THQ Sales Up, Profits Fall In Holiday Quarter

THQ has announced its third quarter results, showing holiday sales up to $509.6 million driven by WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, Cars: Meter-National and MX vs. ATV Untamed and profits sharply down to $15.5 million. The publisher's sales were up from $475.7 million the year prior, and profits down from $62.1 million. THQ says the quarter includes $27 million in non-cash charges due to the recent cancellations of its Juiced and Stuntman franchises. For the first three quarters, the company has seen sales down slightly from $854.8 million to $843.4 million, and losses of $806,000 as compared to profits of $61.5 million the year prior. THQ notes that during the quarter it shipped more than 5 million units of WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, drove sales of over $1 billion on its Nickelodeon franchises. Over the past nine months, the company has also increased its international sales to 50 percent of its total sales, up from 40 percent the year prior, grown its DS sales 94 percent, primarily from Drawn To Life, and, as previously reported, acquired Big Huge Games. Finally, THQ says it expects sales of $200 million for its fourth quarter, bringing the full fiscal year ending March 31st total to $1.04 billion. Said president and CEO Brian Farrell, “During the holiday quarter, we were pleased with the record performance of WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 and the successful launch of our internally developed game MX vs. ATV Untamed." He concluded, “We continue to strengthen our product development capabilities to support our long-term strategy of creating new owned intellectual properties. We look forward to launching Frontlines: Fuel of War at the end of this month. In fiscal 2009, we are well positioned for increased sales and profitability with strong owned intellectual properties such as Red Faction and Saints Row and well-known licensed franchises including WWE, UFC, Disney/Pixar and Nickelodeon.”