THQ Reports Yearly Profit Increase, Greater Loss In Q1

Game publisher THQ has announced the results for its fiscal year ended March 31st, 2005, showing net sales climbing 18% to a record $756.7 million, from $640.8 million a year ago. Fiscal 2005 net income increased from $35.8 million a year ago to $62.8 million this year. As for the fourth quarter, net sales increased 40% to $171.9 million from $123.1 million in the same period a year ago, and THQ particularly referenced the internally-developed MX vs. ATV Unleashed and The Punisher games as helping this increase, as well as continued robust sales of titles launched in the prior quarter. In other highlights, THQ Wireless revenues more than tripled to $25 million from $7 million a year ago, helped by sales of games based on the major sports leagues, Nickelodeon and MotoGP. THQ published six titles that shipped more than one million units in fiscal 2005: The Incredibles, with more than 4.5 million units, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, with more than 2.5 million units, WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw, with more than 2 million units, Finding Nemo, with more than 2 million units, and over 7 million life-to-date, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, with more than one million units and over 3 million life-to-date, and Full Spectrum Warrior, with more than one million units. However, the company expects net sales of approximately $135 to $140 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2006, and a net loss of 15 cents a share, significantly worse than analyst estimates of a 3 cents per share loss. THQ blamed this worse-than-expected loss on "stepped up marketing support for the late-quarter releases of new original properties Destroy All Humans! and Juiced, and continued investment in its wireless business." The company's shares were down minorly in after-hours trading, slipping 1.5 percent to $25.68.