Post Q4 results, THQ point accusatory finger at Nintendo

THQ's fourth quarter results make for depressing reading for its shareholders , with a reported net loss of $34.5 million, or $0.52 a share.

The company's President, Brian Farell believes that it has suffered because Nintendo has effectively hijacked the children's video game market with strong sales of Wii and first party software.

THQ has long been at the forefront of the kid's market, becoming notorious for the huge deal it signed with Nickolodeon and the deluge of titles it releases from the likes of Disney Pixar, such as Ratatouille and Cars.

Farrell noted that the the children's market has now become "extremely competitive".

He went on to say that “with a tough Pixar comparison to Cars [Ratatouille] and new competition from Nintendo’s first-party titles – as well as new music games – our traditionally strong kids’ business did not meet expectations."

However, he does believe things are about to get better. “We believe our fiscal 2009 licensed kids’ line-up is much stronger this year and will face a less crowded family movie slate than last year. This quarter we will begin launching games based on Wall-E, the next Disney Pixar film, which has a video game friendly robot and outer space theme.”

It's about time someone gave THQ some competition. It's been dealing out some dreadful children's games for as long as I can remember. Perhaps this will encourage them to think outside of the traditional box and start making games that deserve to be bought.

Source :: Casual Gaming.biz

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LMAO.
Surely if companies like thq released decent games instead of poor mini game compilations then they would have better sales.

So THQ's action plan should be release more kids games on the Wii, simple really as long as they don't just go for party games!

We bought Ratatouille a few weeks back for the Wii, visually its a little better than a PS2 but the gameplay itself is quite fun. I was playing it for an hour or so with my son and we were both quite hooked I must admit.

Ferral
So THQ's action plan should be release more kids games on the Wii, simple really as long as they don't just go for party games!

We bought Ratatouille a few weeks back for the Wii, visually its a little better than a PS2 but the gameplay itself is quite fun. I was playing it for an hour or so with my son and we were both quite hooked I must admit.

Have to say, I thought Ratatouille was one of the better games from THQ. I did only play the PS2 version. The likes of BArnyard and Cars were shockingly poor.

It seems that they've started the ball rolling. They've today signed a deal to produce games on the Marvel Super Hero Squad franchise and have signed a deal to produce a game based on the animated film Master Mind.

too many companies seem to be blaming the wii for their sales drops but unless they are going to put the effort in and use the controls properly they only have themselves to blame.

COmpanies like ubisoft and EA seem to be embracing the wii and are trying to make innovative games.

The thing is Nintendo have always been able to get the most out of their controllers and do have an advantage because they made them. Other companies just dont seem to want to take the chance at doing something out there and new.

WHo knwos with Wiiware nearly released we might start seeing companies taking chances with smallers games. frontier have a game coming out which looks fun.

Isn't it just a natural break in titles for THQ? I know the AAA PC market is small these days, but THQ have had a bunch of great titles previous to Q4 and it's only natural to have a dip until new titles are finished.

I'm thinking of the likes of Supreme Commander, Company of Heroes, STALKER and so on.

Post Q4 results, THQ point accusatory finger at Nintendo

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