Analyst believes Darksiders II is struggling to break even

Darksiders II has fallen short of THQ’s sales estimates, analyst Michael Pachter has stated.

The game sold around 250,000 units in its debut month in the US but has since struggled. Pachter believes that while total sales are probably in excess of 1m units, the game has fallen short of the 2m sales milestone needed for the project to break even.

The analyst then speculates that its commercial failure could have wider repercussions on THQ’s current turnaround strategy that has it focusing on fewer, higher quality releases.

"Darksiders II’s performance and a history of game delays and cancellations leaves us sceptical that THQ can successfully execute its turnaround strategy, which centres on a streamlined release slate," Pachter told investors.

"If any of THQ’s Q4 2013 releases are late, liquidity is likely to be tight by next summer unless either Homefront 2 or the Patrice Dsilets game are released by then."