Looking to stem costs and shift its focus back to value-priced and handheld gaming, Majesco announced during its earnings conference call that it has canceled both Taxi Driver -- a multi-platform action title based on the famous Scorsese film -- and Xbox 360 project Demonik. The two games are only the latest title losses for the company: Majesco cancelled PSP titles BloodRayne and Advent Shadow late last year and recently sold the rights to Ghost Rider and The Darkness to a still-unnamed publisher.
Also in an attempt to control spending, Majesco has reduced its staff by 20 percent. The company expects to see the results of these reductions in its second quarter.
"This has been a difficult year for Majesco," commented president Jesse Sutton. "We entered the premium console market with high expectation for success, but as a result of a variety of factors we were not able to meet our expectations. Recently, we evaluated our product portfolio and have sold or cancelled most of our premium console titles that were scheduled for release in 2006 and beyond. The increased operating loss we reported today is largely a result of the non-cash charges that we recognized in the fourth quarter relating to these events."
Still, Sutton offered hope that the company will survive the storm.
"We have been in business for almost twenty years and have endured many cycles in this business," he commented. "With a leaner organization, significantly reduced expenses and a new strategy of focusing on lower- investment, value and handheld products, we believe we have a plan that will enable us to enable us to operate our core business and give us greater flexibility to be opportunistic with regard to new products and technologies."
Majesco reports 2005 full-year revenue of $59.7 million for the 2005 fiscal year as compared to $121.0 million in 2004. The year's $70.9 million net loss is in contrast to a net loss of $11.2 million in 2004.
For the fourth quarter of 2005, Majesco reported a net revenue of $4.6 million, compared to $45.3 million in Q4 2004. Net loss for the quarter was $34.2 million, compared to net income of $16.2 million in the same period last year.
