Earlier this year, Marvel parted ways with Electronic Arts regarding the Marvel fighting game franchise. Today, the comic company has just struck a deal with THQ to bring video games based on Marvel's Super Hero Squad. Read more on this in the full article.

What do you when you've gone through some tough times? Simple: you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move on. That seems to be what THQ is doing, following what it has described as "a very tough year." Thing is, the adjustments appear to involve job cuts as well as new plans. More adjustments occur in the full article after the jump.

A lot of talk has been going around regarding the currently pending Activision-Vivendi deal and EA's US$ 2 billion offer for Take-Two Interactive. While it may seem that mergers and acquisitions are the current trend, THQ's Chief Executive Brian Farrell feels that it isn't a necessity for company growth. To find out more, head on over to the full article.

THQ just released details regarding its profits for the third quarter of fiscal year 2008.

Aside from money matters, however, the company's CEO also hinted at when they'll be releasing the next installments of their Saints Row and Red Faction franchises. Details await in the full article.

THQ may have gone through some rough times lately, but it's not out of the fight yet. In fact  THQ president Brian Farrell announced that THQ's DS platformer Drawn to Life will eventually be making its way to the Nintendo Wii. Farrell also commented on other THQ franchises, such as the Stuntman and Juiced series. Read what he had to say after the jump.

Reacting to the company's revenue forecasts being lowered for the fiscal year, THQ CEO Brian Farrell has announced that the studio will be taking steps to address the situation. THQ's estimates for their fiscal year was recently lowered due to the lack of performance of their games.

Farrell explains that the company will be taking steps to ensure that the under-performance of Stuntman: Ignition (PS2, PS3, 360) and Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360, PC, DS) won't be repeated, saying that the incident is "not acceptable."

Farrell also goes on to explain the status of some of their games. The Xbox 360 and PC versions of Frontlines: Fuel of War are expected to ship on time, but the PlayStation 3 version will be delayed due to problems with the Unreal Engine. As for their game de Blob, Farrell explains that the delay was to give the game the "final level of polish" to make it "look more like a Nintendo-level Wii product."

Farrell also commented on the status of Saints Row 2 (PS3, Xbox 360), explaining that the departure of some of their lead design members (who formed the Blazing Lizard studio) will not affect the game. He states that "we haven't lost any key development talent. We have a tremendous studio there with a lot of talent."

Before the fiscal year 2006 wrapped up, analysts had already predicted that game publisher THQ would experience dramatic growth in fiscal 2007 with a strong crop of upcoming video games for all major gaming platforms. Don't look now, however, because the analysis on THQ's future may have been a wee bit premature.

Figures from the latest THQ press release entailing details of its Q2 2007 performance ending September 30, 2007 reveal that THQ has performed significantly below expectations. Pointed out as reasons were release delays and lukewarm consumer response to the games which made the launch cut.

THQ pointed at Stuntman Ignition (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PS3, Sony PS2) and Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (PC, Sony PS3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS) as the titles that did not do as well in the market as the company would have wanted to. Also pointed at is the delay of games Destroy All Humans! and Frontlines (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PS3) to fiscal 2009.

"We are disappointed that our latest editions of Juiced and Stuntman did not perform to expectations," said Brian Farrell, president and CEO of THQ. He stated further:

Because of THQ's commitment to delivering quality products, we have moved the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Destroy All Humans!, and the PS3 version of Frontlines into fiscal 2009. We believe the additional time will enable us to create the best products for our customers.

"We are looking forward to this holiday season, with our proven line up, led by WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 on six platforms," adds Farrell. "Importantly, we expect fiscal 2009 to be a very strong year, as we benefit from a solid product slate, including Disney/Pixar's Wall-E, Red Faction 3, Saints Row 2 and our first games based on the UFC."

THQ raked in an estimated US$ 229 million during Q2 2007, which resulted in a US$ 0.11 loss per share. The holidays, however, are expected to breathe in more monetary life as some US$ 490 million are expected by THQ to flow in.

 

Game publishing giant THQ follows suit after the flurry of financial reports from several other publishers and gaming companies have announced their financial performance standings for the fiscal year (FY) 2006-2007. According to a fearless press release by THQ, they have achieved record net sales and net income for FY 2007, ending March 31, 2007.

For twelve years on end, the "creative hub" publishing giant has kept up a steady revenue growth with a record total of US$ 1.027 billion, up 27% from the US$ 806.6 million recorded in FY 2006. Thanks to titles such as Supreme Commander, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2007, THQ's net income reached US$ 68 million, doubling last year's profits of US$ 32.1 million.

"During a challenging hardware transition, THQ significantly outperformed the market in our major territories," said THQ's president and CEO Brian Farrell. According to him, the company's success for FY 2007 was greatly attributed to multi-million unit sellers Cars and WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2007, including the launching of new IP Saints Row. Farrell concluded the announcement, (unashamedly and fearlessly) coupled with the company's relevant financial statements, with:

The industry is entering an exciting growth period as the new hardware reaches critical mass. In fiscal 2008, we plan to release an increasing number of titles for the growing base of new hardware, including owned original properties Frontlines: Fuel of War, Juiced: Hot Import Nights and Stuntman: Ignition.

With three 30-million unit licensed franchises and a growing portfolio of internally developed original franchises, we are well positioned to expand our leadership position in the video game industry.

To tell you the truth, almost every title now is for various platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 (PS3), Wii, PC, and even the handhelds. Is this a good thing? Well, some may argue that it is actually excellent to give all gamers using different systems the same choices, but THQ CEO Brian Farrell doesn't think so.

According to Farrell, they are predicting that the video game industry will further be segmented within the next five years and that is why THQ is changing its strategy. The official added that the 360 and the PS3 are powerful machines so they will be making games for those systems for the "core gamers."

The Wii, on the other hand, will be used to exploit the licenses from Pixar, Nickelodeon, and WWE. He even admitted that THQ is actually more aggressive on pursuing Wii titles because they see it as the biggest market opportunity. Brian Farrell explained,

In the past a lot of publishers - including us - would say, "Okay, let's make a game and get it across every system." That's not our strategy going forward; there are going to be different gamers for the different systems. So our strategy is different types of content, segmented on who the users of the systems are.

Despite thee differences, THQ believes that the triumvirate (Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo) is on equal grounds in terms of market share. This is going to be an excellent time for publishers, added Farrell. He added that it is true that Xbox 360 has the early lead with core gamers but the PS3 is catching up quickly. Wii, on the other hand, is really tremendous when it comes to SKUs published. Farrell then commented,

As we look out and re-forecast, it looks like a three-way split. I don't mean to be politically correct here, but that's not a bad way to be thinking about it. Something could change tomorrow, but it's going to be a really interesting race. I can't remember when three platforms co-existed like this.

'Tis the season when companies are required to report how they did last year, and then tell everyone about what they plan to do next year. Everyone's doing it, and because of this, 'tis also the season when we finally get to hear more about things that we can look forward to.

In THQ's case, the company's president, Brian Farrell, announced their plan to spread the wrestling love all around in the coming fiscal year:

In addition to our lineup of owned intellectual properties, we also intend to build on our licensed franchises next year. We plan to once again deliver a great lineup of WWE, Pixar, and Nickelodeon titles. For WWE, we plan to add a PS3, Wii, and DS SKU to the Xbox 360, PS2, and PSP platforms.

With that said and done, one big question that remains to be answered is whether the games that THQ is promising will be ones that will be unique to each platform, or if they would simply be variations of titles from previous installments in the WWE SmackDown Vs. Raw game franchise.