Despite its surprise success last year on Nintendo's Wii, THQ's uDraw line line of video game tablet controllers failed to make a splash on the Xbox 360 and PS3, causing the company to deflate its guidance.
In all the company said it will drop its previous third quarter (October through December) guidance approximately 25 percent below the $510 to $550 million it reported last month, placing it somewhere in the $383 to $413 million range.
"Despite uDraw's strong success on the Wii in fiscal 2011 and market research indicating strong demand for uDraw on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, initial sales of our uDraw tablet and software on these high-definition platforms have been weaker than expected," said THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell in a statement.
According to Farrell, both WWE 12 and Saints Row: The Third are still expected to perform either at or better than the company's internal estimates.
The initial projection, which it attributed to the combined success of sandbox adventure Sants Row: The Third and the uDraw series, would have been the company's highest-grossing Q3 in history. If this revised guidance pans out, that will no longer be true: the company's third fiscal quarter for 2008 saw revenues of $509.6 million driven by the success of WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 and the Cars franchise.
The Wii version of uDraw was something of a surprise hit for the company. Between its November 14, 2010 release and May of this year it had shipped 1.7 million units worldwide, well ahead of the company's initial expectations of 1 million during the period.
THQ will announce its third quarter 2012 fiscal results in February of 2012, and will update its fourth quarter and full year guidance at that time.
also known as channel stuffing, which is a bit of a no no when you are public. unless under their accounting rules they do not recognize revenue unless the item is sold (since the reseller can return it). somehow not holding my breath.
In order for u draw to make it big both ms and sony need to find worthwhile apps to make better use of them rather then recycled wii HD versions,xbox and playstation are known for halo,gears,killzone and god of war not udraw.
Show me how udraw can augment these games and you might sell some tablets.
Kinect use in halo ce is more impressive than udraw @ this point.
THQ wanted to share the magic they had on the Wii with other systems. Unfortunately the gamers on those systems don't care much for that kind of stuff.
Ya Red Faction is a classic case of how they fail. RF Guerilla had high metacritic and decent sales (not stellar, but decent). From what I heard, the Volition team wanted to build on that success. But no, management forced them to make a linear-style COD clone that is totally unsuited to the EF destruction hook. Then when Guerilla predictably tanked they blamed "lack of interest in the franchise". As if!
THQ has a history of poor senior management hires!! That aside, is there anyone who is really that surprised by the "success" of uDraw?!?!? Get real!!!!
THQ naysaying always makes me nervous about VIGIL and Darksiders and lack of advertising such a gem. And all the revenue they need in Austin fer more horsemen please.
Show me how udraw can augment these games and you might sell some tablets.
Kinect use in halo ce is more impressive than udraw @ this point.
Here's the tale of the tape since Danny Bilson took over as EVP and started adding his own special brand of magic to the projects.
Metacritic scores:
Homefront – 70
Red Faction: Armageddon – 71
Space Marine – 77
THQ’s stock price when Danny Bilson was hired – $18-19.00
THQ’s stock price now – 1 to 3 - about a 92% drop
Stock price today - http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=THQI ($1.04)
Wake. Up. People. Until those in charge are forced to leave - nothing will change there. Ever.
Everything is great though. Rest assured. Next quarter will be their "biggest ever".