THQ admits defeat and kills uDraw

February 4th, 2012, 18:18 Posted By: wraggster

THQ has said it has no further plans for uDraw after it revealed that the failed expansion of its tablet peripheral to PS3 and Xbox 360 has cost it $80 million in lost revenue.
Speaking during an investor call after the publication of its dismal third-quarter results, the publisher said it had shipped a million uDraw tablets to retailers, leaving 1.4 million units of manufactured stock left unsold.
"We were confident that uDraw would resonate again this holiday, given last year's robust sell-through," CEO Brian Farrell said, according to Gamasutra. "Our confidence was misplaced."
The publisher says this misplaced confidence cost it $100 million in lost revenue, of which $80 million was directly attributable to uDraw. Of its $54.6 million operating loss, the tablet was responsible for $30 million.
Manufacturing has ceased, software support is a thing of the past, and while Farrell says THQ has a plan to successfully sell the remaining stock he admitted it has "no other remaining committments with respect to uDraw.
"We were looking at uDraw as a bridge to this core and digital future, and that bridge turned out to be a plank that we walked off."
Despite the strong performance of Saints Row: The Third - the publisher shipped 3.6 million units of the game during the quarter - sales revenue fell 2.9 per cent to $305.4 million. Net losses almost quadrupled, to $55.9 million.
Last month THQ confirmed its withdrawal from the licensed kids' game market. Earlier this week the publisher announced 240 layoffs across its publishing and admin teams, and Farrell took a year-long 50 per cent pay cut, in a bid to raise its share price and stave off the threat of a Nasdaq delisting.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/thq-...nd-kills-udraw

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