THQ Sees Fiscal Year Loss, Plans 'Realigning' Of Costs

Publisher THQ has announced its latest financial results, showing yearly sales up slightly to $1.03 billion and losses up to $35.3 million, following $68.0 million in profits the year prior, as the company "realigns its cost structure" to return to profitability. The company's yearly sales were up from $1.026 billion the year prior. THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell admitted in a release, "In fiscal 2008, we did not achieve our revenue and profit targets and we are taking aggressive steps to ensure that we significantly improve execution in fiscal 2009 and beyond.” The comments come following a number of reported layoffs at studios including Rainbow and Sandblast. In its fourth quarter ended March 31st, the company again saw sales up from $172.1 million in 2007 to $187 million, exceeding company guidance, but losses of $34.5 million, following profits of $6.5 million the year prior. Sales were led, the company said, by Frontlines: Fuel of War, MX vs. ATV Untamed and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008. The latter two titles exceeded expectations, while Frontlines met its goals. However, THQ says the company saw "weaker-than-expected sell through" of catalog titles. For 2009, the company has said it expects sales in fiscal 2009 to reach between $1.175 and $1.2 billion, with first quarter sales to reach $115 and $125 million, and continued losses on what THQ calls "a light product release schedule" for the period. Farrell said in a statement that THQ had a three-fold approach to restoring profitability, including "a stronger slate of products," "initiatives to improve our product quality and competitiveness," and "realigning our cost structure to generate significant operating leverage in fiscal 2009." Farrell continued that THQ's "stronger fiscal 2009 product line-up is positioned to take advantage of the expanding demographic on the growing installed base of new gaming systems,” with games like Saints Row 2, Red Faction Guerrilla, de Blob, Darksiders, its WWE, Pixar, and Nickelodeon licenses, and its newly announced partnership with DreamWorks.