Playlogic Lowers Financial Outlook As Economy Bites

Dutch publisher Playlogic has announced that it its lowering its full year financial outlook, with the worldwide economic crisis causing the firm to predict a net loss. The company now expects net losses of between $9.0 and $10.0 million (a loss per share of between $0.21 and $0.23). As well as the global economic climate, a onetime impairment on capitalized software of between $4.0 and $5.0 million is behind the new predictions. The delay of key titles from the second half of 2008 to the first half of 2009 has also not helped. Although traditionally known as a PC publisher, the company’s games include 12 titles and 28 SKUs in 2009, including Fairytale Fights (PS3, Xbox 360 and PC), movie tie-in They Came from Upstairs (Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and PC) and Infernal (Xbox 360). Playlogic is predicting a return to profitability in the 2009 fiscal year, with executive vice president R. Smit admitting that: “The second half of 2008 has been challenging.” “The postponement of several SKUs from end of last year to this year directly impacted our revenues. The result is that this shift has strengthened the lineup for 2009 even further and, together with the large impairment the company is taking, we view both events to be positive for our 2009 financial year results,” he added.