THQ elated by tremendous turnaround

THQ says it has bounced back following financial troubles, and is working to ensure it carries this momentum over the next two years.

The publisher’s senior vice president of European publishing Rory Donnelly told MCV the business is well on its way to achieving the goals it set out for fiscal 2010, and expects nothing but good news in the near future.

We have achieved a tremendous turnaround this year and we feel we are well positioned to increase our revenues, profitability and cash generation as we go forward,” he said.

We have a strong product line-up scheduled for release in fiscal 2011 and we are positioned for accelerated growth in fiscal 2012.”

The publisher’s biggest triumph of last year, UFC 2009 Undisputed, has sold more than 3.5m units worldwide, setting up this May’s forthcoming sequel for similar success.

THQ has also seen high sales from January’s release of Darksiders, which has already sold 1.2m units, and its latest big launch Metro 2033 has been met with critical acclaim and respectable sales.

These accomplishments are a far cry from THQ’s situation two years ago, when it suffered a string of quarterly losses, canned underperforming IPs such as Juiced and Stuntman, and cut back on its UK and European operations.

Our plan is to continue the strategy which we have successfully adopted over the past 12 months,”
said Donnelly.

We will develop fewer, bigger core games and defend our position as leader in the fighting category. We will also rationalise our strong kids portfolio as well as aggressively address both the mass market and new emerging casual gamer audiences.”