Jesse Sutton, Majesco’s Interim Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are pleased with our third quarter performance and the progress we’ve made refocusing Majesco’s game publishing business. This quarter we achieved a substantial improvement in our results over the third quarter of 2005 due to a more conservative approach to game development, an improved cost structure and strong sales of Jaws Unleashed.” Sutton continued by saying, “We remain focused on our strategy to publish value products and lower-cost games for handheld systems and make products with mass market appeal. Looking forward, we believe that Nintendo’s new Wii console has excellent potential to capture the mass market gamer while remaining within our more conservative cost structure. As such, we are expanding our strategic focus to capitalize on the potential of this system, and currently have two Wii games in development." Going forward, key Majesco titles include Bust-A-Move Revolution for the Nintendo Wii, licensed from Taito, MechAssault: Phantom War and Nacho Libre for Nintendo DS, and Cake Mania for the DS - with no PSP titles in officially announced development. It's also believed that the second Majesco title for Nintendo Wii will be Cooking Mama, which the company is publishing on Nintendo DS in the near future.