THQ reports disappointing Q1, abandons Red Faction

Just a year ago Red Faction was being touted as THQ’s golden child. It had a TV series on SyFy, it had a brand new game that hoped to build on the success of the impressive Red Faction: Guerrilla.

But how quickly things change.

Last night THQ reported a disappointing quarter ending June 30th, with losses increasing from $30.1m last year to $38.45m. Revenues were up 30 per cent, however, at $195.2m.

Low sales of licensed kids titles and recent release Red Faction: Armageddon were blamed. And such was the poor performance of the latter title that THQ later announced the surprise news that it was dropping the IP all together.

CEO Brain Farrell told investors that the publisher "does not intend to carry forward with that franchise in any meaningful way”.

"We are disappointed in our first quarter financial performance," he added. Despite a light first half, we are looking forward to a strong and profitable second half, including what we expect to be the biggest third quarter, both in revenue and earnings per share, in our company’s history, with proven franchisesSaints Row,WWEand the uDraw GameTablet, all launching in November.”